the trip

The first thing I neglected to remember was that some Latin American countries continue to keep siesta which means everyone is civilized and leaves for lunch. Unfortunately that meant waiting 45 minutes on  street in bogota for a woman to come back and sell me a camera battery charger which I had forgotten at home in our last minute packing before the airport.

After making the purchase where nikon requires not just your date of birth, blood type and ancestral history (provided by a wonder colombian women who was fluent in English and gave the woman her information just to speed things up) we were on our way to the bus station.

As c noted the bus station store are odd selling cans of tuna and hot dogs along with never ending rows of sweet cakes, breads and cookies,  plus beer.
upon boarding the bus I noted the front panels behind the driver which sported full length pictures of some aquatic themed Virgin Mary and on the right Jesus in heaven watching over the planet from outer space .

I for one was glad to be included in his presumed care.

Two terrifying Latin American bus driver hours later (4 hour ride only ha,f frightening) we were in villa de leyva. A 500 year old colonial town of Terra cotta roofs and cobblestone streets.

We wandered the streets today petting the ubiquitous mascotos (dogs -pets) that are very well cared for and run this town.

People here love dogs and the dogs have free rein of the city.

A hot day high in the Andes surrounded by mountains which having been a prehistoric sea floor risen high by tectonic action, release a bounty of priceless fossils and dinosaur bones. So common are the fossils that the quarried rock which built the town in the 1500 and 1600s, from walls to steps feature gobs of anomites, Cambrian sea life, plants and creatures extinct for millions of years.

A brief period of weirdness when eight colombian soldiers walked into town in full fatigues, helmets and sporting M-16s on full fire mode watching the low roofs around them spread out on patrol.  They took up guard in front of the town hall and stopped and searched anyone driving by, guns ready to shoot.

An hour later they disappeared into thin air it seems as a massive dark thunder head system crept up slowly up, over and down the mountains surrounding the town.

We ran to a cafe, one if many that surrounds the colonial square: plaza mejor.

The heavens broke and 2 hours of torrential rain fell from behind while the sun shone in front.

A colombian insisted on taking cell photos of his friends, a couple kissing in front of the historic fountain in mid square while the rain pelted so hard on the cobblestone it created mists as it was thrown back up.

The best: two turistas, I guess Germans by their clothes,  both in rubber sport sandals and indigo cotton shorts trying to race across the enormous cobblestone plaza without slipping or breaking an ankle; their quest to avoid getting soaked but it was too late by that time.

They were unfortunately followed and circled by one of the town dogs, a large golden retriever who got it into her head that they were playing a game with her.

Watch them turn and pirouette like football players as she tries to inercept and jump on them, sporting that huge innocent happy dog smile.

See them leap over the rivers that flow through the cobblestone plaza which has cut channels for the rain.

Did they make it to shelter at the Banque de Agricultural de Colombia on the far side?

The rain was too heavy then for me to see.