Josie's Choice

Already in Villa de Leyva, we woke up to a beautiful morning. After the breakfast all were eager to see the scenery of this amazing landscape, get to know the region a bit better and get some excercise so we decided to rent bikes.

Villa de Leyva offers plenty of things to do from prehistoric fossils and dinosaur parks to star gazing in an old astronomic observatory, visiting ostriche farms, vineyards and aweing waterfalls.

The town is located in drier climate in a high altitude valley at 2,144 m where fossils from the Mesozoic and the Cretaceous era can still be found.

Many of these attractions can be found along one street. As the first stop after 3 km are these Pozos Azules, turquoise coloured, round and deep yet artificial ponds in the midst of desert.

The colour derives from the sulphur in the ground and no animal survives in the water. The locals aim to preserve the ponds as they are so for example swimming is not allowed.

The bike ride continued. We turned from the main road to a more rural street which took us to the ostrich farm.

As soon as we arrived, we got to see the male ostriches in action. As we were listening the guide telling us about raising ostriches, one lady ostrich came wondering about the premises free from her cage. The caretakers captured her and brought her back to her corral but the black and white males were already defending her honour (or fighting for her).

Ostrich is a fascinating animal.
They are flightless birds native to Africa, farmed around the world, particularly for its feathers. Additionally, its skin is used for leather products and its meat is marketed commercially.

Some interesting facts we learned about ostriches:

They are able to run at maximum speed of about 70 km/h, which is the fastest land speed of any bird.
"The ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird."
"The female ostrich lays her fertilized eggs in a single communal nest, a simple pit, 30–60 cm deep and 3 m wide, scraped in the ground by the male. The dominant female lays her eggs first, and when it is time to cover them for incubation she discards extra eggs from the weaker females, leaving about 20 in most cases."

They have very acute eyesight and hearing.

Before entering the gated area, the caretakers were warning us to put away all shiny jewellery as the ostriches are keen on all things shiny and are known to collect them as they please, as opposed to magpies.

"The long neck and legs keep their head up to 2.8 m above the ground, and their eyes are said to be the largest of any land vertebrate – 50 mm in diameter; they can therefore perceive predators at a great distance. The eyes are shaded from sun light falling from above."

"Ostriches usually weigh from 63 to 145 kilograms."

"However, the head and bill are relatively small for the birds' huge size, with the latter measuring 12 to 14.3 cm."

"The bird has just two toes on each foot (most birds have four), with the nail on the larger, inner toe resembling a hoof. The outer toe has no nail. The reduced number of toes is an adaptation that appears to aid in running."

According to the ostrich farm's caretakers it is a relic from the prehistoric times of dinosaurs. The walk of ostriches resembles that of Heidi Klum, Miranda Kerr, Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell on the catwalk - sensual and seductive.

There were also other animals on the farm:

Llamas.

Ponies of local breed.

Goats.

(And buffalos, of which I have no pictures.)

The talk about ostrich and buffalo meat made the guys hungry so we decided to have lunch before continuing our journey.

While we were waiting for the lunch, the guys got their artistic side out.

The guys chose buffalo meat and ostriche burger for lunch, as we girls settled for more vegetarian meals of fish and salad.

Bye bye wonderfully weird birdies. Our trip must continue!

Back in town!

After a lovely albeit tranquil evening of jacuzzi (in the previous post) and wining and dining, the next morning we got up well rested and ready for new adventures!

Direction: Bogotá - with a few pitstops... Who can guess what they were?

Quotes

If you want to see the typical Colombian lifestyle and not that of an eight-million people metropolis, go to any little town outside of Bogotá.

We chose Villa de Leyva. Villa de Leyva is well known among locals, it is the town where the busy bogotanos escape on the weekends.

The town is historic, cultural and religious treasure only 3 hours drive away from the country's capital. Founded in 1572, it is a preserved colonial city with a huge central plaza.

In addition to the church, the true heart and soul of the locals can be seen and felt at the market place on weekends.

Typically it is a cobblestone square that is filled by people, fruits, stands, baskets, shoes, meat - anything worthy of selling, usually what can be produced by oneself.

There the local farmers bring their products and get drunk, the villagers exchange weekly news and gossip, buy groceries, and where the tourists take pictures and wonder "what on earth".

Perhaps the social nature of the latinos can be explained with the fact that they take children with anywhere they go. No matter the age, children come along. As soon as they are old enough to understand, they are also old enough to help with work.

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On the weekends also the town square, the main plaza fills with people who have nothing better to do. They fly the kite, meet with relatives, share some chit-chat; just get together and socialize.