Villa de Leyva, Once Again.

It had been four years since we'd been there. Villa de Leyva, though increasingly touristy, still holds a very special place in our hearts. A beautiful small town with colonial architectual style it is hard not to recognize it's splendor.  Trying to keep the weekend crowd as far out of the picture as possible we opted to head there during the week. For added good measure we also booked a place outside of town (a first for us). The set up could not have been better... a wonderful house with lots of natural light indoors and a whole lot of space outdoors. 

Those who've been to Villa de Leyva will know that the light there - especially on clear days - is simply perfect. This house allowed us to enjoy it to the maximum as it was set at an angle to the mountainside, giving us panoramic views to nothing but color, mountains and clouds. The night time was even more spectacular as the dark seemed to jump out at us, revealing a sky full of millions of specks of beautiful light, traveling through the universe to reach us. We sat and marveled at both the darkness and the light. Wow!

And then there was the simplicity of it. When one is in a great place there is little motivation to leave. And so it was that, largely due to the house itself, we enjoy your breakfasts, took our time out in the hammock, discovered flowers, bugs, toads and chickens in the garden. It was one of those "it's so nice here that we might as well stay" kind of places. Of course we did roam a bit - notably into town and over to Raquira (known for its ceramics, hammocks and colorful houses along the main street) - but we happily returned home, to "Rosita's place". 

But what gave it just that little more powerful experience was our chance to talk to Orlando, Liseth (the caretakers) and their daughter, Angie. On our last day there Angie had the day off (it was Colombian independence day) and so she and our girls chatted away as they swayed on the hammock overlooking the mountains, played and laughed, went to visit the place where the chickens lay their eggs. They got along so well!  

By the time we left we knew we would have loved staying a bit longer. But time was short and Bogota was calling. For Scott, Rebecca and Lizzie there was a lot to discover still. For us, there was lots to show them!