My Trip to Villa de Leyva

Welcome back, it’s been a while.

I’m still alive and breathing. Colombia has been good to me since we last talked. I’ve been busy during the days and lazy in my breaks, so please excuse my absence from writing my memories and stories of my life in Colombia.

So, to the journal for today. As you know, Colombia has tons of holidays and festivals. One weekend in August was a national holiday for the Festivo de Cometas, or the Kite Festival. It gets really windy here during August, so it is known as the month to fly kites. The best, most well-known location to find a breeze and fly kites is in Villa de Leyva, a beautiful town in the department of Boyacá that has only stucco buildings with tile roofs and sits in a mountain valley with a desert on one side and green mountains to the other.

Only two hours away from Bogotá, we took a bus there. After waking up at 4:30 on a Saturday to catch the earliest bus, we made it by 10 o’clock due to holiday traffic and mountain driving. One thing I’m still learning about driving through the mountains is that the amount and frequency of switchbacks will make anyone go crazy and get sick of the bus ride (literally and figuratively).

There were three of us going: the other volunteer, Luke, and one of the English teachers at San Benito, Juanes, joined me for the weekend. Juanes is from Boyacá and is dating a girl who lives in Villa de Leyva, so he made a phenomenal guide. He made sure each day was full of interesting activities and adventures for us.

Upon arriving, we feasted on some of the best empanadas I’ve ever had. Just found in a corner store that looked the same as the hundreds of others I’ve seen so far, I didn’t expect to enjoy them so much. Following this we hiked to a Saturday market where we proceeded to try just about every fruit we saw (check out my list of different foods tab for the different fruits.) Fruits in Colombia come in all shapes and sizes, with a variety of flavors, and an unending variety of unusual species. Trying new fruit is still one of my favorite things to do here. The market also had very typical Boyacense (from Boyacá) lunches with grills piled high with all sorts of different sausages, plantains, corn, and potatoes.

We headed up to the hostel from here to drop off our bags. The location of which was definitely a wonderful thing overall, but a pain at times as it was outside of the city center and up the mountain a way. From the hostel, we had a beautiful view of the town and surrounding countryside. It was about as perfect of a property as one can get, and I’m considering purchasing it when I have the money to do so.

The first adventure we went on was to a park called Bariquera. It is a private nature reserve run by a couple of families. The main reason to go is to see a large waterfall. On our hike to the falls, the guide took her time to show us the variety of flora they have cultivates and protected over the years. Many of the plants are listed as endangered and supposedly rare to see. The most interesting was a flower I can’t remember the name of but can describe. It looks like a cross between a fern and an aloe plant with a large stock growing out of the center. The leaves trap water in the center so it is rarely dry there. The unique thing about this was the plant only flowers once in its life then dies. This process only takes a short 80 or 90 years of life.

Needless to say, the waterfall was phenomenal. Cold, rushing water felt good to jump in after the hike. All the other travelers looked at us as crazy gringos/boys getting in the water and splashing around. Right when we were about to be too cold, the sun came out providing us warmth during a time a rest and extreme peace in this beautiful part of nature.

Following this, we had to wait for the Villa de Leyva bus to pass by the entrance to the park to pick us up. It was taking a while, so we started walking down the road and attempted to thumb a ride. While there weren’t many cars going by, any potential lift was packed full of people. Luckily, we walked by a little Italian family who ran a restaurant out of there house. Starving, we stopped for dinner and had some of the best pasta and quiche I’ve ever had (maybe it was that we hadn’t eaten anything since the early morning empanadas and the sun was setting.)

After dinner, we again tried to get a lift since the bus still hadn’t tooled on through this part of the countryside. One time we thought we had it as a truck stopped fifty yards down the road from us, but they were picking up other people… Eventually the bus came, and it was already full. All seats were taken with a couple people already standing. The only thing was this was no bus. It was more of a van with extra seats. So, we had to stand and try to balance without landing in anyone’s lap and we drove through the winding roads of the mountains. Fortunately, some people disembarked about 10 minutes later, and the empty seats were offered to the tall gringos.

That night we ventured into the town center for the festivities. Unfortunately, the land known for its wind was windless that night. So, no kites were to be seen, and the crowds were too ridiculous to stick around for long. We walked around town for a bit until we found a little restaurant with live music and cold beer. One of the coolest performances was of the Llanos, which is the plains/farm region of the country. The dances were unique to their and performed most by the men. One of the coolest performances I’ve seen so far. We also drank Refajo which is a mixture of beer and soda, usually the Colombian pops. Not a bad drink, similar to a shandy.

Next day – Sunday. An early morning for us so that we could beat the crowds to our destination of the day – El Paso del Angel (the pass/crossing of the angel). Us gringos didn’t know what the plan was, Juanes was leading the charge. First step, get up early, skip breakfast, and head to the bus station to get a bus to the next town down the road. On our way to the station, we saw groups of people still up and drinking beer, keeping the party going. Colombians call them amanecidos, or Sunrisers.

Once to the next pueblo, we stopped at a corner store and Juanes bought us a typical grab-and-go breakfast – fresh baked rolls similar to croissants and a chunk of sausage called salchon. The sausage hangs behind the counter and gets cut off as customers order it. I was tentative before tasting it, but it was sooooo delicious. So, as we began our walk, we chowed down on this food.

