Following Our Hearts Instead of Our Minds, Villa de Leyva
There is a pull to continue in a direction over doing what one wants, a road fever of sorts. We have met many who suffer greatly from its woes. The idea of having to leave or never driving in the opposite direction. It is more a condition than conditional, definitely derived from conditioning. A quest for completion, the will over the want, an imposed imaginary itinerary driven from the fear of the thoughts of others if one doesn't meet what they formerly proposed.
Or, as we more pointedly put it recently: Many move incessantly, determinedly undetermined. A false exhilaration, more falsely portrayed, fueled by the adoration of the ignorant and despondent. Detached yet engaged, incorrectly imagined, a perpetuated lie. We pity the fool(s).
Many inaccurately portray their travels on social media, becoming slaves to post performance, sacrificing their honesty, their travels, and themselves in a downward spiral. They have lost their hearts to what they suppose.
What We Did
Villa de Leyva
Our plan was to bed down for the holidays before resuming our drive south. Since Salento wasn't exactly the place we were looking for we drove back to Villa de Leyva, it is our favorite after all. The road in front of Mi Refugio was still not finished so we settled for Renacer. At 18,000 per person ($6), it was sufficient but we really didn't like being outside of town. Over our 11 night stay we meet a few overlanders, getting a nice surprise of running back into Josef & Monika whom we first met in Costa Rica on a quetzal hike, making for some great times.
During our stay at Renacer we made several visits to Mi Refugio, having coffee and pastries with Diana and Santiago, it becoming apparent that the road wouldn't open anytime soon (it finally did Dec. 29th). In a lucky twist we also became friends with another great couple, Juan & Mariev, who insisted we move to their yard and stop paying the crazy campground fees. What we assumed to be a few days turned into over a month with us helping to house and pet sit while they attended to personal matters requiring trips to Bogota. They even looked into us getting our residency, which we might pursue one day. Recently we saw an advertisement that said coffee was the heart of Colombia. Nope, the Colombian people are much more exquisite than their fabulous coffee.
What do we have to show for our almost two month stay? Not much but a few extra pounds and an extension to our family. Our hearts are full of love, a debt we hope we fulfilled in return. We also managed to make several new friends from the road, finally getting to meet Juergen & Yasha and Kirsi & Jack, spending Christmas Day and New Years Day respectively. While we failed to get pictures of everyone, in order of appearance:
- Gabriella & Sandro
- Liz & Tim
- Felipe & Gabi
- Josef & Monika
- Juergen & Yasha
- Kirsi & Jack
- Cristina & Jose
The Cars
Wandering the streets of a town eventually reveals much about its people, nice 4WDs are definitely something appreciated in Villa de Leyva and there are more Land Rovers than we'd like to admit. When we happened upon a nice specimen we usually snapped a photo, mostly with our iPhone so the quality is just OK. On a couple occasions we stumbled across restored classic cars, its not all 4x4s even though that is our current taste.
Raquira
The only excursion we managed, actually Juan & Mariev took us, was to Raquira, a neighboring town that specializes in pottery. It was a wonderful afternoon spent perusing the wares and getting to know our hosts better. Mariev's mom, we too call her mami, came along. We are going to miss them all very much.
Honorable Mentions
While we don't list every place and thing we do there are some that stick in our minds. Weeks later we catch ourselves mentioning them to others or just savoring the memory of the exquisite cuisine we consumed. Here are a few standouts.
Amore Mio
Our backup spot for breakfast, their bacon and chicken quiches were phenomenal and only 10,000 ($3.33). We only visited a few times as their hours are erratic but worth it when we caught them open.
Sybarita
The coffee doctors, serving what has become our favorite brand in all of Colombia, also served at Montserrat. There are many different methods of brewing, we tried three with Kirsi (Jack doesn't drink coffee because he's a canine) and they all were lovely. Our favorite is the Cauca, it's strong, but every flavor available did not disappoint. A pound is 25,000 ($8.33) and a grande cappuccino 5,000 ($1.66).
Chez Remy
French cuisine that is very tasty. We only visited twice but the ham and bacon tartaflette was fantastic, 25,500 ($8.50). Our intention was to try more of their dishes but our other favorite restaurants in town sort of got in the way.
Chocolatte
Hand made chocolate, not much else needs to be said. If you like the real stuff, this is the place. Bars run 12,000 ($4) and are nice and thick. Probably the second best chocolate of the trip, Ixcacao in Belize easily holding first place.
While we prefer slow, we don't expect everyone else to. A theme over the past 6 months has been a weary Overland couple arrives in camp, complains about how tired they are, states they wished they could stay longer, posts an Instagram to the contrary, and disappears the next day to trudge further along the PanAm. We always encourage them to take a couple zero days or to just listen to themselves. Even when presented with the fact that they don't have to leave, their trip can be anything they make it, they don't change and just continue along just like the grind of an unwanted job. It's disheartening, we feel for them but we've been unable to alter the mentality. Now we catch ourselves being disinterested and not wanting to even meet any one nighters, a response we never expected. We like to help others, same as you and Jenna, I guess we're just tired of saying the same thing over and over while being ignored.
Where are we now
Look Rock, TN
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