Visit to Popayan

Several weeks ago we had the opportunity to travel to the beautiful little town of Popayan.
We fell in love with the town and the people we met. We stayed at the Hotel Monastario which is located behind a large Catholic Cathedral and at one time was a monastary.


The grounds are breath taking and the temperature was perfect for our wonderful adventure.

I love the archways that surround the hotel.

We were only there for one day but we packed a lot in during our visit. The following morning before we flew back to Bogota, we had a relaxing breakfast on this elegant terrace.

The main plaza in the old section of the city is surrounded by beautiful white buildings and pathways between exquisite garden. Royal and I are standing in front of a very old tree on our way to the mayors office. Far off in the background you can see an ever present statue adorning the plaza.

This is a typical street in the old section of town known for its white buildings. You not only see cars and bikes but in the distance you can see a wagon being pulled by a horse. A very typical scene in Colombia.

The foliage is rich and green and beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures in this plaza because every corner had a new unusual tree or flower.

This photo was taken from the window in the mayors office of the plaza. As I mentioned before, every building is white and with all the green trees it is muy tranquillo.

We had a very productive meeting with the mayor and first lady. In the photo is the district president that traveled with us, the first lady, the mayor and then me and Royal.

Our main purpose for taking the trip was to visit the plant here in Colombia that is capable of producing the nutritious food supplement Atmit which the church supplies to malnourished children particularly in Africa. Colombia is the only other place that Atmit is produced outside of Provo. There is a great need for Atmit in places here in Colombia and we are hoping that the church agrees to another Atmit project here .

One nutrient that is added to the Atmit in Colombia is a grain that is grown here called Quinua. The above picture shows the quinua before it has been ground up and added to the flour.

This photo shows Royal filling a bag of Atmit with the ingredients that are then mixed with water to produce this most nutritious food supplement.

This company also produces a very delicious cookie that contains the nutritious grain. They sent us back to Bogota with about 10 bags of the cookies and I have been very popular at the office ever since. Sadly, I will run out of the cookies next week.

After breakfast the morning we left and before our flight, we walked over to see the beautiful cathedral that used the monestary where we stayed. We really loved our visit to Popayan.