Life in Villa de Leyva

In life you don’t often get to choose where or when a breakdown will occur. By definition, a breakdown is unplanned. Though the Burley Beast never just died on us we knew she was headed for a breakdown. And we knew we’d be wherever we ended up for a few weeks or longer while we made a plan, procured parts and had the work done.

So, we checked the map and read the guide books and picked a place that sounded like it had what we like: not too big, not too small, nice temps, plenty of activities to keep us busy and sufficient services for our automotive needs. We passed on San Gil, Barbosa and Tunja and headed to Villa de Leyva. As we drove into town we knew we’d made the right choice.

As of today we have been in Villa de Leyva exactly one month.

Mike spent the first few days diagnosing the car problems, and a few more days making a plan for how deal with them. The plan was to have his brother Jim come down with a suitcase full of parts and for Mike and Jim to do the work necessary to get us back on the road. Airline tickets were purchased, a parts list was made, double and triple checked, and parts were ordered and shipped directly to Jim.

As we waited for Jim to arrive we fell into a routine in Villa de Leyva.

After checking on several places to camp we settled into a place right in town simply called ‘Zona de Camping’. Over time we came to believe that this was the perfect location for us to be stranded.  

For the most part we have had the Zona de Camping all to ourselves, except on weekends when Bogataños come for a bit of the country life. All of the other campers have been Colombian as this place has not yet made it into Lonely Planet.

Several college kids have camped here and have reminded us of camping trips we did when we first moved to Colorado….you know, eight people, a couple of dogs, very little food, plenty of beer and some music. We’ve enjoyed interacting with them all and getting their perspective on life. Clearly, they have been intrigued by our trip and our mode of transportation.

We were chilling in the Zona de Camping on the afternoon of my 51st birthday when Jim spied a Westfalia driving by the entrance. We waved. They waved. Then they backed up and came in for a visit. We spent the afternoon with Hannah, Matthias and Anya from Germany comparing notes on travel in a Westy and life on the road. In their early 20´s, they are an inspiration in following your dreams. 

We have taken more Spanish classes and have made friends with Sonia, our teacher, Christian, her husband, and their neighbors Luis and Laura. They are in the process of opening a full-on Spanish Language School and we were one of the first customers. Check out their website by googling Learn Spanish in Villa de Leyva.

I’ve made friends with the butcher and we have not one, not two but three favorite bakeries.

There is a great hike right from town that is a bit longer but similar to Tenderfoot or Sanitas. Good for us and great for Chettie.

A little further out of town is El Infernito. This is a sacred site of the Muisca people. There are stones sunk in the ground similar to the Standing Stones of Stennis or Stonehenge, (or Carhenge?) used to determine seasons and planting schedules. There is a burial site on the property and many, many stone phalluses believed to aid in fertility. The Muisca people called it El Infernito, the Little Hell, but it seemed like heaven to me. ;-)

Camping, Spanish school, butchers, bakers, hiking, sight-seeing…..I know, I know, but what about the van? Did Jim make it into the country with the parts? Is the Beast fixed? Can you continue your trip?

Well, you can imagine we were anxious for Jim to arrive and as we waited we had the idea to have him do a guest blog post of his experience here in Colombia. So, the next post will come from Jim and will give you an idea of what his ten days in Colombia were like, including an in-depth report on the Burley Beast’s open heart surgery complete with pictures.

Stay tuned,

Trish