It was soo long time ago and I am soo nor motivated to write a lot about it, also almost nothing happened there, so quickly
Barichara
I arrived early in the morning from Medellin. That was the best bus I've been to! Although, I had some confusion with my seat: I have asked for window seat, but got seat in a pass, however, it appeared that I was sitting alone, so, I guess, it was all planned out by a woman who sold my ticket. Anyway, I had wi-fi, 2 comfortable seats and no music, I had my sleeping bag, so was comfortable (I saw other gringoes freezing: I gets really cold in the buses. Arrived on comfortable time to catch ongoing bus to San Gil (now when I met some people from Buca, I regret not checking it out).
Not to lose time I went exploring the exact same day, I cought a combi to a village of Barichara and walked for about 2 hours to another village of Guate. The villages are beautiful, the cemetry is beautiful, the walk through fields is peacful. In Guate locals celebrated something, so played live music on the main plaza. I assume it gets busy on weekends with tourist, but it was nice and quiet when I was there. Very local feel, still with tourist infrastructure. Is a must when visiting San Gil.
Barichara
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Guate
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Paragliding
Something I planned to do for a long time, I even had it scheduled back in Argentina, but my flight was canceled due to weather conditions. Then I forgot about it, mountains took over any other activities. I saw an ad in the hostel, paragliding over the canyon (forgot the name, but very famous/beautiful canyon of Colombia). So I would do 2 activities in one: paragliding and visiting the canyon.
Liza told me once that paragliding is not very exciting experience: if done without acrobatics it is just flying and after first 2 minutes gets boring. Still I was willing to try as first step to conquer my fear of heights, as mountains did not really help with it. She was right: after take off, it gets boring, so I asked my pilot to do something fun. And that was scary, I got a bit giddy. It felt like free falling, so I assume this is how it gets when sky diving.
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Villa de Leyva
Next day I left for El Cocuy (finally!!!!). There were two ways of going: direct complicated with many changes and night spent in the middle of nowhere; around, going almost to Bogota, but can be done in a day with arrival next morning. I arrived to my intermediate stop in Tunja after changing 1 collectivo in a small town of something. Villa de Leyva, another colonial village was just an hour away, and, as I had over 6 hours waiting time, I went there.
Well, it was another colonial village and on a weekend (I think it was Saturday) it was busy with national tourists. So I walked somewhere nobody goes, saw rain coming and escaped back to safety, eg., town center with coffee shops. I ended up talking for hours with a local woman, owner of a small cafe, where she also lives with her worker, 3 cats and 5 dogs. Her family also lives around Villa de Leyva. She has a Russian friend, who always invites her to visit, but she is too scared to go that far: never travelled outside the country! I guess this is why national tourism is so developed in Colombia: they liek to travel, but most of them are too scared to go too far from their famiies.
So she invited me for a cup of tinto, gave to try local cheeses, I in return left my email in case she comes to Russia. She in return invited me to stay in her house. Such a shame I had my tickets sorted to El Cocuy. And also wanted to go there so badly. Also had onward ticket to Mexico. Well, maybe when I come back to Colombia.
Villa de Leyva (see, very similar)
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Also Villa de Leyva, place where nobody goes
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Barichara
I arrived early in the morning from Medellin. That was the best bus I've been to! Although, I had some confusion with my seat: I have asked for window seat, but got seat in a pass, however, it appeared that I was sitting alone, so, I guess, it was all planned out by a woman who sold my ticket. Anyway, I had wi-fi, 2 comfortable seats and no music, I had my sleeping bag, so was comfortable (I saw other gringoes freezing: I gets really cold in the buses. Arrived on comfortable time to catch ongoing bus to San Gil (now when I met some people from Buca, I regret not checking it out).
Not to lose time I went exploring the exact same day, I cought a combi to a village of Barichara and walked for about 2 hours to another village of Guate. The villages are beautiful, the cemetry is beautiful, the walk through fields is peacful. In Guate locals celebrated something, so played live music on the main plaza. I assume it gets busy on weekends with tourist, but it was nice and quiet when I was there. Very local feel, still with tourist infrastructure. Is a must when visiting San Gil.
Barichara
Guate
Paragliding
Something I planned to do for a long time, I even had it scheduled back in Argentina, but my flight was canceled due to weather conditions. Then I forgot about it, mountains took over any other activities. I saw an ad in the hostel, paragliding over the canyon (forgot the name, but very famous/beautiful canyon of Colombia). So I would do 2 activities in one: paragliding and visiting the canyon.
Liza told me once that paragliding is not very exciting experience: if done without acrobatics it is just flying and after first 2 minutes gets boring. Still I was willing to try as first step to conquer my fear of heights, as mountains did not really help with it. She was right: after take off, it gets boring, so I asked my pilot to do something fun. And that was scary, I got a bit giddy. It felt like free falling, so I assume this is how it gets when sky diving.
Villa de Leyva
Next day I left for El Cocuy (finally!!!!). There were two ways of going: direct complicated with many changes and night spent in the middle of nowhere; around, going almost to Bogota, but can be done in a day with arrival next morning. I arrived to my intermediate stop in Tunja after changing 1 collectivo in a small town of something. Villa de Leyva, another colonial village was just an hour away, and, as I had over 6 hours waiting time, I went there.
Well, it was another colonial village and on a weekend (I think it was Saturday) it was busy with national tourists. So I walked somewhere nobody goes, saw rain coming and escaped back to safety, eg., town center with coffee shops. I ended up talking for hours with a local woman, owner of a small cafe, where she also lives with her worker, 3 cats and 5 dogs. Her family also lives around Villa de Leyva. She has a Russian friend, who always invites her to visit, but she is too scared to go that far: never travelled outside the country! I guess this is why national tourism is so developed in Colombia: they liek to travel, but most of them are too scared to go too far from their famiies.
So she invited me for a cup of tinto, gave to try local cheeses, I in return left my email in case she comes to Russia. She in return invited me to stay in her house. Such a shame I had my tickets sorted to El Cocuy. And also wanted to go there so badly. Also had onward ticket to Mexico. Well, maybe when I come back to Colombia.
Villa de Leyva (see, very similar)
Also Villa de Leyva, place where nobody goes
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