Villa de Leyva

September 20-22, 2015

Our second destination for Adventure Week after Valle de Cocora was Villa de Leyva.

It was a cute, whitewashed, colonial town under a big sky. Especially at night when the cool wind blew off the hills, it reminded me of how Eastern Washington feels.

We spent the first day walking around town, window shopping and trying not to turn an ankle in the street. Cute colonial town had cute colonial streets of mostly flat rocks cemented mostly at the same height. It was dangerous walking.

That night there happened to be a charranguera performance in the main square.  There were a bunch of groups playing charranguera music, which I had never heard before, but consists of 3 stringed instruments, one metal twangy sounding, and a scraper.  One group sang their last song about how onions are the best, but some people don't like them.  The last group had matching, color coordinated pants, which I enjoyed. Mr. Yellow pants with the scrapy instrument got really into it and was fun to watch.

Video of one of the songs.  Hopefully sound quality is okay.

This video shows the kind of dancing done to this music.  And a puppy.

Day two we logged about 12 miles. We had breakfast and headed out of town towards El Fósil. It was a lovely walk along the road through red hills and scrubby plants. We arrived at the museum where they have a kronosaur fossil amidst others.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the ostrich farm we found it closed. I really wanted an ostritch selfie to add to the llama selfie and giant rodent selfie.

We did go to Pozos Azules, lovely blue pools that used to be irrigation but the farmer found the minerals responsible for the lovely blue color were not so bueno for crops.

We slept well that night.

Day 3 we went to Ràquira, 45 minutes away. It was full of arts and crafts and pottery. Lots of terra cotta, lots of painted pieces.

The random Sid the Sloth figurines might have been my favorites

And of course they have everything Minion there

I forgot my hat on top of Minnie Mouse while I took a picture with a duck. I realized it back in Villa de Leyva and since its my favorite hat and I get sentimental, I went all the way back to get it and Taryn got a bit more shopping time in Villa de Leyva.

What is this, a duck? Obvioulsy made by someone who had only heard of one by rough description.

Then we headed back to Bogota for the night before I had to say adios to her.  It was a lovely beautiful week of adventure.

Last night drinks at Bogota Beer Company.  They had real tasting beer!