Colombia’s Colourful Towns

Colombia’s Colourful Towns

Colombia has a number of beautifully preserved historical towns. We visited Jardin back in February and then went on to visit Doradal (Santorini) after leaving Guatape and then Barichara, Villa de Leyva and and Monpox after leaving Bogotá. They are all quite remote and getting to them involves narrow roads, and once there, it’s nearly always impossible to enter the towns in Big Bertha (although we did cross through Barichara to get to our camp spot).

Doradal

Doradal is Colombia’s version of Santorini in Greece. It is a small area of a larger nondescript main town. We enjoyed a walk around the ‘town’ and a homemade ice-cream.

Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva is quite a large town and we managed to park just outside at the football stadium parking and alongside fellow overlanders Michi and Andy from Germany. We visited the town with its very large central square. Many fossils have been discovered in the area around the Magdalena River, but this was the first time we had actually seen ammonites used in the construction of the roads and the walls of buildings. The next day we all visited a terracotta house, built by a local architect/artist. Everything was made from local clay – walls, tables, seats – even the beds. The owner kept having curious people turn up on his doorstep asking about the house, so in the end he decided that he might as well open it to the public as a tourist attraction. Kids would love (and we did too!) the narrow passageways and the countless places to hide. We would hate to clean it though!

Barichara

Barichara is definitely one of the more picturesque towns – and is much visited. We found a very appealing camp-spot on our iOverlander app on the far side of town, which meant we had to drive through town to reach it. Luckily it was early morning and there was not much fuss. Leaving was the opposite – because of the one way system, we had to negotiate some very narrow roads and turns.

Whilst there, we visited a paper making workshop and walked the ancient Camino Real to the nearby town of Guane, had breakfast and returned by bus.

Mompox

This town is inland, but is almost at sea-level and is almost unbearably hot. Consequently, it comes alive at night when the sun has gone down. We visited during holy week (Semana Santa) and there was a religious procession where a statute of Christ is carried from one church to another accompanied by a band and pilgrims. It was quite something! We had a quick look around the next morning and headed off before it go too hot again.