How to Visit Las Lajas Sanctuary – A Real Life Rivendell

Intro – Why Visit the Santuario de las Lajas?

Well, because it’s beautiful, that’s why. Seriously, this is one of those places that actually lives up to the Instagram photos and, at least in my opinion, exceeds them.

The church itself is gorgeous, whether in sun colored splendor during the day or at night when they turn on a multicolored light show.

But the area around the Las Lajas Sanctuary is also beautiful!

The church is set near the bottom of a narrow canyon with a river running between the mountains. The church itself is built into the side of the mountain with a bridge across the river and its rocky rapids below. There’s even a waterfall crashing down from the hills below.

It’s really gorgeous!

If you told me this was something built by the elves or the men of Númenor at the height of the Second Age, I’d probably believe you. It really looks like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Susana and I visited in January 2022. Here, I’ll share our experience, including how to get to the Las Lajas Church, what to expect at the Santuario las Lajas, some tips for enjoying it, and other things to see and do in the nearby city of Ipiales, Colombia.

History Behind Our Lady of las Lajas Sanctuary

Like so many other famous churches in Latin America, the Las Lajas Cathedral is built in honor of a supposed miracle and appearance of the Virgin Mary.

In this case, the Las Lajas Shrine was built to honor Our Lady of las Lajas or the Virgen de las Lajas.

Who Was Our Lady of las Lajas?

According to legend, in 1754, an indigenous woman named Maria Meneses de Quiñones and her mute and deaf daughter Rosa were caught in a storm while traveling through the canyon. They took refuge in a cave in the canyon known as las lajas, named after a type of sedimentary rock.

Locals believed this cave was inhabited by the devil. When Maria felt a presence there, she ran back out into the storm.

However, her daughter suddenly exclaimed to her surprise that she saw a mestiza in the cave that was calling to her and tried to crawl back inside the shelter. Maria, still fearful, carried her child back to the village.

Unable to explain the miracle of her child suddenly being able to speak, Maria would return to the cave to leave offerings.

However, one day, Rosa went missing. Maria found her in the cave, playing with a young boy with a woman looking over and protecting them. Maria believed this to be Christ and the Virgin Mary.

When Rosa fell ill and died a short time after, Maria returned to the cave and prayed for another miracle. Her prayers were answered and Rosa miraculously came back to life.

After hearing her story, the local townspeople and priests returned to the cave the next day to find a portrait of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Christ with Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi below on the rocky wall of the cave.

The image remains visible today, and in 1952 it received official Catholic canonical recognition. (Sources for this story: Wikipedia and roman-catholic-saints.com).

So, well, this wasn’t built as a stronghold against Sauron or a monument to the Last Alliance of Elves and men, but it is an interesting story.

(I promise no more nerdy Lord of the Rings jokes, but if your a Tolkien fan like me, you are probably excited about the upcoming series on Amazon, which you can check out with a free trial here).

When Was the Las Lajas Sanctuary Built?

The original Iglesia de las Lajas was built in 1764. A larger Las Lajas Church was built in 1802, which included a small bridge across the canyon. Finally, the present day church was built between 1916 and 1949.

The massive Gothic style structure has spires 100 meters tall and the bridge stands 50 meters above the canyon below.

It’s truly impressive.

What to See at the Iglesia de las Lajas

Well, the Iglesia de las Lajas, of course.

Ok, obviously. The Our Lady of las Lajas Sanctuary is located down in the valley. The views of it on the way down are great. You actually climb down on the back side of the church.

Do keep in mind there is no entrance fee to the Our Lady of las Lajas Sanctuary and surrounding area.

Once you climb down, you can enter the las Lajas church itself. We didn’t enter as it was super crowded (much like when we visited the Mano del Gigante in Huila we didn’t really think about the fact we were planning to go on a Sunday during the holidays). There was also a mass going on.

Behind the main altar of the church you can see the image of the Virgen de las Lajas on the rock face.

To be honest, I didn’t do much research on the church before hand, so just though it was a cool church and didn’t even know the story of the virgin and the image. As a non-believer I always feel a bit weird going into churches and taking pictures and stuff, especially when a service is going on, but it would have been neat to see the supposed miracle image.

There is also a museum located downstairs outside the main sanctuary of las Lajas. We tried to check it out after dark but it had closed. So, it’s best to do this when you arrive and not put it off for later like we did.

