WE North of Bogota

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This week-end I went to a town north of Bogota called Zipaquira, with Carolina and Felipe. This place is actually Colombias number one tourist site, but I can tell you that there did not seem to be any other mochilas there than me. Carolina told me that people just stared at me - I guess I am quite spectacular with my blonde hair, blue eyes, being 10cm taller than everyone ;o) However, noone is rude.
Zipaquira is so much visited because there is a salt mine there that still produces 40% of Colombias salt. The mine is huge and it hostes a huge cathredal 190m below the ground. It is a very interesting visit and although quite busy, not so busy that is was annoying.

After that I actually did my first real backpacking in Colombia. I decided to take the bus to a place everyone talks to me about - Ville de Leyva. So we drove to the bus terminal and asked for a bus there, but unfortunately there were none... hm... what do you do in Colombia when you need a bus??? Simple answer, you take the car, drive to the motorway in the direction to where you are heading and drive up to every bus you see driving to see if your destination is written on the window. When you see the right bus, you start honking as much as possible and point at you and the bus... And, surprise, surprise, the bus immediately pulls over and get you on it! Hahaha, I was laughing so much, the pull over from the lane furthest to the left also caused some huge honkings...

Ville de Leyva is actually a very very small and pretty colonial town with cobblestone streets, a huge Plaza Mayor, built in fossils in constructions as the place used to be under water, very nice people, and a relaxed atmosphere.
I arrived in the evening and just had time for a glass of wine and a grilled sausage before going to bed. The day after we rented bikes... Or actually, the bikes were not really working, so a bike-knowing guy in our grouped started reparing the bikes that we needed, all of us others pumping and assisting and getting us a nice discount :o)
Then finally it was time to take a tour outside of town to a number of beautiful places - El Fosil, an impressive 120 million years old fossil of a kronosaurus, an observatory from the Musica people (unfortunately it was closed so we could only see the Stone Henge of South America on a distance - too bad since there are apparently very huge penises in stone at the site... hahaha) and some very nice unfortunately forbidden to swim in bright blue pools, a picnic was also ok and then finally a very different house made in clay, looking like it was designed by Gaudi.
A really nice tour, unfortunately I had to take the bus back to Bogota in the afternoon to be able to catch my flight to Cartagena!!!

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