de Leyva
Villa de Leyva is one of those exceptionally nice places. There is really no better word to describe it other than “nice.” Nice view. Nice little bakeries and coffee shops. Nice people. Nice dogs. Nice architecture.
Colombia in general seems to have a large number of vintage cars driving around. The workhorses like old Ford and Chevy trucks are everywhere and still doing their jobs. If it was made to be rugged, it is still in service in Colombia.
Renault have always been assembled here and the tiny older models are ubiquitous. Everyone has one. It’s the Colombian version of The People’s Car.
If you like Land Rovers and Land Cruisers, you can find every vintage here as well… at least in the mountains. We noticed this was also true in the mountains of Costa Rica. These cars head up into the mountains and stay there.
Saturday is the big market day and all the folks from the countryside come in to sell their veggies, blood sausage, farmer hats, whatever. It’s definitely the social event of the week as well, and everyone seems to spend the day with a beer in one hand and chorizo in the other.
We always admired the old pick-ups and large chrome adored 50s – 70s trucks in Colombia. The real surprise comes when you see them at a mechanic’s workshop or at a service station – with their bonnet (hood in US English) up: most have been converted to modern engines with turbo charger and the lot! We’ve seen old Ford and Chevy trucks with late-model Isuzu, Cummings and Kia Diesel engines, all fitted to the original gearbox. That’s why they pull up fairly fast the Colombian mountain roads.
Glad you enjoy Villa de Leyva – we visited twice!
i’d like more pictures of markets please ; )