Villa de Leyva

Day 57 (August 24, 2018) – Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Colombia is full of surprises. We travelled from Bogotá to Villa de Leyva, about 3-4 hours northeast by bus. We chose to stop there to help break up the long trip to El Cocuy National Park, but Villa de Leyva was also supposed to be a very picturesque colonial town worth a visit.

A typical street corner in Villa de Leyva.

When we got off the bus I couldn’t believe how different Villa de Leyva was from Bogotá. It was like being sent back in time to the old west. The city is in a beautiful valley, right at the base of mountains. A grid of cobblestone streets divides the buildings, which are all painted white with red and brown tiled roofs. It reminded us of Antigua, but unlike Antigua’s mix and match rustic style, Villa de Leyva seemed like a polished painting. Every street corner, building, and plant seemed to match one another and all wanted their pictures taken.

Plaza Mayor.

At the center of town is Plaza Mayor, an enormous open plaza lined with beautiful white buildings and plenty of room to see the sky and surrounding mountains. There are a few restaurants along the plaza where you can sit and people watch. A favorite pastime of the kids there, and some adults too, is flying kites. The strong breeze coming down the mountain sweeps past the plaza and there are usually 4-5 kites in the air way above the plaza rooftops at any given time.

A video from Plaza Mayor in the afternoon, with kids flying kites and a few people out for a stroll. 

Villa de Leyva was so beautiful and relaxing it was hard to leave. There isn’t much to do in the town itself except to walk the streets, grab an afternoon coffee, and take in the scenery. Some of the restaurants we went to were phenomenal, being perhaps some of the best meals we’ve had yet in Colombia. Many offer a menu del día (menu of the day) for as little as $4 and consists of a 3-4 course meal with soup, salad, protein of your choice, veggies, a starch (plantains, potatoes, and/or rice) and a beverage, usually some kind of homemade fruit juice. Simply amazing.

From one of our hikes up to the surrounding hillsides. Villa de Leyva is in the background.

We spent some time hiking the surrounding mountains, walking past streams and waterfalls up to viewpoints of the city where you can get a birds-eye view of the landscape. Looking down on the town we kept thinking that we were in Italy with the red-tiled roof buildings dotting the hills. Who would have thought this was in Colombia?

View from the top of our second hike, looking down on the town.

I used to think that all of the best travel destinations were swarming with tourists, like they went hand in hand. There is a reason places attract many visitors – they are usually stunning and worth spending the time and energy to travel to. It wasn’t until visiting Villa de Leyva that we realized there are still undiscovered gems in the world. This city should be packed with tourists from all over the world to take in the spectacular scenery and frozen-in-time Spanish colonial architecture. Yet the entire time we were there I think I only picked out 3 or 4 visitors, at most, who spoke English. The city does have a lot of tourism, but they are mostly folks from Bogotá coming up for the weekend, or others from nearby Spanish-speaking countries who, at least to my ear, blend in with the locals. Villa de Leyva is worth traveling halfway across the world to see and it can’t possibly stay a secret forever.