Gorgeous colonial town of Villa de Leyva

Leaving Bogota

After a highly interrupted night’s sleep (without the aid of any medication) for both of us, I woke around 0600, well before our alarms.

We took care to unlock the various layers of security at our accommodation and checking our room was empty before locking our key inside.  We summoned a taxi by the local app around 0700 and one turned up soon after.

The ride to Terminal Salitre took 20 mins which was much quicker than expected.  It did cost about double the estimated cost though, so I suspect the driver had his meter doctored for a higher rate.

The bus station was huge with different zones for different countries and lots of eateries.  When we found our zone, I tried to change our printout for actual tickets at least an hour beforehand, a requirement that was strongly reiterated on my booking.

But nope, in reality, we were directed to the boarding gate, which we had some trouble finding.  So, now, we had too much time to kill at the station when we could have had more time in bed, especially when Kim was unwell.

We simply had to wait it out on the cold stainless steel seats, remembering to take the exact same ones whenever we got up for a walk or when I got my breakfast of an empanada and coffee.

Our bus to Villa de Leyva departed a little late, through Bogota’s bad traffic.  We made our way through the city areas for about 90 mins before getting on to the intercity highways which had two lanes in each direction.

We couldn’t help thinking that some of the countryside looked like New Zealand’s North Island.  This was quite strange as we are near the equator but at altitude.  Partly, this may be due to the high deforestation into green grazing pastures, as with the North island.

As we approached our destination, it got dryer with eucalyptus, perhaps more like Australia.  It was rockier as well.  Kim also felt better, which surprised me as the roads were windy.  (Through the evening he improved further, which made me suspect that Bogota’s altitude didn’t help the nausea brought about by the tummy bug).

Arriving in Villa de Leyva

With various stops along the way, the 3h30 journey took 4h30, arriving at 1400.  It was a few minutes walk to our delightful hotel Casa Xue, located in an old colonial building.  Well, the whole village is comprised of old colonial buildings.

Official check-in was at 1500 so we wandered briefly and found a place that suited Kim’s fragile tummy.  We shared a very good ham roll, freshly made by an Argentine man from Mar del Plata.  He was impressed that we had visited his city but said it was sacrilegious as we stayed for less an hour because the place was good for seafood and the beaches.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that we only went to McDonald’s for the toilet (and a snack) and walked on the waterfront.

He said that the square here is the largest in Latin America.  Well, I find that hard to believe as the Zocalo in Mexico City is bigger!

Villa de Leyva’s Plaza Mayor.

Settling in

In our room, Kim slept.  My priority was to organise transport to our next destination.  With WhatsApp and Google Translate, this was surprisingly easily done with a driver that had come recommended by our hotel.  He turned out cheaper than the lady I had found myself, who used to run the trip as a tour rather than purely as transport.

I went up to the rooftop overlooking the village, to relax.  A little later, the apologetic receptionist came and confessed to a mistake in the room allocation.  We had to shift to a supposedly lower grade room which was larger, more spacious, had a larger bathroom but no jacuzzi.  We were happy.

We wandered out in the evening, surprised to see daylight still, as rooms in old mansions don’t get much light from the true outside world, but only via the internal courtyard.  We returned to the Argentine man for dinner, opting for a burger and a steak roll.

These were probably the best options for Kim as many restaurants had much greasier options like lasagne, pizza etc.  This was his first full-sized meal in 48h.

We both felt much better here than back in Bogota.  While he had been sick, I had been worried about him and that brought me down too.  The weather in Bogota was cool and damp, and there wasn’t much sun.  With Kim needing lots of sleep, I was confined to an old colonial room that was shuttered in darkness.  The altitude and hilly walk back to the hotel with each outing didn’t help.

Today, the 1610 ft drop in elevation may have helped us feel better.  Hopefully our bad start in Colombia will soon be behind us. Bogota was 8661 ft and at Villa de Leyva it is only 7051 ft.