Walking in Sunny VDL

Plaza Mayor in Villa de Leyva.
Maybe the most photographed scene in all of Colombia

It is now time to transition to the sunny side of this vacation.  Let's take a walk through downtown Villa de Leyva.

Of course, that first means to exit through the green doors of my hotel:

Look left, up the hill:

Look right, down the hill:

And off we go.  Actually, the precautions of "look both ways" weren't necessary as traffic cannot get any speed on the rough cobblestone streets.  You can walk right in front of a car at an intersection and (a) you will get through the intersection very safely and (b) the car won't have to have hit the brakes.  Slow pace of driving life here.

This is Parque Nariño.  So named because of:

The statue of Mr. Nariño.  Señor Nariño is a key figure in Colombian liberation and independence, so important that the presidential palace in Bogota bears his name.

And, in the same parque, a fish statue:

Could be an homage to all the fossils.  Could be the artist just like to eat the trucha.  I'm cool with it either way.

The jeep said on its side that it was (or was FROM) the Museo del Chocolate (the Chocolate Museum) in Villa de Leyva.  I did not know Villa de Leyva had a chocolate museum, but I guess all the tourist town have such a thing nowadays.  And VDL is lousy with tourists, but (a) only tourists from within Colombia and (b) only on weekends.  A lot of restaurants in town are open weekends-only.

And the photogenic Plaza Mayor:

Here is the high tech security system employed to keep vehicular traffic off the Plaza Mayor:

Don't laugh.  It works.  But even if a car or truck were able to get onto the Plaza, I think it's top speed would be about 5mph.  Not really going to do any damage that way.

One mystery solved here:

There are a ton of stray dogs wandering VDL.  Generally, they look decently well-fed and happy.  When one of the pooches was drinking water, I noticed one of the reasons for the relative health.  Lots of plastic buckets put out, with fresh water, para los perros.
 

It's a dog's life in Villa de Leyva.

Today, finally, the umbrellas were to protect against the sun, not the rain.

And this was an old convent converted into the Museo del Carmen, a museum of religious art.  Which was closed.  Because it is not the weekend.

After a break, it was supper time.  El tiempo para la comida, in my fractured Spanish:

I chose Savia, because it was close.

It is a health food restaurant with a lot of vegetarian and vegan options.  Right up my alley, no?

It was rather empty.  Because it was not the weekend.

For starters, I had a jugo de guanabana, a smoothie made with milk, sugar, and guanabana, a.k.a, the soursop or the custard apple.  They have them in Mexico, but they are much much mucho more popular in Colombia.

And for good reason.  For la comida, it was the Arroz Criollo con Camarones, the Creole Rice with Shrimp.

It was made with shrimp and rice and a whole bunch of things that a health food restaurant would add.  For more health.  Stuff like quinoa, and peas, and corn, and carrots.  Very good for a health food restaurant.  I even ate the peas, which I wouldn't normally, because I'm in a foreign country and I'm noticing a pattern with various vegetables that I dislike at home actually are OK, or even tasty, abroad.  The peas were in the "OK" category," which is a major step up from "nasty."