Mom and Dad, sorry about this next part. So, the closest we could get to Paso del Angel was about 3 miles away. Juanes had been before and hitch hiked successfully. So, to do it again. We began walking and every time a car drove by, we would stick our thumbs out and smile. Of the few cars that went by that morning, none were stopping. Until finally a guy stopped. He sped as fast as he could and brought us about a mile and a half closer so that we only had a downhill hike left. Not bad. (we saw him later that day giving another group a lift.) At the entrance to the pass, an old man sits and asks for a small fee since the paths go through his land. Respectable and paid of course. He also warned us that the pass had been blocked off with fences since people had been damaging it too much, and so we couldn’t see the pass, but could go around and get to the waterfalls…

And then we began our hike. We came out of the tree line to a mountain ridge with a glorious view. One that could compete with those of Santander. One side was the rolling, hilly farmland that climbs up the mountain. The other was a 500-foot drop to the winding river below. We set out along the ridge.

Then we came to a fence. The man was serious about not wanting people to keep mistreating his property. Some tourists just can’t figure out how to do that. But we weren’t going to let that stop us after coming that far, of course.

Only problem, the top was covered in barbed-wire, which none of us knew how to scale and the edges went to the cliffs. After a quick prayer to our Lord, we grabbed on tight and shimmied around the edge, of course taking time for a picture dangling over the edge while only have a flimsy chain-link fence to hold. (sorry family and friends for the risk, but I assure you I was confident in my abilities to not tumble down a mountain side.)

Then we came to the Paso del Angel, which didn’t look that crazy in the pictures I looked at before. But it was quite different there, with a wind blowing and the drop looking steeper than I had imagined. So instead of taking time to casually walk across, my mind went to survival mode and I just kept walking. (But I did go back for pictures, don’t worry.)

From there we climbed along the mountain ridge a bit more before descending to a creek bed below that ended with a waterfall above the abyss of the mountain valley. This was fun to explore and an enjoyable time to soak in the sun as well as take some… interesting… pictures.

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When we finished exploring there, we hiked back the way we came and shimmied back around the fences on our way home. We tried hitchhiking from the park entrance, but it took us 45 minutes and most of the hike back before we even saw anyone going our way. After unsuccessfully hailing a dozen or so cars, all of a sudden one stopped a hundred yards down the road. We Ran to it and hopped in. I think the lady had pleaded on our behalf for her husband to let us in. After all, a couple gringos and a young Colombian don’t look too intimidating, right? (although maybe a bit smelly by this point)

Back in Santa Sofia, we found a ride back to Villa de Leyva and our hostel. The rest of the afternoon was left to rest in the cool breeze. We visited the church camp Juanes had friends at before dinner and met his girlfriend, then found a hamburger joint away from the largest of the crowds. Damn good hamburgers, by the way. On the way home we bought a new kite from a little shop. (How could we go to a kite festival and not participate???)

The final day, we planned to rent bikes from the hostel and bike a little way out of town to fly our kite and swim in the pozos azules. I’ll explain later, don’t worry.

So, we started with a hearty breakfast of eggs, hot chocolate, bread, and enough guanabana to feed an army. Then we asked for our rental bikes. At first glance they looked to be in rough shape, at first ride they felt like they were in rough shape, but we took them anyways. We didn’t want to waste time searching for a rental booth in the crowds.

So, we headed out from there. About five minutes in, my chain popped off. A couple greasy hands later, we were on our way again. Getting to the hill didn’t take much time at all, and boy was it beautiful. The land quickly turns to a reddish, orange desert with scattered patches of green growth and sky-blue pools of water all around. The wind was strong, the kite went up fast, and so we enjoyed some peace while we handed the kite string back and forth.

Next – to the Pozos Azules. That is the name for the little ponds found around the area in the desert. They are a beautiful blue with muddy bottoms. One park has many, but it loads up with tourists and is actually fairly expensive. Fortunately, from our kite flying mountain top, we spotted one free of human presence and reachable by bike. So off we headed.

On the way down, my back break popped off as I was controlling my speed down the slippery, shale and sand covered hill side. Time to be careful, I guess.

At the pond, we wasted no time jumping in. It’s amazing how cool a pond can be even in the middle of the desert, but I was shivering before long. After our dip, Juanes lead us around the desert and we spent the next 45 minutes biking uphill almost constantly. By the time we finished our journey, I was exhausted, and my bike was down a break, couldn’t shift gears, and had half-full tires. But it was a hell of an adventure.

After returning our bikes, we headed to a restaurant that reminded me of the Lutheran church’s county fair booth. The menu served two plates, that could be somewhat customized to each guest, but not really. The best part was that the delicious bandeja paisa we chowed down on cost us only $4.50. This one meal replenished all the energy I had spent and kept me full for almost another 24 hours. That’s one of the many perks of traveling in Colombia.

Overall, this was one hell of a trip. We walked a lot and got our workouts in everyday. I tried a ton of new food and saw many different parts of this beautiful country.

Two months in and all is well.

I don’t know this author or the book, but I can only think that the whole experience of living in Colombia thus far must be equivalent to a single time in her definition. Happiness is unending here.

“In a person’s lifetime there may be not more than half a dozen occasions that he can look back to in the certain knowledge that right then, at that moment, there was room for nothing but happiness in his heart.”
― Ernestine Gilbreth Carey