Thursday 29th September

I spent the last few days visiting the 'pueblos' around Sogamoso. And there are many pretty little towns in the area! They are quiet, peaceful places, based around the main square and the church. In all the places I went to I saw 2 foreign tourists and that's it- in fact that's all I've seen the whole time I've been here (which has ended up being a week!) Shame I missed some of the scenery on the way to places due to seeming to fall asleep on the bus journeys, but I think that was down to not feeling the best with my sore throat and cold. Was offered injections in the pharmacy twice this week, for my sore throat, but decided to just stick to buying the lozenges!

Wednesday (28th) I set out first to go to Mongui but after waiting 45 minutes for a bus I got on a bus for Nobsa instead! Was annoying as I'd wasted time waiting and there had been at least 4 other buses for Nobsa but never mind….arrived in the town and headed to a small church I could see a little uphill from the main square. You could see across the town from there and on my way back down to the square I passed what appeared to be a cemetery.Almost like big cubes with the holes which seemed the right size for a coffin. Then the hole would be blocked up with either cement with a person's name written in it or they were filled with something similar to our headstones and flowers were often also put there. It was interesting to see as I have never come across this before. I wandered around the town, which has quite a few craft shops- it produces a lot of handicrafts, including the 'ruana', typical item of clothing in this area, made from wool, a bit like a poncho, for keeping warm. I bought a second scarf to have some variety and help keep warm in the cold evenings here! I'd been told about a vineyard (the highest in the world apparently!) not too far from Nobsa but I decided to head to Mongui. Got bus back towards Sogamoso and changed at the appropriate spot- the driver even phoned the driver of the other bus so he would wait! Mongui is a known to be one Boyacá's most beautiful towns. It is certainly very pretty and I enjoyed wandering around its cobbled streets and looking at its colonial houses, which are mostly white-washed but have green (with sometimes red) doors and windows (see photo). The town is known for its production of colonial-style balconies. It is also known for producing footballs and I saw a few shops on the main square selling footballs. By googling I found that apparently Mongui exports over 30,000 soccer balls to neighboring countries and the USA each month, plus more are produced for Colombia too. That's a lot of footballs for a small town but it employs a lot of people. I think I read somewhere that they attempted to make the biggest football in the world but were beaten by another country….I looked around for somewhere to eat but couldn't really find any restaurants- ended up with a couple of different types of bread rolls from a bakery. I wandered around and arrived by the 300 year old bridge which crosses a river. Here I was passed by a funeral procession who were coming from the church. A sad occasion but interesting to see the tradition here- they carry the coffin through the town and everybody walks with it, including the priest. I would presume they were heading to a cemetery, perhaps similar to the one I saw in Nobsa, but I am not sure. It was a cold afternoon in Mongui, which is high up in the mountains so I had a hot chocolate before going to wait for the bus. Here I was befriended by a boy of about 10 who wanted to chat, which was fine by me but then some random bloke joined us and starting talking to me about his young son's football career and playing in England one day…very random!

Thursday (29th) I visited the 'Parque y Museo arqueológico' in Sogamoso and then the pueblos of Tibasosa and Iza. The museum was interesting and provided a lot of information on the Muisca culture. The information was all in Spanish so I didn't read it all but did look at all the exhibits, which included Musica jewellery, pottery, musical instruments etc and also information on mummification. It also has a replica of the Temple of the Sun which was important to the Muisca's as from what I can find out they believed Sogamoso was the birthplace of the sun. (The original was burnt at the time of the Spanish conquest) At the museum they also had a collection of mosaic pictures made from things like rice, coffee beans, sweetcorn, etc- I liked looking at these pictures and a lot depicted traditional Colombian scenes.

From the museum I walked to the bus terminal to get a bus to Tibasosa, famous for its products made from 'Feijoa' fruit. It is another pretty small town and the main square has quite a few shops selling Feijoa products. I went in search of a juice but instead was offered a taster of the creamy liquor and the Feijoa arequipe. I was too stingy to pay 5,000 pesos for the chocolates so got the sweets at 2,000- they were ok, but wished I'd tried the chocolates! After a wander and another bakery bread lunch (if nothing else they are very cheap!) I got a bus back to Sogamoso and changed to go to Iza, another very picturesque town. I wandered round, took some photos then had a Feijoa juice, which was really nice. I was then tempted by the flan (I guess closest way to describe it) topped with arequipe so sat in the park (square) and ate that before getting bus back. It is nice to see visit these small towns that don't necessarily have lots of "must see" sights but are good places to wander with loads of photo opportunities due to them being so pretty.

Had a nice evening on Wednesday when I met more of the family, Gilma's other son Juan and her son Felippe's wife, Juanita and son Samuel. We spent a few hours chatting in English as they have spent time living in London and Juanita teaches English in a primary school here. I had shopped and planned to cook dinner but was very kindly invited to join them for take away pizza- huge slices of pizza! Juanita also suggested we visit some of the nearby countryside at the weekend which I thought was a great idea.

Must mention my breakfasts too- have had a really good variety, including eggs, fruit, cheese, bread, traditional soup (bit like the 'caldo' I'd had in San Gil), granola with hot chocolate...obviously not all on the same days though! Also Gilma has homemade strawberry and rhubarb jam, delicious, and also made rhubarb and ginger jam after I had mentioned trying it in England, also delicious! :-) The finca is a lovely, friendly place to stay and with the help of 5 blankets and newly purchased bed socks I'm less cold at night! If the sun's out the day can be really hot but the night-time makes me wish they had heating in Colombia, it's needed in this part!