For breakfast, I had opted for the Tamal filled with meat, chicken and chickpeas. It was nice, like a Chinese bakchang but with a corn mash instead of glutinous rice. The Santander-style arepa was very dry unlike the greasier version back at Villa de Leyva.
Seated by the gardens with chirping birds, including some bright yellow ones, in the perfect temperature and just the right amount of humidity, this felt like paradise.
We took a walk after breakfast, repeating part of the walk along the western edge of the town looking down towards the Rio Surez valley. The light was better for us to appreciate the detail, including a cliff on the opposite side of the valley.
We had run out of daylight yesterday to explore the eastern side of the town which was slightly separated by a forested area in a dip, through which there were tracks joining it to the main part of town. There was also one road linking the two parts though.
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- Cathedral of Barichara in the main square.
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- Church of Santa Barbara in the north of the town.
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- Hilly streets of Barichara.
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- Looking down the valley of Rio Suarez.
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- Hilly streets of Barichara.
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- Barichara’s from a slightly disconnected part of the town.
We repeated last night’s club sandwich (a misnomer) and had a mango shake to go with it. The town centre seemed quite busy. The convenience stores, which also sold alcohol, turned in makeshift pubs. People bought their grog and sat in chatting with each other.
After all my busy travels for weeks on end, I wanted a relaxing morning after which I would sort out some flight schedule changes by Skype. I got on to this about 1500 and after being disconnected a few times, managed to rebook a couple of flights with no penalty, to better suit me. Because the airline had made some 5 min reschedules, I became entitled to make changes to better suit my current requirements with no fees or fare difference. This took over an hour and by the time I had updated my spreadsheets etc, it was 1700.
Kim had wanted to go to a massage/spa but didn’t make it, opting to chat with friends instead. In some ways, he felt like he hadn’t made the most of his day. But I think just being away from Auckland’s stormy winter in the perfect Colombian weather and lovely ambience was good enough.
We finished our stay in Barichara with another walk around part of the western edge of town and the old town itself, before repeating our beer in the square and a dinner not far from there.
The restaurant was somewhat of health-conscious place with lots of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free options despite having meat. The pesto, olive and tomato pizza was awesome except that it had non-crispy maize base. The salad that we ordered as an after-thought was great too.