Villa de Leyva

Heading south toward Bogota, we spent a few days in the beautiful colonial town, Villa de Leyva. The whole town is a national monument for its perfectly preserved architecture. Every building in town has perfect white wash stone walls with either blue or green painted doors and shutters, red brick roofs, and overflowing flowering bushes. It is a common weekend retreat for wealthy families from Bogota, meaning it was expensive and we couldn’t stay too long! 

The friendly abuelos running the hospedaje we stayed in directed us to a market on Sunday to have breakfast. At first we were confused why everyone was eating soup and grilled meats for breakfast, but then we decided to join in with the locals and order a plate of potatoes and unknown types of sausage, which were incredibly tasty!

Better than any farmer’s market we’ve seen in the states, the farmers here sell an amazing array of exotic fruits and vegetables for super cheap!

On a sunny day we rented mountain bikes for the afternoon and rode the trail through the countryside circling Villa de Leyva. The mountain views were spectacular, but the bikes were suspect. 

We finished the trail at a small local vineyard and winery where we sampled some Cabernet blends. To our amusement, a summer camp of middle school aged kids show up for a tour. Really Colombia? But then again it wasn’t the strangest thing we’ve seen on the trip.