I imagine it has some religious artifacts and art and possibly some information on the construction of the church. It is neat seeing the inside of the structure and big archways cut into the rock.

Across the main bridge, you will find a restaurant/cafe a little ways up the hill. There are also some food stands a bit lower down. We had some pretty decent and decently priced fried chicken and pork at one of these.

So, if you need second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, or just a tinto you’re covered here.

If you go further down, you can find a path that goes around to the left up the river a bit. It’s worth the short walk to get the view from some different angles of the church. Seeing the river flow over the rocks below with the bridge and church towering above is really pretty.

On the other side, you can find a path that leads to the waterfall. Farther down, there is a neat little bridge where you can get a good view and photo of the larger bridge and church above. There’s also a small little hydroelectric station, which is kind of neat.

Once it gets dark, they turn on the lights. They are multicolored and follow a bit of a pattern light show where they alternate fading slowly, then quickly between colors. It’s really pretty and definitely worth sticking around until it gets dark to see.

Finally, there are some shops that sell your standard tourist things and religious souvenirs as well as some restaurants and food stands around the parking lot above the church.

I would recommend giving yourself a couple hours here to walk around and take in the view of the church and the surrounding area from the different paths and to make sure you see the church during the day and once it gets dark.

Where is the Santuario de las Lajas in Colombia?

The Santuario de las Lajas Cathedral is located just outside the small city of Ipiales, Colombia. Ipiales is located right next to the land border with Ecuador and is a popular crossing point for those traveling between the two countries by land (more on crossing the border below).

How to Get to Ipiales, Colombia and the Santuario las Lajas

As a small city, there are not many flights to Ipiales, although it is possible to fly there on the airline Satena.

Getting there by bus is the easiest way to get to Ipiales, however. The nearest larger city is Pasto. Pasto is easier to get flights to or reach by bus from the interior of Colombia, and there are buses throughout the day from Pasto to Ipiales.

We actually bused here from Popayán. We were fairly pleased with the service on the company TransIpaiales, and it cost $70,000 to go from Popayán to Ipiales. The whole trip took about 8 hours, about 6 to Pasto, and from Pasto 2 more hours to Ipiales.

Returning to Pasto, we paid $15,000 pesos. So, if you’re coming from there you should expect to pay around $15,000.

The road is quite scenic as well with gorgeous mountain views. It’s a decent road too, better than some of the other winding mountain roads in southwest Colombia, like the one we took from San Agustín to Popayán.

How to Get to the Las Lajas Sanctuary

To get to from Ipiales to the church itself, you have 3 options.

You can walk, which would take approximately 90 minutes. The walk there is downhill (coming back is uphill).

You can take a taxi, which should cost around $15-20,000 pesos.

Or, you can take colectivos. This is what we did. We were told this would cost $4 or 5,000 COP a person, but we were only charged $3,000. You can get the colectivos across the street diagonal from the main entrance to the bus terminal. Look for the little white vans.

On a non-crowded day it should take about 15-20 minutes to go from town to the Las Lajas Church. The day we went there was a ton of traffic and people going down. We actually ended up getting out and walking the last third or so of the road.

We got the colectivo back from just outside the parking lot.

There is also a cable car that goes down to the church. The station is about a third of the way there outside of town. According to this website, tickets for this costs $7-12,000 pesos. I imagine the view from this is pretty cool.

It may also be possible to organize a day tour to Ipiales and Las Lajas from Pasto as we saw a bus there headed back to Pasto, but there isn’t a ton of info online, so you would need to look into this on the ground in Pasto. I thought spending the night in Ipiales and being able to cross the border was worth it though.

Where to Stay in Ipiales

As a small city, there aren’t a ton of options in Ipiales, but there are a handful of decent hotels.

We stayed at the Hotel San José, which was located just around the corner from the terminal. This was perfect as we were only staying one night and it was convenient for getting there and getting the bus back to Pasto. The room was actually pretty nice, even had a little desk, and was a really good price. I would definitely recommend it.

For a couple more upscale options, you could check out the Harmony Hotel or the Loft Hotel. For more moderately priced options, you could also check out Hotel Florida ApartaSuites or Hotel Avanty. You can also see more places to stay in Ipiales here.

