Somewhat Like Santa Fe in the 1950s

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017--San Gil to Villa de Leyva

I never got to see the fried giant ants which are a favorite snack in San Gil.  They are most popular on weekend nights at a park.  But it sprinkled in the evenings starting around 19:00, and people went home for the night.  I did see a big ant crawling around my shoe this morning at the bus station, so I wonder if that is the kind they eat.  There's also a nouveau restaurant there in town with a chef who has been making ant sauce from the same ants to serve of meats.

It was another long bus day.  I left the hotel at 8:00.  The bus was supposed to leave at 9:00, but it didn't arrive until 9:25 and didn't leave until 9:45.  That's Colombia!!  Anyway, I got to my final destination (with a quick change of buses in nearby Tunja) around 15:30!  But what interesting things I saw today--wonderful green mountains falling off into deep canyons, cowboys herding donkeys loaded with bundles of cut sugarcane, rural people dressed in panchos and narrow-brimmed felt hats (including the women), etc., (not the least of which includes the city I am not visiting).

Villa de Leyva (pronounced with each "v" having a "b" sound) is just unbelievably wonderful.  It's a bit remote--on a side highway rather than a main one, but it is a colonial town that is big--not big as in it has grown big in recent years, but big from colonial times with little in the way of anything new having been added in centuries.  It is a sophisticated town with galleries, atmospheric bars and restaurants, etc.  It is surrounded by beautiful countryside with mountains that have plants similar to yuccas, pine and other trees, etc.  It's setting and its beauty reminds me of Santa Fe back in the 1950s before it became overwhelmed by construction to handle new residents wanting to live there. 

On weekends, Villa de Leyva is supposedly mobbed by people coming from Bogota.  But I think it must be more magical in the middle of the week with only a few tourists here. A shower had just fallen before I got here and clouds were scattered all around the skies among the beautiful mountains, but that was not a problem.  Every street in town is true, old cobblestones meaning that the water went around the stones leaving the rounded tops high and dry for walking anywhere, and the main streets have been pedestrianized to make it easy to walk in the street and enjoy the town.  The skies were gorgeous with unique dark swirls of clouds.  Anywhere in town, there is a view to the mountains and those clouds since nothing here has more than two floors to it and most buildings are only one floor.

The main plaza is huge.  It is supposedly one of the largest in South America.  I would guess it is about the size of the main plaza in Mexico City for those who have been there (but it looks bigger since the buildings here are not as majestic as the ones there).  And it is all cobblestone.  The main church is among the structures on one side of the square, but all four sides have a whole block of one-story buildings constructed long ago.  It makes the main square in Santa Fe look tiny and "quaint" in terms of trying to look old and special. 

I wandered the streets looking into restaurants and shops.  I even went into the "regular" part of town serving the poorer local citizens which is also old, but lacks the cobblestone streets.  I passed a place where a woman was cooking in front.  She was making something that looked like two corn tortillas (they were actually thin arepas) with a filling inside.  I returned around 18:30 and ordered one.  It had a cheese and seasoned shredded chicken filling and was delicious, especially since there was a bowl of salsa to have with it!!  (That was my SECOND salsa of the day!!  When the bus stopped for lunch, I saw bowls of salsa on a counter in front of where a lady was selling empanadas, so I got one and poured the salsa on it for each bite!)

I got the salsa from a family inside who had finished eating.  It was an older couple and their grown, but young daughter.  The daughter spoke English, so we talked about several things.  They have been here for over a week; they came for a kite festival that they have every year and was held last weekend.  But they don't live too far away, she said.  It was nice to have a conversation with someone knowing more than just a few words of English.  They liked the fact I am seeing so much of Colombia.

After it got dark, I walked by a second church in town which is part of a convent had been closed earlier and was having mass.  I got a peak inside and some photos including an exterior one with the half-moon in the sky just above the church.  The priests looked like Franciscans in brown robes with rope belts.

After that, I stopped at a store on the way to the room and bought a beer to bring back and drink.  It's only the third time I've done that on this trip, but I am so happy about being in this wonderful place I wanted to celebrate a bit.

My hotel, Hotel Casa Cantabria, is very nice.  I have the nicest room in the place--on the second floor with windows opening out to a small balcony and having views of  gardens across the street and the town and mountains beyond.  The room has white marble floors with fancy tiles around the edges, a framed, vaulted ceiling, and a pretty white quilt as a bedspread.  (It's cold up here in the mountains.  It was 66 degrees F when I returned to my room must before 19:00.)