Where's Grayleen?

We have spent the past couple of days in Villa de Levya, a gorgeous town about 3 hours outside of Bogotá.  It is a popular weekend destination for affluent Bogotáns, as well as the rare gringo, and caters to visitors with lots of restaurants, live music, and cute shops.  We have found it to be a nice change after the grit of Bogotá.

The church off of the main square of Villa de Leyva

Upon arrival at the bus station, we started visiting hotels and hostels and trying to negotiate room rates.  I have rusty high school Spanish and Gray only knows a few phrases.  We had done a bit of research ahead of time and expected to pay about $35,000 Colombian Pesos (COP).  $2,000 COP = $1 USD, so $17.50.  After visiting maybe six different places, I still hadn’t successfully negotiated below $60,000 COP.  Just as I started wondering if we were getting charged a massive gringo tax, I overheard the proprietor of a very nice place saying, “normally I would charge $35,000 per person, so I cannot charge below $60,000 per person this weekend”.  It turns out that this weekend is the three-day Festival Gastronomique, a large food festival!  We ended up finding a run-down place for $40,000.  After one night there the festival was over and we found a much better room for only $25,000.

A couple of cows tied up in a yard

Yesterday, we rented bicycles and did a little circuit around the surrounding countryside.  There were all sorts of kitschy attractions (ostrich farm, clay house, archaeological site, etc.) but we decided to ride right on by.  The countryside itself was the attraction for us!  We did stop by a winery on the way back for some lunch and a taste of wine.  The winemaker plopped down at our table for a chat: he’s a German expat who has been living in Colombia for twenty years, has had four wives, and seems to have family in every corner of the world.  Very interesting!

Yummy wine

Quick embarrassing story from our bike ride: a guy stopped his car to ask me for directions, but I couldn’t hear him.  In German, you can say “bitte?” (please?) if you don’t hear someone and want them to repeat themselves, so I said the Spanish translation: “por favor?”.  He gave me a bit of a dirty look and turned away.  Confused, I started turning to go when the older woman (his mother?) sitting next to him yelled, “por favor!” after me and said the name of the town.  I pointed them in the right direction.  Only after he drove away did I realize he thought I was insisting that he say “please”, something akin to, “Say the magic word!”.  They must think I’m another rude American.  It was an honest mistake!

Today, we did a hike up the hillside overlooking the city.  We definitely felt the altitude!  (Villa de Leyva is at 6562ft and we probably hiked up another 1000ft.)  We got caught in a heavy rain at the top, so we hid under a table to stay dry.

Staying dry

Click here to see more of our photos from Villa de Leyva.  Tomorrow we will be making our way over to Cartagena on the Carribbean.  That’s all for now!