Anything Else to See in Ipiales?

Honestly, we didn’t do anything else in Ipiales, Colombia itself. There are a few churches in town, but we didn’t read about much else to see.

However, it is really easy to cross the border into Ecuador and visit the town of Tulcán. There is a neat cemetery there and some neat natural destinations and towns nearby if you have the time to do so.

Crossing the Border into Ecuador

This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.

From just outside the terminal, near where you get the little vans to the Catedral Las Lajas, you can also get vans that take you to the border. It cost us $2,500 COP and took about 15 minutes to get there.

It’s also possible to get collective taxis. We took one of those back from the Colombian side of the border and it cost $6,000 a person. The vans seem to fill up and leave faster and are cheaper though. A private taxi I imagine would charge in the $15-20,000 peso range to take you to or from the border.

I guess I expected we would have to get out and go through lines or a formal crossing, but the bus actually took us straight across the bridge. We were stopped and everyone had to show their cédulas and proof of vaccination against Covid-19.

It’s probably worth noting that I read online that you were meant to have a PCR test even if vaccinated to enter Ecuador by land. We went thinking well, if they don’t let us in, we’ll still see the border.

I’m not sure if they just weren’t enforcing it that day or what. We didn’t formally exit Colombia and enter Ecuador. That’s to say, we didn’t go through immigration on either side and get stamps in our passports. I have a feeling if you do they probably check for the test.

It should probably go without saying that if you plan to travel on through Ecuador, you should probably make sure you get the exit and entry stamps to avoid any issues later with either country. However, if you’re just crossing for a couple hours like we were, it isn’t necessary and locals cross regularly.

Once across the border, you can get another bus into downtown Tulcán, which takes another 15 minutes or so and cost us $3,000 COP or 75 cents (you can also pay in dollars, the currency in Ecuador). It arrived to the main plaza downtown.

Visit the Art of the Tulcán Cemetery

This is actually pretty neat to be honest. I’m usually not crazy about visiting cemeteries, but this one has some cool natural art.

The cypress trees, planted as hedges, in the cemetery are all sculpted into figures. Many are animals or indigenous inspired figures. This all started with José María Azael Franco Guerrero, an artist who did most of the areas and who the cemetery is named after today. Today, there are some newer sections made by other artists.

I thought it was interesting that the lady we spoke with told us that you can see parts of the trees where there is a brown almost burned looking discoloration from the tree and leaves dying off but that the trees, after deteriorating entirely, rejuvenate themselves on their own naturally.

From atop one of the central crypts, you can also get some neat views of the nearby volcanos Chiles and Cumbal.

Overall, this is well worth the visit as a way to spend an hour or so and actually do something on the other side of the border before heading back. The cemetery is a short walk of a few blocks from the main plaza in Tulcán.

Other Things to See Near Tulcán

At the office at the cemetery there is a little tourism office with maps and the like. A really nice lady there told us about some of the other things to see nearby. There are some small towns, waterfalls, rivers, and hikes through natural areas all within a couple hours of Tulcán.

So, if you happen to be here for a few days, it may be worth trying to check some of them out.

Practical Tips for a Visit to Las Lajas Sanctuary

• Sundays and holidays will likely have crowds, so it may be best to plan to do this on a weekday or at least outside of big vacation periods like Christmas and New Years, Easter, and the June-July vacations if you can.
• If you do walk from Ipiales, keep in mind the walk back is all up hill.
• I didn’t note for sure if there was or was not an ATM nearby, but I would suggest taking along some cash.
• The weather in Ipiales was nicely moderate during the day when the sun was shining (maybe low 60s F, high teens C) but could get a bit chilly when it got dark, so take along a decent jacket for your visit to the Catedral las Lajas.
• I would also advise wearing comfortable shoes for walking up stairs and inclines.

Las Lajas Sanctuary Conclusion

There you have it, a complete guide to visiting the Santuario Las Lajas or Our Lady of Las Lajas Sanctuary in Ipiales, Colombia. It’s a neat place, and taking in the scenery of this real life Rivendell is definitely worth the visit if you are traveling southwest Colombia or crossing to or from Ecuador by land.

If you do go, I hope you found this guide useful, and more importantly, you enjoy it. I would love to know about your experience in the comments below!

Cheers and Happy Wandering without Being Lost!

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