Free day in Villa de Leyva

So, typical Intrepid-style, everything on option here today is to be done under your own steam and at your own cost. 

Also, because we have been here before, we are very aware that the guide omits many of the options. We are very pleased we took our own trip with German from Bogotá and not only got the Saturday market but also the walking tour of the historical sights around the town (not even mentioned by Ana) as well as the things to see out of town - the winery, the Monastery Ecce-Homo, Casa Terracotta, the El Fósil museum. So the cost of that trip has been vindicated, plus we had a very good guide who was friendly, patient and knowledgeable.

I did a quick half-hour walk around town before breakfast. It was pleasant and cool and quiet. Good for taking photos.

I had read about some hiking around the outskirts of Villa de Leyva that I was keen to do if we could work out how. 

We got a bit of a lead from Ana regarding a hostel on the edge of town being a place which would give us some guidance. A bit like the directions she gave us in Cartagena, the ones today bore very little resemblance to reality and fortunately I was able to ask some locals and in poor (mine) Spanish we found the way to the hostel. They were incredibly friendly and helpful here, one of the staff even walking the first 100 metres or so with us to show us the path hidden along an aqueduct behind the hostel. They even gave us a map.

By now of course, after a 9:00 a.m. briefing for the group, and with the day heating up to a scorcher, it was 10:00 a.m. by the time we got going on the hike. I (I'll own it) took a wrong turn at one point, but we recovered the correct path quickly and climbed an incredible height to the most amazing views over town and the surrounding area. We drank in the views and the breeze, sitting at the viewpoints along the cliff face, and then returned quickly down the steep descent to the forest floor - and some shade.

It was a hot walk back into town. We found the Real Fabrica de Licores open. We had come across this building when we did the city walk with German on our previous trip (but it was closed then): it is a broken-down building, now used for music lessons and, indeed, we could hear music wafting across the open courtyard. It has an impressive front entrance with fossils embedded in the floor.

By the time we got to our hotel, we were grateful for the nice hot shower and a relax in our room; plus trying to get our washing dry by hanging it strategically throughout our room and in the windows to catch the sun and the breeze.

We went out about 3 p.m. to revisit the bakery with the delicious bread we discovered on our previous visit here. 

We were having a discussion about what to buy when a voice in perfect English enquired whether we had any questions: a young woman (the baker herself) had lived in Brunswick in Melbourne for 2 years learning how to bake and now has returned to Colombia (but not Bogotá, her home town) to set up a bakery. She was delightful.

She also told us about another store around the corner where we could buy some local cheese to go with the bread: queso paipo.

The rest of the group have been pursuing their individual activities also. We met up with them all - apart from the laconic Dave from Scotland who seems to spend most of his time either sleeping or hung-over and seems to have made a girlfriend of Erin from Canada (if the arms around the waist are suggestive of such a proposition) - at 5:00 p.m. to go to a cafe to try a typical Colombian specialty: milhoja (this means "thousand leaves cake" and comprises puff pastry layers filled with pastry cream and topped with dulce de leche or arequipe). Oh wow!!!!!

My Friend and I then hot-footed it to a bar that the 2 girls from Baltimore (Nadia and Lindsay) had kindly taken a photograph of a mojito for me knowing how much I liked them. We sat upstairs in a bar overlooking the main square enjoying one each.

It was now dark and the heavens had opened with a large shower of rain whilst we had enjoyed our milhoja. It was hilarious - the water gushed across the main plaza in huge torrents. The plaza is on a slope, as is the entire township, so there is a natural run-off; only thing is, the streets turn into rivers when it rains. We watched the action from the privacy of our balcony in the bar overlooking the plaza whilst we enjoyed our mojitos.

However, we had a dinner booking at 7:00 p.m. in the restaurant across the road from our hotel so we needed to get going. It was a delicious meal, but huge! It rained again, with water washing down the street, but we literally were only the width of the street away from our hotel so we zipped across after our meal and are looking forward to an early night.

I ate my alfajor I had bought at the cafe earlier tonight. This is a dulce de leche cookie. Yummy!