Trip to Villa de Leyvo and Raquira

Hi everyone,

We had an awsome day yesterday traveling on a tour to Villa de Leyvo and Raquira which are about 3 hours North of Bogota.

Freddy picked us up at the hotel at 8:00 a.m. and we were off for our long trip there. We went through Chia, and Ubite. We stopped at Ubite for a break and to get some cheese. This is where most of the cheese for Colombia is made. The area is very fertile and great for cows.

When we left Bogota it was cloudy and rainy, but as we headed North on our trip the skies opened up and we got some much needed sunshine. It is amazing how much it rains here!

I wasn't able to figure out how to attach a map of our route, but here is the link.

http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enUS276US277&q=Colombia&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

As we headed North the landscape changed from fertile grazing lands...

to marshy lake area....

and over the mountains to a desert dryland.

We arrived at Raquira around 11:30 and what a beautiful little town this was. It was about 10 minutes off of the road that we were traveling. I can't say it was a highway, as we were up and down the Andes Mountains and through the countryside. If we weren't going up or down, we were turning right or left. haha! ;)

Freddie and Dana. Yes Freddie is old enough to drive. He is in his mid 20's, but he looks about 14 in this picture.

Raquira is a small town that has made their reputation as a place for people from Bogota to escape to and get gifts and such. There is one hotel/restaurant, and about 50+ little shops. Of course everything is around the town square where the church is located. We saw a marker on one of the buildings next to the church that it was built in the 1580's. Jodie made a donation to the local economy and we got some good souveniers there.

Eric Clapton look out, AJ McCoy is coming to take your place on the guitar!

At about 12:45 we left for Villa de Leyvo which took us about 30 minutes to get to. This was by far the most amazing place that we have seen yet. The town was built by the Spanish in the 1500's, and everything is built around the square. There is the Spanish Governor's home (now a restaurant), museums, and restaurants/bank in the square currently. There are many botique shops there selling much more than souveniers, such as jewelry, paintings, and art. Many rich Bogota citizens come to Villa de Leyvo as they have their 2nd homes here. We saw a couple for sale at a local Realtor's office. A nice second home is about $400,000,000 (that's right $400 million pesos, or about $200,000 USD). Of course you are a 3 hour drive from Bogota, so it is all location, location, location.

Villa de Leyvo is surrounded by the Andes Mountains, and it is so picturesque. If you didn't get enough beauty just looking at the buildings, all you needed to do was look up a bit and there they are framing everything.

Our lunch was at a old home attached to the square. It was remodeled a while ago to house about 10 restaurants. Everyone sat outdoors in the patio and you chose which restaurant you wanted to order from. We chose an Italian restaurant, as at the hotel we have beef 1-2 times a day (we are very sick of beef by now as you can imagine). Jodie had Langostino (large shrimps) in a garlic butter sauce, and I had the seafood linguine. Both were excellent!

We left Villa de Leyvo at about 5:30 and made our way to Tunja to get on the Pan American highway (again not much of a highway). Tunja is the highest city in Colombia and it felt a lot like San Fransisco with the homes and shops situated in the hills. Either you were driving up or down, nothing flat at all there!

We arrived back at the hotel at 9 p.m. Andy and Dana slept most of the way home luckily, as they had a big day. We all had a lot of fun seeing other areas of the country, and will remember this vividly.

We are having dinner tonight at Cecilia's home. Can't wait to see her home and have some good home cooking. She is serving Tamale's. Yum!

On Monday we are going to a kindergarten in a poor area of the city, and see the pregnant mothers home.

On Tuesday we are leaving for Santa Marta, and the Irotama resort. Some of our fellow hotel guests from Denmark are there right now, so it will be nice to meet up with them there. Here is the link if you want to check it out: www.irotama.com We are going to be there for a week, and can't wait to have a break from our hotel and the rainy/gloomy weather. We have to make a trip to Unicentro Mall to get some warmer weather clothes for everyone since we packed mostly for Bogota and the 60's that they have everyday.

We hope that you are all doing well.

PS-John and Melanie, we don't have your email address here, so CONGRATS on your referral of a little girl! We are so excited for you, and your boys. Can't wait to see her later this summer or fall after you travel. Thanks for letting us know.