3rd Stop: Villa de Leyva

We arrived in Villa de Leyva at 18:00 Colombian time, which means we arrived at 21:00 local time. The concept of Colombian time has little to do with local time. If a Colombian tells you a bus will come in an hour, it will probably come in two hours.

The bus was supposed to leave at 14:15 and we were supposed to arrive at 18:00, but the people at the bus station said it would come at 15:00. It actually arrived around 16:00.

We can't be mad at them for that. It's just a different attitude towards punctuality, one that is probably healthier than ours. Plus, it's hard to have less stress than a vacationing student!

The hostel where we stayed for 2 nights was run by a Uruguayan representing his traveling friends from around the world. It had a hostel dog and was being decorated with graffiti in exchange for free accommodation. A very nice atmosphere indeed. After exploring all the tourist stuff on the first day (especially blue lakes where swimming is not allowed; a museum about the local fossils), we weren't exactly blown away.

Thankfully, things got a lot more interesting afterwards. In the evening, we played Tejo. In this Colombian sport, you throw a ball at a clay board, aiming for the center. Sounds boring, but it wasn't!

The next morning, we had to wake up early and go hiking! 8 hours! I never thought I would say this about hiking, but it was one of the highlights so far. On the way to the lake at the summit, we passed through various types of vegetation, from almost Austrian to tropical and even Paramo, a habitat with strangely-looking plants!

As we were walking down the mountain to catch the last bus, which arrived half an hour late anyway and was packed with 18 people instead of the 10 intended, we were still extremely impressed with what we had seen there.

That same evening, we took the bus towards San Gil!