Our Great Adventure: Villa de Leyva Day 314 29/07/2015

We decided to stop off at a couple of places on route to the Caribbean coast in the north, the first being Villa de Leyva about 160km north of Bogota. We'd read that buses run frequently from Bogota so after a leisurely breakfast we packed and ordered a taxi to the bus terminal. We'd seen on the news last night that some of the taxis were on strike and blockading the streets so we weren't surprised when the driver told us that he'd have to take a longer route to get to the terminal. It took just under an hour to get there which we didn't think was too bad. We wandered around looking for the 'frequent buses to Villa de Leyva and eventually, on the fifth attempt of asking, found a company that had a minivan leaving at 1130, a wait of one and a half hours. So much for frequent buses! We set off on time with a nearly full van for the 4 hour journey, stopping in the northern outskirts of the city to pick up more passengers (it was now standing room only). The journey north was very pleasant and fast with quite a lot of it on dual carriageways through the countryside full of rolling hills, stopping on route to pick people up or drop them off. After a couple of hours Simon got very excited as we passed the site where the Battle of Boyaca was fought on 7th August 1819 between the Patriots, who were seeking independence from the Spanish, and the Royalists on behalf of the Spanish Crown. The victory was such a resounding success for the Patriots, led by the enigmatic Simon Bolivar, that it meant Bogota was undefended, the Spanish Viceroy fled and so the birth of the state of Gran Colombia. Fighting continued for another 2 years in the surrounding countries of Ecuador and Venezuela but this substantive defeat meant that independence was a foregone conclusion. The battlefield now has huge symbolic meaning to Colombians and as we passed it was crowded with people, with the usual highly visible military presence. The original bridge over the river has now gone (a replica is in it's place) and there is also a huge statue at the spot where the Spanish surrendered. Just after this site we turned off the main road to take a shortcut to Villa de Leyva climbing over a ridge and then descending into the large, fertile valley below. Villa de Leyva was declared a national monument in 1954. It's a colonial settlement, preserved in its entirety and is famed for being Colombia's most beautiful town. It's about 1000m lower than Bogota and you could feel the difference as soon as we got off the minivan. We walked the short distance to our hotel, Posada de San Antonio, along the cobbled streets which made dragging our bags a little tricky! The hotel is on the corner of Plaza Bolivar, a lovely and tranquil square. We dropped off our bags and walked to the main square, Plaza de Major, one of the largest squares in the Americas. It's surrounded by whitewashed colonial buildings and paved with huge cobblestones.We had lunch at a cafe on the square, empanadas and fried plantain (a type of banana that is only eaten cooked) with guacamole and very colourful, refreshing drinks, mango for Simon and lemonade with mint for Diane. We thought we'd venture out on bikes tomorrow so wandered around the streets unsuccessfully looking for a cycle hire shop, despite being given directions from the lady in the adventure shop! We popped back in the hotel as we were nearby to find it was about 10m away from where we were staying, although it was closed on Wednesday's. Keen to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine we wandered back to the main square for a drink. In the evening we had a lovely meal sat in the garden at Mercado Municipal, a traditional Colombian restaurant set in the grounds of a church.