Back in Quito, I went back to my regular hostel - the one that I kept coming back to. My usual bed in the dormitory was free, and I took it once again!

After Ecuador, I was going to travel through Colombia for a month, but I had zero clue about where to go in Colombia or what to do there. Searching online for travel tips turned out to be fruitless, as there was hardly any literature on the subject. Fear of the notoriously violent Colombian drug cartels has kept tourists away for a really long time, and it is only in the recent few years that the country has seen success in shedding its bad reputation in the tourism sector. This is probably the primary reason for the lack of online travel resources. Having no other choice, I finally decided to go to a bookshop and buy myself a second-hand copy of any guidebook to Colombia that I could find.

The first bookshop I went to was simply called “The English Bookshop”. It had tons of guidebooks both old and new to places as far away as China, but none to neighbouring Colombia. The friendly old man who ran the shop couldn’t give me what I was looking for, but was happy to share his experience with me. He said, “What I have learnt over the years is that you’re more likely to find something you need when you’re simply walking along looking at things, than when you’re actually searching for it”.

Entrance of The English Bookshop  

It was, however, a little too late for me to walk along looking for the guidebook, so I went straight to another bookshop. There was no guidebook in this shop either, but I ran into a young English couple who were also in search of a guide book to Colombia. They had also been to The English Bookshop before coming here. We wished each other luck, and continued our common quest separately… only to meet again at the next bookshop.

We ran into each other again at the next bookshop, and then once again at the next. This time, when leaving I said to them, “See you guys at the next bookshop”, and sure enough, there they were again. Just for the avoidance of doubt, I should point out that all these bookshops we were going to are actually quite distant from each other, and are spread out over a large area in the “La Mariscal” region of Quito. So despite being after the same goal, the probability of us running into each other time and again was actually not that high! Finally, the English couple decided to invest in an expensive new Lonely Planet guide, while I settled for going to Colombia without any guidebook.

As I wrote earlier, Colombia has become a hot traveler destination in the past few years, and guidebooks (even new ones) are hard to find. Bookshop owners love to keep these guides, as they get sold in no time. Frequently it is possible to exchange your old guidebook of the country you are presently in, for that of the next country you are going to, with other travelers at the border who are headed in the opposite direction. But these exchange opportunities are not guaranteed, so I could understand the English couple’s anxiety at not being able to find a guidebook easily. As for me, I have once again decided to just wing it.