16th December – Wednesday

By the time I finished fraffing around it was gone midday, but I only intended on exploring the town so I wasn’t too bothered. Villa de Leyla is a typically stunning colonial town with mainly white washed buildings, with the typical green or brown doors and wooden balconies. The roads are cobbled which makes it hard for walking, but adds to its charm. It boasts having the largest town square in all of Colombia, Plaza Mayor de Villa de Leyva, and it is no joke, it is humongous, and very empty bar a fountain and a rather large Christmas tree. There are white washed buildings on each side of the square which mainly house restaurants and bars and there is also a church. It is very pretty and very colonial Spanish, as most of the towns I have visited are.

From the square I took a stroll to Parque Antonio Ricaurte and sat for a while and did some research on Antonio Ricaute. He was the captain of the Bolivar’s army and played a martyr role in the Independence of Colombia and Venezuela. He blasted an enemy stronghold by immolating (setting fire) himself! The park was very lovely and had a statue and bust of Antonia as well as a basketball court. At the far end is the Instituto Von Humbolt, which is a museum that showcases the biodiversity of Colombia through preserved animals and insects, here you can learn about the connection between humanity and nature. Unfortunately it was closed and doesn’t open until Thursday, so I may try to go then.

After the park I had a stroll around town. The shops are all set in converted houses thus keeping the colonial style and feel of the town and they very ‘boutique’ like, selling lots of jumpers and thick woollen shawls and ponchos, as well as the usual souvenir stuff. It is not hot here, the town is 2,200 meters above sea level, and although the temperature was in the late 20’s there is a definite chill in the air at night – I like it very much as I did not sweat buckets, and last night I had to have two blankets on the bed to keep warm and cosy. Considering the cooler temperatures I was really surprised to see so many ice cream shops, there must be at least one on nearly every street! There is also a divinely smelling chocolate museum/shop, you could get fat and spotty just standing outside of it – lol.

Being a tourist destination most of the restaurants seemed to sell burgers and pizzas. I was just about to settle, unwillingly, on a burger when I notice a sign for the dish of the day. The restaurant was called Don Martin and it was very unassuming and cheap. I was the only tourist in there. I had a piping hot vegetable soup, followed by grilled trout, rice, potatoes, salad, and a tangy, freshly made lemon drink, which I didn’t drink as I had a beer, and it all came to under £8, bargain of the day, I will go again tomorrow and try one of their meat dishes. While, two guys and later a woman came in and from their facial features they looked like they descended from the indigenous people of the area. I later found out that this department was home to the Muisca people. They were very slim with dark tough looking skin and sharp facial features, very stunning. Anyway all they had was soup and a plate of rice each, which again made me think they were tribal people, but I may be wrong. It was very hard not to stare at them, I really now wish I had spoken to them, but they were engrossed in their own conversations and I didn’t want to impose myself on them.

Before it got dark I went up to the roof terrace of the hostel, wow what a view. The backs of houses and roof tops of the town were stunning, all with red tiles on the roofs and many with no render on the walls, so only red brick showing, It was quite a spectacular sight set against the dark green and brown of the mountain peaks, with the rain clouds rolling in. Before the rains did come I went for a little walk to find a beer. By then it was dark and the Christmas lights were all on, it was just as magical as last night. I took a couple of photos before heading back but really do need to go out properly one evening and take lots of photos.

I spent the best part of the evening working out where to go next, I had already planned on Honda but someone told me Jardin is worth a visit. The only problem is getting to these places from here, there are no direct transport links, well according to the internet there aren’t any. I did ask the lady who works here, she told me I had to go to Tunja and that from there all the buses go to Bogota, which, from experience, isn’t quite true. I did consider going to Tunja tomorrow to check out where the buses really do go to but in the end decided to stick to my original plan and head to Honda. One way or another I will get there. It is all part of the adventure.