Pilgrimage Through the Americas: Kindness of Strangers

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

I arrived in darkness and needed cash. After using an ATM machine, I had a pocket full of money and a credit card. On my way back to the hostel, I took a wrong turn and was lost. It was 10 PM and not knowing the area became concerned it may not be safe. I asked a number of people for directions, all helped, but none knew exactly where the hostel was located. I started to worry I would be robbed. A tall fellow, bigger and badder looking than me, smelling of alcohol quickly came up behind me. We were alone on a dark dead end street. No where to go.

Darkness approaches fast near the equator

I stopped, turned, and started towards him and said, “Por favor” (I’m thinking, please don’t rob me), and showed him the address of the hostel and asked if he know where it was. He responded that he was not familiar with the hostel, but gave me accurate directions to where there was a security guard. He said I should inquire there. He bid me “Good night”, and staggered on his way.

On my way to the security guard, there was loud music coming out of a “bodega” - neighborhood convenient store - with five men sitting and drinking beer out front. I went in and showed the hostel address to the slightly tipsy round man behind the counter. He didn’t recognize the address, but noted the telephone number. He whipped out his cell phone and dialed the number. Isabel, co-owner of the hostel, answered the phone, but couldn’t hear me over the loud salsa music that was playing. I pointed outside to the clerk, he nodded, I went outside and still had a hard time hearing Isabel on the other end. She said she could guess where I’m at because of the loud music and would send her husband, Carlos, to pick me up.

Kind Isabel and Carlos (owners of Hostel El Pozzo), and their girls

Even though it was now 11 PM, Carlos came within five minutes. The “Hostal Campestre El Pozzo” (highly recommend) was three blocks down the street from the bodega. I was relieved.

Entrance to Hostel El Pozzo

Small lagoon at the hostel (my room is lower level, left window)

Finally a Restful Weekend

I’m sitting in a restaurant, front door open, looking out to the main plaza on a Friday night. Live salsa music spills outside from a cocktail lounge. Two well dressed couples are dancing to the music, outdoors in front of the restaurant. The square is full of Colombians from Bogota, who’ve escaped the traffic, air pollution, and hectic pace of the metropolis. Villa de Leyva is a small town of 6,000 people. All the homes are painted white with red Spanish roof tiles. Many have second story balconies and flower planters full of blue hydrangeas, red geraniums, with purple, orange, and pink bougainvillea climbing the side of the building. Cobblestone streets make walking difficult and care must be taken not to twist an ankle.

Typical home in Villa de Leyva

It's difficult to walk on cobblestone

Bougainvillea is blooming everywhere

The Plaza Mayor (main plaza) is one of the largest in Latin America. It’s paved with cobblestone, no grass or trees. There is a Spanish colonial water fountain in the center. The plaza’s surface is sloping. The public square is almost five hundred years old, and over the ages earthquakes and water erosion have pushed up the stones and make the entire plaza uneven and bumpy. Streets are cleaned, no trash is lying around the square and adjoining area is well kept.

The Plaza Mayor

Spanish style water fountain in the Plaza Mayor

A shady public plaza

There are eateries on three sides of the plaza. The fourth side has the church and municipal government offices. People are passing by the open door restaurant and peering at the menu and deciding where to eat. I’m eating a veggie pizza topped with chunks of chicken. Besides the regular vegetables on a pizza, they’ve added corn kernels and sunflower seeds, and light cheese. It’s delicious. I drink my favorite, a freshly squeezed mango fruit juice. I go to sleep with a full stomach, content that I’m in a safe place for the night.

It’s Saturday morning and the whole town is shopping for fresh fruits and veggies at the open air weekly farmer’s market. There are apples, bananas, mangoes, strawberries, wild red berries that look like raspberries for sale. Also for sale are a wide variety of vegetables like maize, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, and an assortment of potatoes, as well as clay pots, shoes, knives, and toiletries. Most of the vendors are indigenous farmworkers wearing unusual hats and ponchos. Many of the campesinos have light colored skin, but indigenous noses, dark hair, and almond shaped eyes. Some have really bright red faces or freckles.

Indigenous produce vendors selling their harvest

Potato vendor

Clay pots for sale

Wide selection of fresh fruits and vegetables

Shopper looking for the freshest produce at the best price

Local enjoying the atmosphere and conversation

A food court is set up selling hardy soups, with chicken, pork and beef grilling on wood burning stoves. Many stands have different colored blood sausage and potatoes cooking in a four by three foot aluminum sheet. One of the vendors offers me a grilled blood soaked potato as an enticement. I politely declined, saying I just ate. Local people crowd in to try the free samples. Transport of the produce is by modern trucks, mules, and human backs. I bought some apples, mangoes, and bananas for my trip to El Dorado.

Cooking with wood burning grill

Blood sausage and potatoes, local favorites

(I politely turned down one of the blood soaked potatoes)

Trucks, mules, and human labor all bring produce to market

Bought fruit from this vendor for my roadtrip

Villa de Leyva is populated by friendly, unpretentious, kind people who say “Good day” and “Good evening” to a traveling stranger. A refreshing change from the fast paced, busy people I found in big cities like Bogota and Santa Marta. There is no direct bus or transport to El Dorado, I wouldn’t expect anything different. So I arrange to take a bus near to where I’m going, with the hope that local transportation will be available to take me to the legendary “land of gold”. We leave first thing in the morning.