I rarely find it hard to leave in the morning, but this morning began with me wishing we’d had more time in Villa de Leyva.  We had some breakfast at the hotel after ordering the “Santa Maria” breakfast without having any clue what that was, and it turned out to be some kind of soup with fried eggs and cilantro and bread.  Not my favorite of all time.  But the place we stayed was so interesting, and maybe just a little bit creepy when you walked into a few of the other rooms…

Very cool chocolate shop in town. Smelled amazing.

Yea, definitely crossed over the line of creepy.

The little prayer room inside our hotel.

Breakfast soup. Who knew.

The living room / library of our hotel.

Breakfast.

A pleasant morning stroll to try the local coffee and were attacked by the love-filled puppy.  Then we road the cobblestoned streets to get gas, and we were off.  Immediately, we recognized that the riding would be different today – tighter road, even more twisties if that’s possible, and a little construction and some tastes of some dirt.  But there was not a lot of truck traffic, so we were able to cruise a bit more, but still, 185 k still took us almost 5 hours with one stop for more coffee which was actually cinnamon flavored.

This puppy was the best.

Forget the little guy’s name, but he made our coffee.

Our morning scenery

Morning ride scenery

Getting the ride started.

The one eventful moment happened about an hour in.  I was leading just in front of Gio, and a truck came inside a turn too tight, and I was forced way over to the right so far that my bag scraped on the edge of the hill we were up against.  Somehow I stayed out of the gully formed by prior truck wheels.  I asked Gio how close that was, and he said he didn’t know because he was too busy trying to avoid it too.  Other than that really smooth riding.

We also so something happening on the side of the road at a truckers stop – three guys were forcefully carrying another guy who appeared to be fighting pretty violently.  Another guy in one of the trucks appeared to be laughing a little about it, so we determined it to be either a fraternity hazing, a kidnapping or a murder.  These things are so hard to tell.  Probably just giving the guy a swirly on his birthday, and he was having such a good hair day.  Still, it was kinda odd to see, but not really something we felt the need to step into…

I may or may have not had an orange thrown at me.  I mean, an orange did jump out of a truck and fall in front of me, but we didn’t actually see someone throw it, so maybe it fell?

We went through at least a dozen towns and cities today, and it’s always surprising to come upon them since they really pop up out of nowhere, and then they’re gone again.  Zero gringos around, and they’re simply filled with people going about their lives.  It’s really eye opening though to realize just how big the world is and just how many cities are out there filled with people. Or maybe that’s just my reaction.

One thing to be aware of in Colombia – the showers are unlike showers anywhere else.  In Baja, Mexico, the water pressure would take paint off walls, and I was nutted on several occasions, and I nearly took a knee.  In Colombia, it’s all about the BUCKETS of water.  Gio was convinced he took a 70 gallon shower today.  I nearly drowned.  Bring a snorkel.

So, we landed in Barachia, and our AMAZING hotel that according to Booking.com was right downtown, was actually over 3 miles outside of downtown.  We had to explain to the owners / managers who knew no English why it was not going to work for us, and they were super nice and let us cancel on Booking.com’s website.  So off we went downtown to find a place.  We headed to the main square and grabbed a bench, tapped into my hotspot and found a new hotel right downtown. It was great – nice pool and peaceful surrounding with very basic rooms.  Great for tonight – I’m knackered.  Never used that word before.  Not sure how I feel about it.

A walk into town and a quick Trip Advisor search led us to Shanti, and wow.  Honestly, maybe it’s because of what I do for a living, but I don’t rave about places that often, but this place was rave worth.  Only 4 tables to the place, but the food was spectacular.  You pick your base (a pita, pasta, or quinoa) then a flavor (Indian curry, tomato and two others that I forget) then add-ons like mushrooms and seafood and avacado among others.  We started with a ceviches of avocado, shrimp and mushrooms and each had two fresh juices make from fruit I mostly can’t pronounce.  Super fresh and just completely amazing.  Super nice people too.

Then some ice cream cones and back to the hotel to suffer through the slowest wife of all time.  Amazing that that’s where we are now – just infuriate that we can’t get on the internet in the Colombian backcountry.  I think we’ll live, but I apologize the millions of readers awaiting our next post.

Early bed tonight – big day of dirt riding tomorrow on the way to Bucaramanga.  We’re not sure where we’re going to stay tomorrow night yet, but somewhere around there.  Short post –  the internet here is INSANELY slow.