Our routing: Bogotá – Villa de Leyva – Bogotá – Neiva – Tierradentro – San Agustin – Popayan – Armenia – Pereira – Honda – Bogotá.
Here we go ... we have got some of our impressions from the trip:
In Villa de Leyva we visited the so-called „Casa de Terracotta“, that is completely built of clay. For the whole construccion they needed about 15 years.
„El Fossil“ was another stop on our tour. The 9-10 meter long „Cronosaurus“ was found in the year 1977 in the surroundings of Villa de Leyva. The impressive proof of the existence of an ocean millions of years ago.
On our way back to Bogotá we passed the „Puente de Boyaca“, one of the most prominent locations of South America on its way to independence. Here, on August 7th 1819, the national hero Simon Bolivar fought the crucial Battle, that evened the way to independence.
In the Central Andes Monuntain range we stopped in Tierradentro. In the archeological park you can find the remains of the Tierradentro-culture. Typical for the culture is the until 5 meters deep shaft graves.
The „Estecho del Magdalena“, separates the Central from the Eastern Mountain Range. At this point you can jump from the Eastern to Central Mountain range. The origin of the Magdalena River is 65 km away from this point.
During a visit of San Agustin you can´t miss the archeological parks of the region, once the homeland of the San-Agustin-culture, that colonized the surroundings of San Agustin between the 1st century BD to the 16th century DC.
The 170 m deep waterfall „Salto de Mortiño“ is just a few minutes away from San Agustin.
On our way to the Coffee Region we visited some Coffee Finca Hotels and made a stop in the Cocora Valley. Great to see the 60 meters high „Palma de cera“, the Colombian national tree.
Back in Bogotá we climbed up to the top of the Monserrate Hill, one of the most important places for religious tourism in Colombia and a great view point.