Villa de Leyva

We were picked up from our hotel in Bogotá at 8:00 a.m. by the affable German (pronounced 'Herman') for a private tour I had organised from Australia. 

We departed north out of the city by car driving through very busy traffic, along tollways and finally out into rural areas punctuated by dusty little towns comprising mainly brickworks and car repair workshops. The road deteriorated but thankfully remained sealed although this is a loose description as there were many giant potholes requiring careful navigation.

The traffic was no longer as heavy but it crawled up through the hills making it a long, slow journey to our first stop at Ubate where we tried some local queso (cheese) with a piece of guava paste. Yummy. We bought some figs stuffed with dulce de leche (these are called brevas con arequipe). My Friend also had a tinto which is a Colombian black coffee in a small cup, and usually watered down. I passed, but had a small taste and we agreed it was very sweet.

The hills continued and we saw some serious lycra out on bikes. Quintana, the great Colombian rider, hails from these parts - from a town called Tunja, not far from Villa de Leyva. He crashed out spectacularly in the Vuelta a España last year after being in the lead. Mind you, there were plenty of regular bikes parked outside farm sheds and fabbricas (factories) which were obviously the mode of transport for many of the workers.

On we went then to Ráquira ("city of pots") which is very colourful and has - pots! - lots of them; also hand-woven goods and hammocks.

We stopped nearby at Sutamarchan and had lunch at a place I had read about, Piqueteadero y Asadero Robertico (a piqueteadero is a restaurant) and where we enjoyed a platter of assorted local foods like the grilled regional sausage (a type of chorizo called longaniza), blood sausage, pork ribs, barbequed corn kernels, plátanos (a type of banana) and other assorted goodies. I'm glad we bought only one plate to share; we didn't finish it. The day was hot now so we enjoyed some local beers also.

Next stop was the Monasterio Ecce Homo founded in 1620. It has fossils in the floor at the entry. It was built by the Dominicans between 1650 and 1695, but a century later it was taken over by the military and the friars expelled. It was later abandoned until 1920 when it was reclaimed by the Dominicans, and some restoration was done. It has been repeatedly robbed since then, and some of the religious art is now in the Chiquinquirá museum.

You don't think of a winery near the Equator, but there is one here called Marqúez de Villa de Leyva. We did a tour which German had to translate for us as we couldn't follow it in Spanish. The winery is small and one of only a handful in Colombia but its sauvignan blanc won a prize in Brussels in 2011 and is now sold out. Production is small so this is not a surprise. We had a tasting of the Cabernet Sauvignan Gran Reserva 2013 which had lots of tannin but I thought the fruit was good.

Finally we arrived at Villa de Leyva - at about 5:30 p.m., after being held up at the top of the hill due to roadworks before the 10 km descent down into the valley. Whilst not as high as Bogotá, Villa de Leyva nevertheless still has an altitude of 2,144 m; the population is only about 10,000 people; and it is noted for its fine colonial architecture, including possessing one of the largest town squares in South America. 

• Read http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/travel/25explorer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

We checked in and although tired after a long day, "sped out" (not really, due to the cobble-stoned streets!) to the main square, the Plaza Mayor. Here we visited the church and shot some pictures as the sun was going down and shared a beer looking out over the square. There is an astronomical festival taking place this weekend in Villa de Leyva; we returned to the Plaza Mayor about 8:30 p.m. after our "meal" of a strange thing bought for us this morning by German - queso de pera (a quesadillo or piece of pear coated with cheese) which we ate with a lovely fresh baguette bought from a local bakery here in Villa de Leyva. There wasn't much of interest for us at the "festival", so we returned to our hotel by a longer route, also taking in a lovely small church lit up in lights as we went.