Sitting on a bench with a kebab in one hand and a can of beer in the other feels like being a teenager again. But this is a normal Friday night in the plaza at San Gil, where people of all ages gathers at the corner where there are two shops selling beer, and two ladies in the street barbecuing meat on sticks. There are no drunken brawls; it is all just very sociable and friendly.

The route I am taking from the Caribbean coast to Bogotá was an important trade route for the Spanish, and explains why the towns and villages along the way have such great colonial buildings. Barichara and Villa de Leyva are particularly well preserved; both lined with dozens of cobbled streets, and the latter having one of the largest plazas in the whole of the Americas.

This route is also very scenic, passing through huge canyons and rolling hills, which are gradually getting higher as I wind my way back up into the big mountains. I have been easing my way back into hiking - I trekked to a waterfall; followed a camino real (historic trail) to sleepy Guane which is famous for its leche de cabra (goat's milk) licqueur; and climbed to 3000m through hilly farmland to start to get some of my acclimatization back.

The region is also famous for a type of flying ant (hormiga) that is fried and eaten as a crispy snack. So there has been much of interest here, but the real highlight has probably been the people. I am now getting a taste of typical Colombian life, and just as I had been told the people are the friendliest you are likely to come across anywhere. Tomorrow I will take a local bus to Chiquinquirá, a town famous for making guitars, and continue to Bogatá via Zipaquirá where there is a cathedral made of salt down in the salt mines.