Flashing Lights

We pulled out of Tunja at about 9:30 on a big green, Chinese-made Libertadores bus with attendant and toilet, and almost immediately came to a complete stop on the expressway south to Bogota. Strange, no traffic coming the other way.

Looking ahead I saw that all south-bound traffic was queued up behind two official looking vehicles with flashing lights on top, one in each lane. None of the other passengers seemed concerned and most kept their eyes on the Jackie Chan movie playing on the front video screen.

After 5 minutes or so we began to move, and for the next 5 miles or so made good time, all the while staying behind the 2 vehicles with flashing lights. But still no north-bound traffic on the other side on the median. Hmmn. And lots of police at intersections. I started to worry and wonder. Was this a convey to go around some road construction or avalanche? Were we caught behind the motorcade of some high-ranking government official or visiting foreign dignitaries? Were we being escorted through an area of guerrilla activity?

No, no, and no. Turns out our bus was caught behind the rolling road closure for Stage 4 of the Clásico RCN bike race. It began to make sense as the miles rolled on. The policemen were there to control traffic. The locals on side of the road were spectators. The many bicyclists we saw were also out to watch and in many cases "follow" the race. And the aha moment was when, ahead in the distance, I saw a team car with bicycles on top.

Unfortunately, we could not see any of the race as we were behind the last placed riders. And we were traveling at about 20 mph, occasionally coming to a complete stop, making a slow trip to Bogota.

Fortunately, the bus was not rerouted and we got off as planned at the Portal del Norte station of the Bogota TransMilenio bus rapid transit (BRT) system and were snug in a hotel by 3:00 PM.

View of red TransMilenio buses from our hotel window.

Tunja is cold

We are in Tunja, 9200 feet above sea level, on a plateau. Unlike the previous towns, it is not surrounded by mountains. It is a very vibrant city and has some of the oldest (second half of 16th century) houses and churches on the continent.

At 9200 feet and 5 degrees north it is hot in the sun, but the mornings and evenings are fairly cool. People are dressed in every which way, from short sleeve t-shirts, to woolen ponchos, to winter coats. Ladies wear sandals in bare feet to knee high boots and everything in between.

Now that I had a taste of Tunja, I can just see I will want to buy some warmer clothes (maybe a hair dryer) later in Bolivia, maybe even in Peru. I do have a little headache today. We are going down 600-700 feet to Bogota tomorrow. Maybe my headache will go away.

Plaza Bolivar.


Street scene.


Casa del Fundador (House of the Founder). Built in 1540.


Casa del Don Juan de Vargas. Built in the late 16th century.


Statue of the Virgin del Rosario in a side chapel of Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman. Construction started in 1559.

I am amazed by the weather in VDL

Villa de Leyva is at 5.6 degrees North and 7200 feet above sea level. For reference, the highest point on the east coast, Mount Michell is just under 7000 feet. We are both doing well with the altitude, no headaches or sleepless nights. The only problem I have is when we go hiking up the hills, our "family mule" has to haul the pack the whole way up.

What took me by surprise is how cool the weather is here, considering close we are to the equator. Daytime high is around 70. We are wearing our fleece jackets in the mornings and evenings. At night we sleep under a heavy blanket. In fact, on the third day the maid added a second blanket on the bed. We were not too hot.

Tomorrow we are going to Tunja, another 1700 feet higher, 38 km away. I hope we don't freeze. Stay tuned.

The Family Mule taking a break on the old road to Tunja.

We don't know how we will continue

We are scheduled to go into Ecuador in less than three weeks. With the latest unrest in Ecuador, the Colombia/Ecuador border has been closed, not that we want to get into Ecuador in a hurry. We should just be glad that we are not already there.

Villa de Leyva is all right

Continuing on the trail of colonial towns of Colombia, we are now in Villa de Leyva. It is supposed to be the most touristy town in all of Colombia, as it is only 3 to 4 hours from Bogota. We arrived on a Monday as to miss the majority of weekend visitors.

As we walked in from the bus station, we found the town to be fairly lively with local people, not too many tourists. When we reached the central plaza, its enormous size was obscured by the fact there was a movie shoot in progress with a cast of hundreds of soldiers, peasants, gentlemen, and ladies. It seems that everyone in town is either, a local, a tourist, or an actor.

To us, Villa de Leyva is not very touristy at all. Colombia, in spite of her natural beauty, charming colonial towns, the most amiable people, is a very lighted touristed country.

Plaza Mayor


Plaza Mayor with soldiers. Main movie set is in background.