I'm a bit behind on my blog, this is from last weekend!

Saturday (23rd) I stayed at the hostel in the morning so I could Skype with my niece and nephews. Was great seeing them and speaking to them! I then headed into town and got some lunch. Tried for the second time to visit the monastery but it was closed again. The guidebook warns that Villa de Leyva gets much busier at the weekend, I'd say it was busier but not as many people as I'd expected. I was glad I'd had the chance to take photos yesterday as less people and more noticeably less cars. I went to the market band had a wander- I also bought some veg to cook dinner, costing only 2,000 pesos (60p ish) for 3 tomatoes, 2 peppers,2 carrots and a whole garlic bulb (only needed a few cloves!) Add to that the cheap pasta and salsa de tomate (ketchup!) I had 2 dinners for just over a pound! I also bought a yellow pitaya fruit (from the dragon fruit family) to try- liked it, will be buying more!

I went to Ráquira on Sunday (24th)-it's a small town about 30 minutes from Vila de Leyva. Famous for its pottery and its name in the ancient Musica language means "City of Pots". It certainly has lots of pottery here and the shops sell various things made from pottery, including pots, mugs, dishes and Disney characters! You can also buy other handicrafts and 'ruanas' the typical clothing here a bit like a poncho, made from thick wool. Sunday is market day and I wandered around the small market, lots of fruit and vegetable and a few stalls with clothes and things. I guess that made the town quite busy as people from the surrounding countryside come to do their shopping and also possibly more tourists. Not that I saw any foreign tourists, but there were people from Bogotá as the bus I'd got had left from Bogotá and dropped people off in Villa de Leyva (which is popular with Bogatanos at the weekend) before continuing to Ráquira. The other thing Ráquira is well known for is its brightly coloured buildings. They are painted in various bright colours, very different to other towns in the region which have white-washed buildings. I stopped at a little café for a juice and slice of carrot cake, very tasty! I tried another juice that I hadn't yet had- coruba fruit. When I paid the owner asked where I was from and it turned out she and her family spent nearly 3 years in Brighton! Ended up chatting for a while with both her and her husband and I ended up leaving the café with contact details of her daughter in Buenos Aires and her son and brother in Bogotá. Just another example of how friendly and open the Colombian people are. I can't ever imagine that ever happening in England! When I got back to Villa de Leyva I had planned to do a bit more sightseeing but as I was feeling rubbish from my cold I had lunch then headed back to the hostel. In the evening I made plans for my next stop in Boyacá to an area recommended to me by Elizabeth and also mentioned in my Michelin guidebook. It isn't visited by foreign tourists that much and as such it seemed to be quite hard to get info on it. After chatting with the guy who works at the hostel I decided I would stay in Sogamoso as a base and visit the surrounding area from there.