Pasto, anyone?

[pablito]

Right, so I've been corresponding/chatting/Skyping with several girls but the one that stands the most, and frankly better than I would have ever expected, lives in Pasto. We liked the same comic books as kids, fer Crissakes, and she brought it up first.  Of course she hasn't read them since she was a kid, and I still have them and read'em.  .  I've never heard of Pasto, and my geography is pretty good.  It's in Colombia, by the way.


Apparently nobody else has either because all I get out of searches is that apparently it's the theological capital of Colombia, one of the few royalist cities in the war of independence, Colombians apparently consider it the most boring city in the country (Pasto, you'll want to leave it the moment you arrive!) and consider folks living there the stupidest in the country and make jokes about them.  Now I can understand why most guys would want to steer clear of that, but I can kind of sympathize with the place, I can see someone describing me in some of those terms.


All I've found on a search of these forums is one post with a reference to Pasto, where dennislevy mentions meeting a couple from Pasto, who had been married for 33 years and still seemed deliriously happy together.


Does anyone here have any knowledge of the place or its people at all, so that I can do some fact checking?


Thanks,


Paul

[V_Man]

I have been told by a local that travel to and from Pasto still carries risks. Avoid the night buses to play it safe.

[benjio]

My friend, not the place you want to be visiting. South of Popayan and north of the Ecuadorian border is not gringo stomping ground. Even in my most adventuous of moods I wouldn't be found treking through Departamento Nariño. Colombians in Bogota compare it to the Wild West. Dennis may disagree as he has traveled by land from Colombia to Ecuador on numerous occasions, but I guess we'll never know what he thinks.

[JimD]

I spent a few days in Pasto and had no problem with the bus trip to and from Cali. Nothing is ever guaranteed in Colombia but I´d say it´s a safe trip in the day time.  Best bet is to chat up a girl in Popayan too then you could spend the night there and break up the trip. It´s a pretty long bus ride from Cali. Or you can just fly from Cali. I wasn´t there at that time but Pasto hosts a pretty famous Carnival De Blancos y Negros from January 4-6. That could be a fun time to go. For other things to do you can take a taxi (less than fifteen minutes) out to Laguna de la Cocha and take a boat ride around the lake. There´s an island in the middle with a trail where the trees are covered in bromeliads like moss. There are reasonable hotels near the main square. One thing though it´s chilly, not as cold as Bogotá but you definatwly want to bring a warm jacket.
By the way if you want information about Colombia try the Colombia google:
http://www.google.com.co/

[pablito]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.  I wasn't planning any overland travel, either to Pasto or anywhere else, I'm only going somewhere I can fly to.  I used to take the bus around Mexico and never had any trouble, but that was a while ago and I don't think I'd do that anymore now, either.


How about the city itself, anyone know if it's any more or less dangerous than anywhere else in the country?  The consular affairs websites of various countries all agree with Benijo that you don't want to be traipsing around Narino, but they also exclude Pasto from that warning


And how reasonable is it to ask a girl to meet you somewhere else, if she's living somewhere?  Any suggestions on where somewhere else should be?  This particular girl is a clinical psychologist and has done some travelling, if that makes a difference.


Finally, I'd be curious on what you guys think about places that are somewhat off the beaten track, as Pasto seems to be.  Does that make it a potentially untapped gold mine, or if a city is to be avoided does that mean that the girls living there should be too?

[JimD]

As I said above I was only there for a few days but the city seemed safe enough, probobly safer than Cali. However it´s way down in the south of Colombia and there is really no close by alternative place to meet a girl. Best bet is just fly there yourself.  Yes Pasto is way off the beaten track for gringos so unlike Cali and Barranquilla I would expect most of the girls there have never met any. I was already accompanied when I went so I wasn' t looking. And yes pastusos are the butt of jokes in other parts of the country kind of like Polish jokes in the US but they are actually known for being very astute in business. There is a city block next to the Carrafour by Chipichape that contains new car dealerships for Nissan, BMW and Renault. The owner of the block is pastuso.