Built with Andalusian style features, rich in Baroque squares and well-preserved colonial churches, it has represented a significant cultural reference for centuries. Today, due to its peripheral location, Popayan is often forgotten by tourist circuits, but only those who venture here can still breathe the atmosphere of the oldest and noblest colonial cities because Spain invested heavily in it to make it a testament to its power.
Popayan is the city with the highest number of churches built between the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is famous for Holy Week and thus for religious tourism. Other interesting sites to see, quite close to the city: various Haciendas, a Natural Park, sites for extreme or water sports, and lakes…..
Twenty minutes from Cali you can visit the “Hacienda Cañasgordas” which preserves the large colonial house and the typical atmosphere of the great plantations where slaves worked. The hacienda is linked to the famous novella by José Eustaquio Rivera: El Alférez Real.
In the municipality of El Cerrito another colonial hacienda, Hacienda El Paraíso with a Museum about rural life in the Cauca Valley during the 19th century.
In the municipality of Amaime, the Hacienda El Piedechinche, which hosts the Sugar Cane Museum. Housed in a beautiful colonial building, the Museum illustrates the process of transforming sugar cane from the 16th century to the present day.
