The alarm screamed at us to wake up at 6am after a restless night dreaming of bandits and breaking down and we were on the road by 7. We powered on to the border town and took what we thought would be a half an hour detour to see the Las Lajas Catedral 10km from the border crossing. We trundled down the dirt track all the while looking out of the window for the cathedral that spans a gorge. We thought we could spy it from the van window and be done with it and carry on to the border. This is NOT the case. We made it to the bottom of the road and were ushered into a parking space. We walked down a steep steep hill past Llamas posing in crowns and whole roasted Guinea pigs on sticks to the cathedral.

“El Santuario de las Lajas is a neo-Gothic church (cathedral) which was built on the bridge spanning the river gorge between 1916-1944 in such a way that the gorge cliff with the image of the Virgin forms the back wall of the church. The church was built to commemorate the appearance of the Virgin which legend has it, her image appeared on an enormous vertical rock 45m above the river. As you walk down the hill you will notice the multitude of plaques along the cliff wall placed by pilgrims from Colombia and abroad as thanks for the miracles that have occurred and are accredited to the working of the Virgin.”

We walked past the plaques (wondering what happened to our miracle) and stood at the foot of the cathedral and sadly, it was a real shame that it had been built there. The area around it was such a place of natural beauty with waterfalls glittering down the cliff face and small houses dotted in the hills. The cathedral was a bit of a monstrosity if truth be known with brick lines painted
onto the outside and mould produced lightening white angel statues adorning the guttering around the first level. Hundreds of people milled about praying and collecting holy water (which one angel statue )appeared to be pouring from a kettle! People knelt, sang and were lighting candles all over the place as we made our way slowly back up the steep hill to get to the border.

At an altitude of 2954 meters the air was thin and we struggled light headedly to get back to Peggy. We stopped and bought an ice cream thinking we were maybe hungry and lacking sugar and covered in a film of sweat we made it back to the van. We huffed and puffed for a while and drove on to the border crossing. We were by now low on fuel and completely out of cash except for $5.

The border was a simple one and completely free which was a relief as there was no ATM and after taking an hour for the hungover officer to complete Peggy’s paperwork we were finally at least in the same country as our wedding which was due to be held in less than 24 hours!

We desperatley needed fuel and stopped to ask for directions. We made it to the fuel station only to be told that they dont sell fuel and to try the next one…15km the other way…anyhooooo, long story short, we made it but they didnt accept cards so we put our $5 worth of fuel in and to our amazement, as the fuel was so cheap it registered on the gauge… a lot! It is $1.50 a gallon! Yep for you UK peeps thats under £1 for4.5 litres!

Alex felt terrible and looked worse so we switched seats and I set off from the fuel station in search of a cash point…we stalled before we had even covered a kilometer.
Alex back in the drivers seat, he managed to get Peggy going and we pushed ourselves hard to cover the last 250km of our journey from hell. We had to get in touch with Elizabeth and David and tell them we were going to make it, but late. We also needed cash, fuel and food and water so we headed into Tulcan and started to ask for directions to a cash machine or a fuel station that accepted cards.

As we drove down a one lane, one way street Alex started to panic. He said he was light headed, felt faint, and sick and needed to stop but he just kept driving! I kept saying to him calmly, please just stop and pull over or just stop and I will drive us to somewhere we can park but please just stop!
Horns were blaring behind us as he slowed to a halt but still rolled along, I was up and ready to jump into the drivers seat and suddenly he sat bolt upright and looked at me and said…and I apologise for this but its part of the journey…

“I’ve just sh*t myself…I have actually sh*t myself”.

He still wouldnt stop, he drove to a nearby street and finally pulled over on the side of the road hitting the curb hard! He lurched for the bathroom and was violently ill. He collapsed on the bed and I emulated someone with a foot nailed to the floor turning in circles not knowing what the hell to do. I got us water and made him drink and told him he was just exhausted and needed to rest. We had had one hell of a few days and it had just hit him like brick wall. He agreed and laid down and closed his eyes. I was still stood in the same spot 30 seconds later when he sat up again and said he felt a little better! He asked how long he had been asleep for and I asked how long he THOUGHT he had slept and he said 20 minutes! It was literally 30 seconds! He got up and we sat still for a while deciding what could be wrong and all I can think is that it was the raw cow that had poisoned him. It was so scary but he insisted he felt better. He had been so busy concentrating on his headache and feeling nauseous that he had forgotten he had to control his stomach too.

We quickly regained composure, filled some bottles with tap water at a nearby gas station, swilled out the toilet as we drove and on the 4th attempt, we found a cash point that worked… After 7 goes! We fueled up Peggy, got Alex quarter of a chicken… (out of the frying pan and into the fire if you ask me) and a gatorade each. We tried to call Elizabeth but the numbers wouldn’t work so we found somewhere to email them and we hit the road again. There couldn’t possibly be anything else that could go wrong so we just focused on the road as hard as we could. We took turns driving and at a quarter to midnight we made it to a phone box in Quito where we called Elizabeth and asked her to send David to find us.

We were exhausted, starving, shaking, nervous, ill and due to be having a wedding in 14 hours!
David soon pulled up alongside Peggy and we were so happy to see him and Alberto. We followed them to their work office where we could stay in Peggy and then they invited us to go for some food with them at Elizabeth and Davids apartment. Elizabeth had been expecting us since lunch time and had prepared cheese and biscuits and a lovely chicken salad for our arrival. We went along and ate cheese and gossiped into the night with excitement about the plans for the wedding. We finally crawled into bed at 2am and begrudgingly set our alarm for 7am on our 20th wedding day!

It had been a literal hell of a journey, but we had made it against all odds. We snuggled up in bed, looked at each other laughed and fell asleep before we had a chance to say goodnight.

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!