FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Chocolate Beer And More

The colourful town of Ráquira

Today's breakfast was one of few hotel breakfast that I didn't enjoy. It was passable but only just. It was served cafeteria style except what you got was at the whim of the server. The little Spanish that we had was of little use in this circumstance. We got a taste of Tinto coffee, Colombia's "terrible" coffee. Julio had explained that coffee in Colombia was either excellent or terrible. In the past, the best coffee beans were exported, what was left the locals would prepare simply a-la American percolator style. That says it all really. It was cheap, cheery and accessible to the locals. Now, the "trendy" espresso based coffee is more readily available. I should note though, that the coffee was still drinkable unlike American coffee...

Having breakfast dished out like at camp

My plate. I wasn't given any of the sweet breads!

I got over the disappointment of breakfast and prepared for our 9am pick up to tour the sights surrounding Villa de Leyva. 0900 seemed so civilised! First stop was the Fossil Museum where we visited "El Fossil", a 120 million year old fossil of baby marine reptile, also known as a Kronosaurus. Cue the history lesson on pre-historic Colombia! As ammonites were commonly found in the region, it was commonly used for decorations. From then on, all we saw were ammonites everywhere.

Next stop, Little Hell. “Infiernito”, named by the Spanish because they thought the locals were worshiping the devils, used to be the astronomical observatory of the Muiscas. Unfortunately only a small area was preserved and so our visit was lighting quick! We moved on to Convento del Santo Ecce Homo, founded by the Dominicans in 1620, who were brought in to aid in the evangelisation of the Indigenous communities. The only good that came out of the period was that the Dominicans studied and documented what they learnt about the Muiscas, including aspects of their language and their social structure. Much of what is now known of the Muiscas is based on the records kept by the Dominicans.

Kronosaurus

What the marine reptile would have looked like back in the day

Ammonites. So common in the area they are used as decorations

Ancestors of the modern squid. This was what they looked like when alive

The open air Infiernito

Colombian stonehenge on a mini scale

This tomb contained remains dated to 1000BC. The Muiscas only arrived in the area arond 800AD. Hmmm. The theory was that the Muiscas repurposed the stones left behind by this ancient civilisation

Yes there were big penises everywhere. The sign of male power of the sun, they prayed to them for a good harvest and for fertility

Convento del Santo Ecce Homo

Um...ammonites on the floor

Much of the monastery was still the OG

Only 12 friars lived here at the time

The saint that did bad things to the Jews...

Refectory

Roughly translates to "eat so that you are always hungry" - so not Asian

Living quarters

The altar all decked out for Christmas. Looked so wrong...

I wondered why the dogs everywhere and learnt that Dominican came from the play on the latin words domini cani which translates to dogs of the Lord. This was how they saw themselves. Loyal to God and doing his work.

The last stop was the vividly colourful village of Ráquira, the pottery capital of Colombia. It was more or less a single street town lined with shops selling Colombian handicrafts. If my parents were here, we would have well exceeded our allocated 30 minutes of free time. We took the opportunity to purchase ruanas. We called it a poncho and was duly corrected...A ruana is a poncho-style outer garment native to the Colombian and Venezuelan Andes. The ruana is the characteristic and traditional garment of Boyacá so it is fitting to get some here!

We farewelled Julio and Andreas. Tomorrow we would be picked up by a driver who would transport us to Barichara, and from there we would have a new guide. Julio has been great. He is friendly, professional and I love the way he tells the stories. His English was excellent! With our free time in the afternoon, we grabbed lunch, shopped and then braved the chocolate beer at the Chocolate museum. The verdict...not as bad as expected but too sweet.

Tiny town of Ráquira

Masters of clay pottery. Look at the cute miniature nativity scene

Theme of the day!

My matching water bottle

Even dogs wear ruana

One of the many ruanas that we bought

It is lunch time!

As always there was a garden area

Dog was on the menu?!?

Oh... a menu for dogs! Moose would love this!

The novelty drinks continue. Feijoa and ginger lemonade, coconut lemonade and pineapple lemonade

Fish

Cheese of some sort. I forgot to take a photo of the menu!

Browsing in the store of the chocolate museum

It was a little creepy

We seemingly spent most of our time taking selfies

We passed on the Milhojas (Colombianmille-feuille with dulce de leche) as we were so full

You can buy chocolate beer in a bottle

or in draught form

The safer chocolate milkshake. It was more chocolate very thickshake

Chocolate beer

Dinner was at the highly rated Mercado Municipal, and our favourite meal so far. The beef was amazing. Cooked underground for 10 hours, the meat of melt in your mouth tender, the sauce was full of flavour and the rice tasty. An Asian liking your rice has to be the best compliment ever! The guacamole was unusual with chips that are NOT your typical corn chips. Best of all, after we finished, we only had to walk across the road to get to our hotel!

So far we had been pleasantly surprised by the food scene in Colombia. Not only have our meals been tasty but they have been well priced. Restaurants with relaxing ambience, generously portioned serving sizes and massive glasses of drinks make happy Albanys!