Saturday 12th December
We had decided to take a friend's advice & visit Villa de Leyva, an old Spanish town about 120k north east of Zipaquirá & we went in style. A driver came for us in a Chevrolet 4wd & off we went but unfortunately he wasn’t too familiar with the vehicle, so first the windows were all locked & then he couldn’t operate the air conditioning. First we drove back along the road we came in on to Chiquinquira, where we then drove east on another road through more dairy country before descending on a winding route on to a far more arid area about 500m below & eventually we reached Villa de Leyva, sitting in a bowl in the hills. On the way we passed quite a few cyclists toiling up towards Chiquinquira & we certainly pitied them. Apparently the Colombian Tour de France winner in 2015 comes from this area.

We found the Posada without too much trouble & checked in before walking up to the huge main square a few 100 m from there. All the roads in the old town are paved in boulders which are huge cobbles ranging from 250-500mm & very hard they are on feet & vehicles. The good news is that all traffic is slow but the bad news is that walking on 100m of the road is like 1k on a flat surface. All the shops & houses are whitewashed, with brown doors & windows & it is far more tourist orientated than anywhere else that we have seen, except Cartagena, .

After exorbitantly priced coffees on the main square we crossed to the church, which had a service but was very fine, with a wonderful gilded reredos behind the altar. Moving on we found the bus terminal & bought tickets to go on to Bogota tomorrow & then shopped for a beanie for Jane & a roana for our granddaughter.

On our way back to the posada we visited the Carmelite Museum which has a remarkable collection of religious works, including many paintings, books & crucifixes. One drew our attention particularly because it was beautifully sculpted from paraffin wax, as are the figures that Grandpa Gerard brought back from Colombia in the early 1900s.

We had an early dinner just up the road at a small restaurant with 5 policemen eating there. At about $20 for the 3 of us it was an excellent meal.

Sunday 13th December
Had an interesting breakfast & then we walked up to the main square & Jane went to the service at the parish church. We attempted to settle the bill & they promised a copy would be e-mailed to d*** but we weren’t offered the correct change, which left a bitter taste as he insisted that they were not charging the Booking.com agreed rate.

Took a taxi for about a km to the bus station, as the cobbles were so hard to walk on & caught the midday bus to Bogota, a 3.5 hr trip. The bus went via Tunja & after a long climb, passed through lovely rolling countryside, again with small dairy farms. We also met our first British tourist who had been to Villa de Leyva from Bogota & was returning to fly to Medellin.

On arrival we took a cab to our hotel in the downtown area. It is OK but the rooms are small & the area is very seedy. We wanted to eat but found very little to our taste, as the main street pavement had a sort of flee market & most of the food places were closed on a Sunday. The area seems full of beggars, street people & rubbish, the pavements are uneven & as we walked up one street, a car drove into a 500mm deep area of road works about 3X2m, without any barriers or signage. Luckily it managed to back out but it must have bent the underside. As it was getting dark we returned to the hotel & gave it away for the day.