Our Great Adventure: Villa de Leyva Day 315 30/07/2015

We had breakfast and went to the bike hire shop nearby the hotel, Ciclotrips. It had a really good write up in TripAdvisor and quite rightly so based on our experience. There were a number of routes that you could do and we opted to head to the waterfalls at La Periquera. We were given a map and shown photos of 'points to look out for' along the way to avoid getting lost, a repair kit and mobile phone in case of emergencies (or getting lost). The bikes seemed OK and we were provided with helmets. We set off just before 1000 heading out of the town along the particularly uncomfortable cobbled streets to joined a paved road which soon became a dirt track. The route was very undulating and it wasn't long before we were puffing and panting our way up the hills. We stopped to buy more water and some snacks before continuing up hill until we finally reached the point where we needed to turn off to head to the waterfalls. The scenery was lovely, rolling hills with the mountains to our right side. From a distance you could think you were in Tuscany or Alicante. The waterfalls are located on private land and we paid our 6000 COPs per person fee, chained up the bikes with the help of the owner who reassured us that they would be safe and showed us the security camera before setting off to see the falls. The area is also a bit of an adventure playground with a bungie jump, zip wire and rappelling although looking at the state of the bungie and zip wire we wouldn't recommend either! The walk to the falls was downhill for about 500m. At the top a rappel had been set up down the side of the waterfall. It did look safe although not particularly challenging and you got seriously wet feet so we opted out of the additional adventure and walked down to the bottom of the first waterfall. It was nice but nothing really special so we set off further down the path to the third waterfall which was actually a trickle over a rock! We walked back up to the second which you couldn't actually see before heading back up the path to where we'd left our bikes. As we headed up we could feel the impact of the earlier cycling on our legs and backside and both wondered how hilly the remainder of the route would be. From the waterfalls the track descends steeply, not the best time to find out that the front brakes were very worn! It was then back up hill before we turned left and started a long descend. The track was very uneven and made travelling at any speed difficult. We finally reach the valley only to realise that we needed to head back up hill again on a tough climb before finally descending into Villa de Leyva. It was seriously hard work and we had to take a number of breaks before we finally made it to the top. The cobbled streets back into the centre of town were even more uncomfortable after 4 hours in the saddle! We dropped the bikes back at the hire shop and walked (or more accurately waddled like John Wayne!) to the main square for lunch, the draw of the refreshing drinks was too much and we returned to the same cafe we'd been to yesterday, ordering exactly the same things from the menu. After lunch we walked to the bus terminal to check the times for our onward bus to San Gil, our next destination on our journey north, before wandering back to the hotel. In the evening we headed to a local restaurant owner by a Lebanese chef, only to find it closed. In fact despite being Thursday evening, most restaurants were closed. In the end we opted for an Italian and enjoyed large bowls of spaghetti washed down with a glass Spanish red, exhausted but invigorated after our day out on the bikes.