Barichara and Villa de Leyva

There no early start Wednesday as it was a free day to explore San Gil and the surrounding areas. San Gil is a small town in the Yariguíes Mountains of eastern Colombia, founded in 1689. During the build-up to Colombian independence, the town was an important gathering point for many native people from surrounding areas who would then march on Bogotá. Now it is famous as being the adventure capital of the region, and there are several outdoor activities available for visitors such as rafting, hiking and caving.

Due to the thunderstorms the night before the rafting was cancelled, although when waking up I didn't feel great. Like a few other people I've had diarrhoea for a while and I had stomach pains that morning. Instead I decided to go hiking instead as I didn't want to do some of the adrenaline activities some people did like bungee jumping and caving. After breakfast a few of us headed to the village of Barichara, catching the bus about 5 minutes from our campsite. It was very slippery underfoot!

The bus journey was about half hour. Barichara itself it's known for its cobbled streets and old colonial buildings. It was very interesting walking round the streets and exploring the churches. I also got some antibiotics here to try and sort my body out, although I have been banned from drinking for a few days. There was a scare at one point though because a bomb went off and shortly after police and all sorts arrived at the scene. There was then smoke billowing from this window and the whole village decended to the square. It wasn't until afterwards we were told it was training exercise.

After exploring the village, we went to this cafe where I had a lovely cake, before setting of on a hike with a few others to the village of Guane along the Camino Real. This basically followed an old cobbled road through the valley of the hills and it was a very nice walk. It took about two hours to get to Guane where we had lunch which we had prepared before going out. After exploring the small village we caught the bus back to the campsite, arriving back at about 4.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, although I did try one of the campsites outdoor natural showers which was interesting. The campsite was very eco friendly including dry toilets too! The owner who was English was very passionate though and gave us lots of information. Come evening we had a special vegetarian Indian buffet made for us by the family who run the campsite. This was for 45 people though as a second dragoman truck arrived in the evening heading in the opposite direction. It was a very nice meal with 6 different curries, and poppadoms with an array of chutneys. I had an early night as well.

Thursday morning was an early start, waking up before 6 to put my tent down and have breakfast ready for the drive to Villa de Leyva. We arrived at about lunchtime, and went straight out for lunch where I shared at pizza with someone, before getting a guided tour of the old colonial town. With cobbled streets and set beneath some hills, we were now at about 2200m above sea level. The guided tour was very interesting although I couldn't really understand what our guide was saying. We still managed to have fun though.

After exploring the town we headed to our campsite just outside the town, where I relaxed in a hammock after setting up camp. Dinner was chicken and mushroom pasta which was nice. Apparently I'm cooking on the 29th although we're in groups so it should be alright. Luckily at our campsite there was wifi so it was nice and relaxing evening, although most people went for an early night.