Villa de Leyva´s main square, unlike most of the town´s that we´ve been to is completely empty of trees, benches and the urbiquitous coffee drinking locals. We think it must come to life at the weekend for the markets. We stayed here for 3 nights in a rustic (read barn-like) lodge with an amazingly friendly owner who kissed us hello and goodbye with hugs and ´mi amors´ every time we saw her. I was charmed, Steve not so much.

We spent another active few days here, on our first day we visited ´El Fosil´ a 12m long fossil of a crocodile like creature from 110m years ago. It was found in 1972 by a farmer and they´ve basically built a museum around where it lays in the ground. it´s head is bigger than a man - I wouldn´t fancy coming across that on a swim. A detour home via ´pozo azul´which i assume means blue pond it was pretty much just a pond with slightly blue water, surrounded by odd toadstool shaped rocks in a landscape we couldn´t work out was quarried or naturally scarred.

AFter our 10km roundtrip walk to the fossil we thought we´d venture on a slightly more energetic trip to what we belived was a relatively gentle 3 hour walk to 8 lakes in the hills. The first 45 minutes of our uphill walk we realised didn´t count as part of the 3 hours but we were assured by the guy at the entrance to the park that we´d easily be up to the first lake in 3 hours. We confidently set off walking a narrow path alongside a river, which we could always hear but seldom see as we were completely surrounded by thick forest. It was very pretty and we were enjoying the exercise. Another 30 mnutes though and we were getting pretty tired and wet as we were pretty much walking in a cloud (the walk starts at 2,800 m above seal level). Soon after this, long after we´d stopped pointing out particularly pretty trees and flowers, in fact, long after we´d noticing the trees and flowers, Steve managed to fall into a puddle and soaked his feet. It started getting even less fun and when 2 hours later we came out of the trees and were welcomed by another hill, steeper than anything i´ve ever contemplated walkimg up before beckoned, we seriously considered turning round. We were also in the middle of a cloud and couldn´t see far at all. Stubborness prevailed though and we through gritted teeth and rain and mud eventually got to the peak at 3,600 m. A little further round the mountain, we got our first glmpse of Lake Iguaque, and it was beautiful, nestled in yet more hills.

We could see why ´Iguaque is a sacred place to the indigenous people. According to Muisca legend, (and wikipedia) the mankind was originated in the Iguaque lake, when the goddess Bachué came out from the lake with a boy in her arms. When the boy grew, they populated the earth. They are considered the ancestors of the human race. finally, they disappeared unto the lake in the shape of snakes. ´

We´d packed our swimming togs, hoping to swim but ended up using our sarongs as blankets, drinking tea from a flask and having a biscuit in our jackets in the rain. Turns out you can only see 1 of the 8 lakes on teh routes we´d come too. oh well, we were lucky that on our return journey the clouds had lifted and we could see for miles across the valley. It was really beautiful and worth the painful hike up.

Along with various bouts of enthusiasm for big walks, the two of us have become through our own volition early risers, which most of you will know is most uncharacteristic of both of us. Our last day in Villa de Leyva, for example, started at 6.30 when we were both wide awake and instead of going back to sleep we thought we´d make the most of the day and got a 7 o´clock bus to Bogota. Very peculiar for us.