Trading Villa de Leyva Peace for Bogota Energy

Since before I left on this trip I was hearing about how amazing Villa de Leyva is. Mostly from Colombians but several travelers as well, so my expectations were likely way too high. Still, although Villa de Leyva is a delightful place to visit and definitely worth stopping by if it's on your way somewhere… I can't really see why it's got such raving reviews.

Part of the problem for me is that I happened to arrive at the beginning of a 3-day public holiday and Villa de Leyva is a VERY popular destination for people with money to visit from Bogota. It's only about 3 hours away and if you're living is a congested city, I can see the appeal. If you're looking for a place to stroll peacefully with your significant other, it's also a lovely place to spend some time. But, if you're just some dude hiking around looking for interesting images to make, etc. there really isn't much there for you.

The locals also jack up the prices for the weekend and holidays, so I was getting hit with a double-whammy. Surely there would be a way I could find someplace that was cheap enough to at least check this place out for a night. After 3 hours of trudging around and not finding anything reasonably-priced enough to warrant a stay, I considered just going back to the bus terminal and continuing onto Bogota to spend my last few nights there. At least there'd be something more interesting that fairly generic Spanish architecture and cobblestone streets, etc. Now, I know that sounds very nice and all, especially with the beautiful mountain backdrops and dry desert terrain, but the whole town is really set up as a very touristy weekender destination and I can find that easily enough at home in Texas.

Luckily, I found a place to only $20 mil pesos that I had to share with an older French lady. She was just beginning her trip after realizing she could no longer sail. She and her partner had decided to sell the sail boat they'd split and been living on for the last 5 years and she was very sad about it. We shared a few travel stories, but you could tell she would never be as happy as she'd been on the sailboat, anchored off some exotic island or just out in the middle of the vast ocean.

The food was too expensive in general, almost triple what it was anywhere else. There were plenty of locals who didn't appear to be so affluent & I figured there must be a non-touristy part of town where they get snacks and drinks for regular prices. Turns out horseback riding is very popular here so moving toward where they keep the horses yielded some nice kabobs on the side of the road with potatoes for cheap.

The lady had some orange chili paste that I was smearing on the meat. She told me that is was pure chili and VERY hot. I told her I'm from Texas & could very well take all the heat she had to serve. Not long after I'd stuck a big spicy foot in my mouth, I was sweating profusely & was too embarrassed for the lady I'd boasted at to see my eyes watering like I was crying.

This stuff had such a back-end kick & burned so much that I thought I was going to get sick right there in the road. Moving quickly & scanning for anything to drink, I spotted a small tienda with some locals drinking beers. I verified the price was the fair local price & then downed two cold ones fast. The locals thought I was crying, but as I described the orange chili paste, they all broke out in laughter & bought me another beer.

I told them about where I'd come from, Barichara & San Gil. They asked me if I'd tried Homigas (fried ants) & Chicha. I told them I had & wondered if there was anything they recommended I try here in Villa de Leyva. They only mentioned one thing to try & the best place to get it. I think it was called something like "Longizas" or something like that. They told me to get it near the bus terminal in a little place called Don Minchos. Glad I asked, because these "Longiza" sausages were by far the finest grub I'd had in nearly 6 weeks traveling Colombia! The women who made it, also served me these black blood sausages to try. They were pretty good too, but getting through the real pig intestine casing was a bit too challenging.

This was more of the experience I was looking for, but it was too hard to find in this town full of holiday weekenders & price gouging, so I decided to head out early the next day for Bogota. I know it's not as pleasant in Bogota, but I knew that soon I'd be home & mostly safe. There's something about at least the possibility of danger that puts you on edge, but also forces you to pay extremely close attention to your surroundings. I knew if I just walked a few blocks away from the tourist areas of Bogota, I'd get that sort of fear-based intense awareness in spades.