No photograph prepares you for this one. The Santuario de Las Lajas is a neo-Gothic church built across a gorge, its tower and spires rising from a bridge that springs from the rock walls of the Guáitara river canyon, close to the Ecuadorian border in the far south of Colombia. From the viewing paths above, it looks like a fantasy castle hung between the cliffs, with waterfalls on one side and a deep green drop on the other.
The story goes that in the eighteenth century a woman and her deaf and mute daughter sheltered here from a storm, and the girl spoke, saying she had seen the Virgin on the rock. A shrine followed, then a small chapel, and eventually the large basilica we see now, built over several decades in the first half of the twentieth century. The Virgin's image is painted directly on a slab of the cliff wall behind the altar, and the walls near the entrance are covered with small plaques of thanks left by the faithful. Pilgrims arrive by the busload, particularly on weekends.
Ipiales, the city six kilometres away with nearly eighty thousand people, is the practical base. It has fuel, restaurants and hotels, as well as being the Colombian side of the Rumichaca border crossing with Ecuador, so the road between the two is often busy with lorries and buses. The final descent to the sanctuary is a short, steep, winding road down the canyon side, with parking at the bottom, and from there you can walk along the cobbled path or take a cable car to get a view from above.
At almost 3,000 metres, the weather is cool, with fog and drizzle common, and the light is best in the morning or late afternoon when mist often clears and the church glows against the dark rock. Wear shoes that grip on wet cobbles. A simple meal of cuy, roast guinea pig, is the local speciality for the adventurous, and plain empanadas with hot chocolate are the sensible alternative. It makes a fine last stop before crossing into Ecuador.