Monday, April 4, 2016

Semana Santa

Semana Santa: the last long vacation of the school year.  Becky and I had planned on some high-altitude hiking in the Cocuy region, but due to strikes, the park was shut down.  The Friday of our trip, we quickly changed our plans and decided to pretty much wing it.

Our first night was spent in Bogota before taking a bus to Villa de Leyva the following day.  Kerri and I had stopped in this quaint town seven years ago, and it was, and still is, one of my favorite places in Colombia.  Cobblestone streets, friendly people, good food, beautiful scenery: there's not much to dislike about the area.

Our first stop: Marques de Villa de Leyva, a vineyard known for its Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet.  Honestly, neither wine was excellent (being the connoisseur that I am), but the the views and overall relaxed feeling made the wines taste that much better.  


There was a thirty-minute wine tour that ended with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.



Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, a meat and cheese platter was the obvious choice of nourishment....with some more wine, of course!



That night, our new friends from the vineyard invited us to the Observatory a half-hour's drive away.  There were six of us crammed into the car taking us to some man's house further up the mountains.  He had a couple of telescopes out, which we were able to view the moon and three of Jupiter's moons, but most of the time, he gave us a tour of his collections: planes, space stuff, aliens, fossils, etc.  He is a guy who wants to share his knowledge, but the ongoing monologue was rather tiring.  If only we had wine during it....


Luckily, we slept extremely well that night and were gung-ho for the next day's hike.

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