BARICHARA, Colombia, 9th and 10th August

Barichara is, as we mentioned in the earlier entry, a magic town of only 4000 people. It appears that nothing has changed or been added to the town since it was built 300 years ago in 1705. Houses, none more than 1-2 storeys high, are made up of large stones, white washed, with red tiled roofs.




Every road is paved with huge flat inter-locking stones that defy imagining how they were carried, let alone put into place. The whole town appears to have been laid like a carpet, following the contours of the mountain. What is most amazing is that you can stand at any street corner and see the end of the town in any direction. It does not thin out, but just ends suddenly and the green mountain begins.

9th August - Woke up lazily to sounds of the family at breakfast, school PE next door and church bells. Met Andy and Tamzin from Devon on the Balcony at breakfast. They are on month 4 of a 12 month romp from Mexico to Chile.









Breakfast was made by Eve, who was born in Barichara and had lived all her 18-19 years here. She always had an amused smile and was very patient with my crappy Spanish. However, she made no attempt to slow down her quick spanish for us but nevertheless got us to understand her.

We walked around town, up to various view points to see the Andes around us, with their tops in clouds.
The churches and the Catherdral were built of red Sandstone, all quite simple inside, and had the same raw wood beams for ceiling as we did in our hotel. Nothing ornate about the ceilings as oposed to the churches in Bogota.

By mid day we had covered most of the town, discovered small bakeries .......and had also met a few people more than once. Being a small town everyone was very polite, made eye contact and wished and expected to be wished. Besides a small town historical feel, there is also a small bohemian circle of artists with their galleries.

Lunch was simple at a restaurant called La Casona, with the usual Comida Corriente (set meal) of soup and a main. We had some great grilled meats for main, even though Rossini ordered grilled "men's underwear" with his spanish. The young lady who ran the place really burst out laughing when he did.

Walked all afternoon, discovering more streets. Watched sunset in the Andes, from the park in the north of the town, which has sculptures, all set in a fountain network. Each sculpture was done by a different artist from around the world who took part in a festival in Barichara.

Next door to this park was the Iglesia (church) de Santa Barbara, the high point of the town. At this northern extreme of town was strangely a swimming pool just behind the church and even stranger, a travelling Circus, and the man at the tent door offered to start whenever we turned up.

Letay and I ran all the way down hill through the streets of Barichara and waited for Deepa in the central square in front of the Cathedral. Deepa sneaked off quietly to buy Letay a present as on the 10th August we celebrate "Adoption day", the day we met Letay in Ethiopia. As planned we had Yuka bread and hot chocolate for dinner.

We read, wrote diaries and had an early night. Barichara comes from the Guane Indian word which means "a good place to rest" and that was certainly what we did in this quiet, charming town.



10th August - Woke up to "Greased Lightning" rock-n-roll blasting through our window. The school next door were preparing for a dance competition and the 12-14yr kids were practicing. The teacher was a perfectionist and made them practice this over and over again. Quite entertaining to watch them perform from our room.









Decided at breakfast that we would not stop at Giron (another Colonial town in the Andes, with perhaps more of a bohemian artist circle) that evening as planned. We would instead take a night bus to Santa Marta on the northern Carribean coast of Colombia. We thus had the morning in Barichara and we left at 12pm.

Letay and I finished reading the first Harry Potter book together - she has decided to only watch each film after she has read the book. She wanted to start on the second one right away.

Made our way to the Barichara bus stop at to go to San Gil......then take a bus from there to Bucaramanga, where we would wait for the night bus to Santa Marta.