Blogs from Villa de Leyva, Colombia, South America - page 4

Last year when I was travelling people had told that me that Colombia was fantastic and it really was no word of a lie.......and thats why Ive been so poor keeping the blog up to date. And here I am with only 2 weeks left and struggling to fit it all in.... After Bogota I went to a place called Villa de Leyva. After a long winding mountain route I arrived to a very pretty colonial town...a place where a lot of Bogotanios go on the weekend or for holidays.....and when you get there you know why. It is nestled in the mountains and is a world away from the hustle of the city....the ground is a rich brown, the streets are cobbled, the walls are white -washed with ornate shutters and beautiful fuscia and orange ... read more

Villa de Leyva Wanted signs are plastered on walls and the midday sun glistens off gun handles. A commotion breaks out on one side of the town square followed by a horse dashing off through the streets. People murmur and exclaim ‘Zorro’. Villa de Leyva is not only a popular weekend destination for Bogotans, but so dramatically picturesque that it is regularly converted into a movie set. Most recently it’s startling white buildings were painted various shades of brown to accommodate for a Zorro series. I found it quite amusing that after all these years I had no idea that Zorro is Spanish for fox! We travelled here with Auelio’s family in cars so the trip was easy going and casual, if you ignore all the road tolls. Arriving in the pueblo, quite late, we stopped ... read more

We´ve now been away from home for nearly 8 months. In that time I estimate that I have lost over 75% of my worldly belongings (the recent dearth of photographs of me is due to the fact that I am reluctant to be seen in a sack cloth), packed my bag over 700 times, taken over 412 international flights, and consumed more omelettes than Robinson Crusoe on Chicken Island (the little known sequel). In all that time, the most impressive monster that I´ve seen has to be the colossal cronosaurus - this is an aquatic beast so large it dwarfs even the hole in our bank account. This guy could scoff blue whales as pub snacks. Fortunately for our sea dwelling mamalian friends it´s also a bit dead... by roughly 110 million years. Probably a good ... read more

We initially had some excitement planned for our next day in Colombia; visiting a bulletproof vest factory, and testing one out. Yes, that´s right, the brave amongst us could try on a vest and be shot at. Unfortunately they were going to charge too much for the "ruined vests", so we didn´t do it in the end. So, we drove four hours north of Bogota to the beautiful village of Villa De Leyva. Founded in 1533, it remains untouched by modern architecture, retaining all the original buildings. If it wasn´t for the occasional car lurching along it´s cobbled streets, you´d think you´d been transported back to the sixteenth century. We were staying at a more modern place however, a gorgeous lodge in the hills about 30 minutes walk from the village. On my first walk into ... read more

After a extremly long sleep in and late breakfast Sonia, me, Jamie, Andrea, Andrea´s boyfriend and a carload of others set off for Villa de Leyva for the weekend. Sonia´s family set off earlier and we would meet them there later in the afternoon. We arrived a tad late but stopped by a local hippodrome and besides my persistant requests to sonia asking if i could put some money on the races she told me that they don´t have gambling here and don´t be stupid....of course my horse won! but it was quite good to watch the horses seemed a bit young carry jockeys that seemed way too big but i think they only ran over 500 meters so i don´t think it was too much for the horses. after setting our stuff down in the ... read more