A fully booked travelers' agenda

Nested high in the mountains and 20 Kms from San Gil, the little town of Barichara deserved a little detour. This Spanish colonial town built some 300 years ago welcomed us with its snow white houses with green or blue windows and door frames, all covered with terracotta shingles. We would not have imaged something so pristine and ancient up in these mountains. We walked in the small town and stopped at a coffee shop for a drink while watching the Sunday activity on the shaded main square. Time was slower here and it felt like we were back in time. We almost stayed a little longer but knew that the road had other treasures for us to unfold today.


An ancient colonial town par excellence

Our instinct from the day before ended up being true: the road from San Gil to Villa de Leyva was again a rare wonder. The landscapes we went through were opening to vast spaces, as far as the eye could see. We had green mountains, plateaus with crops or cows grass feeding. There was no monotony in our drive and each turn we passed had us captivated. Our favorite trees to admire were the ones covered in Barba de viejo (Old man's beard) which are long silver plants hanging from the branches, looking like a long beard. It looks a lot like Spanish moss and we could not stop smiling when remembering the name.

For the next two nights, we would set camp in Villa de Leyva, another beautiful colonial city but much bigger than Barichara. It is the second most visited city in Colombia after Cartagena, not only because it so pretty that it looks almost "fake" but also because it is close to lots of great tourist attractions that we would easily explore the next few days. After finding a hotel next to the central square (amazing location but man, we had those big ancient rocks that covered the streets and so hard to ride on), we took a long walk in town. The square is the biggest in Colombia and surrounded by these pretty colonial houses as well as a big church. The nearby streets had more churches, parks and lovely restaurants or shops. As the sun finished setting, warm and soft lights were illuminating the streets, cranking the romance up a notch.


The perfect mix of tourists attractions for a day

Ready to explore the surroundings of Villa de Leyva, we took Chad's bike and went out on our exploration tour. It was easier this way since there were lots of back roads we had to drive on and a back seat copilot would not be a luxury. It was amazing how many things there were to see, only a few miles away. Thanks to our useful maps, we found easily the El Fosil museum where there was a huge fossil of a Kronosaurus, a scary looking creature of the sea with huge teeth. The museum had also a lot of other fossils since the area was covered by a sea about 120 million years ago. We were even told we could go fossil hunting in the area if we wanted to but we had other fun things on the program.

Since we had been in Latin America, beer was the thing. Each country has their few national brands and it is usually very affordable. Wine had been on the other hand hard to encounter so we were really excited to visit the Villa de Leyva winery. It was a pretty small one, cultivating about 10 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The interesting thing is that since Colombia does not have four distinct seasons, the harvest happens every 8 months, hence each time at a different period in the year. We saw the vineyard, the production facilities and the cave. Of course, the tour had to be completed by a tasting and actually, the wines were really decent. Must have been because the grapes were coming from France and California:)

It was about lunch time and we had the perfect place to go: the little town of Sutamarchan, specialized in handmade sausages. When we arrived in front of the restaurant, we could not believe our eyes about the amount of sausages they had, especially the super long Longonizas, hanging around the restaurant. We orderred their specialty: the Picada Boyacense, an enormous plate mostly of meat and a few pieces of potatoes, yuca and plantain. It was so tasty and delicious, the sausages were well seasoned and we loved the Rellens, a blood sausage with rice and peas inside, the beef was juicy and the different kinds of pork cuts just done right. It was also fun to eat as the meat and vegetables were cut into pices and you would pick them up with a toothpick and in your mouth it goes. We could barely walk once the plate finished: we were so full! Another reason to love this country...


We walked it off a little but and left for our last stop of the day, the Monasterio de la Candelaria. We got a little lost on the way but the the countryside was so nice it did not really matter. We also saw a lot of shops doing clay potteries on the way. When we saw the Monasterio, it was like God had offered the Augustine monks the perfect setting. The site had been build at the end of the 16th century and it looked like it was made yesterday. There are still today monks doing their studying there for a year. The three gardens had colorful flowers and lots of green plants, artfully arranged around water fountains. It smelled so good as we walked through them. The tour was also very educational as we learned more about the history of the monastery and the Augustine order. They had also an incredible amount of ancient religious artifacts on display and we were surprise to see they had a worldwide banknote collection brought from all over the world from monks visiting here. We saw old US bills and even old French Francs. We finished the visit by going down into an old cave used for meditation and even an hermit used to live there in a little cove. Not really something we expected here.

This had been the perfect day in the life of a traveler. We had seen so many cool and unique things today, without having to rush since they were so close to each other. We appreciated all the more having our own wheels as we could leave whenever we wanted, grateful for the travel freedom that our motorcycles provide us with. Back in Villa de Leyva, we walked a little more in the town, holding hands and observing the activity around us, still trying to walk off that huge lunch we had. We were tinking and talking about how much we love Colombia, it has so much to offer.