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| Up the hill to the Hotel Casa Terra |
You know how people who didn't think used to say, "Life is all about the journey." As I get older, for me, I'm all about the destinations. Journey be damned. This is one of the stories.
The day started at the northern bus terminal in the City of Bogotá. There were about 20 to 25 companies selling bus tickets, half of whom advertised trips to Villa de Leyva. I repeatedly kept getting referred to various other windows -- which was interesting that I could keep up because I seemed to be the only English language speaker and the bus terminal -- and I'm not complaining about this part of the process because I am in a Spanish-speaking country possessing very limited Spanish-language skills -- so this part of the problem is 100 percent on me.
Each person at the bus station was able to communicate to me who I should see next by referencing the color of that next person's shirt or smock. "Blanco" sent me to "amarillo," from whom I was able to buy my ticket. Cheap, too. 20,000 Colombian pesos. I accidentally handed "amarillo" 200,000 pesos and she laughed and gave me back all my money except the small amount I actually owed.
The ticket said to go to Portal 15. I did. I got on the bus. Wrong bus. OK. That part of the ticket was not the vital piece of information.
An "azul" then sent me to a different "blanco," who finally got me on the right bus. Bus 8392 just like my ticket said.
Three and a half hours on a 16-passenger bus through switchback curves, with no restrooms or breaks, and my stomach was feeling all kinds of "doente," which I know is a Portuguese word and not a Spanish word but I use Portuguese words when I know those and I don't know the Spanish word because why not.
This was my bus.
We made it into Villa de Leyva with no accidents, road or otherwise. There were lots of apparent stray dogs at the bus station. Turns out, there are lots of apparent stray dogs in Villa de Leyva.
This was the bus terminal.
And from there it was a short roll of the bag up the cobblestone streets of Villa de Leyva to my hotel.
The Hotel Casa Terra:
It's a beautiful seven-room hotel just a few blocks south of the town's main plaza:
Very nice grounds, very nice common areas:
It's the #1 rated hotel in Villa de Leyva on booking.com and you know how I go for the #1's when booking my hotel in places I've never been before.
Let's have a peek inside my room. The Leyva room:
It's a small enough hotel that the rooms do not have numbers, but instead have names. It makes sense and is easy to follow. Except I barged in on the nice young Swiss couple in the next-door Amonita room. But that only happened the once. I figured it out.
This is the Leyva room. You can see my green suitcase -- "New Green" which replaced the now retired "Big Green" -- resting up after a long pull over the cobblestones.
This is the view from my room:
Cactus! I feel like home! At least I know no one is breaking into my room through that opening.
And this is the hotel dog.
Need to find out her name. To be polite.
After a bit of work, I walked around town looking for a bakery.
And I found La Milhoja open. The French Patisserie was closed. Half the restaurants in town appear to be open weekends only.
I ordered a coconut pie and a double espresso for an afternoon pick-me-up.
And I saw what appeared to be the only sidewalk (sort of) in all of Villa de Leyva.
They keep the historic cobblestones to maintain the historic vibe. Villa de Leyva is basically the Colombian Colonial Williamsburg, but without the people walking around in historic costumes. It gets boatloads of tourists from within Colombia, but only now is being discovered by the rest of the tourist universe.
After returning and doing a little more work, it was time to walk the dark but safe streets of Villa de Leyva in search of an open restaurant.
The town looks great lit up for the evening.
And I found my restaurant destination for the night, the Mercado Municipal:
It's easy to miss because you walk in through the bakery:
And then you walk through the bakery's kitchen:
And on the other side of the bakery, is the outdoor seating for the restaurant:
Very garden-y.
I ordered the barbecued (barbacoa) pork ribs, served on a bed of little potatoes and some corn side dish that tasted like cornbread stuffing.
I really like this destination, Villa de Leyva. The journey to get here? Not so much.
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