The route from Ubate to Villa de Leyva was much better than yesterday's hike, despite a flat tire after just 6 miles due to a broken valve stem. Luckily I was able to change out the tube quite efficiently and continue on through what is known to be the "pais de leche" (milk country). Lots of queso fabricaciones (cheese factories) and cows. I know I am butchering these Spanish words but hey I try. At one point I was moving quite fast down hill to turn a corner and have 5 cows standing in the middle of the country road mooin at me approahing as if guarding the path ahead. It's rare that an event makes me laugh out loud when Im alone but this did for sure. The ride had some really pleasant parts, such as a 7 mile stretch downhill which had me going 47 mph at one point, a speed I didn't even know my bike was capable of. I must say the bike computer Liz got me is a dream come true. I can see exactly what my running average speed is and easily estimate how much I need to pick it up to average over 10mph all day, which is a tougher goal to make Han I expected. Again I found myself fighting the sun as 5 oclock approached and the road became more and more rural. However after 65 miles (total 115 so far) I made it into the cobblestone town just in time to check in to the Casa Renacer, a great hostel in the hills outside town. I had a big meal at an impressively beautiful little place outside of plaza mayor, which happens to be the largest plaza in Colombia and 3rd largest in South America. A couple interesting observations; these restaurants are petty unique in that they are set up just like the historical colonial towns (which is what villa de leyva is and why it attracts many Bogota locals on he weekends) in thy you enter a doorway of a Latge stucko type building and then it opens up into a square inside with no roof, but ivy and plants hanging everywhere and all the tables and chairs I. The middle. On the sides of the indoor square are many small little restaurants with kitchens big enough for only 2 or 3 people, which all share the open air space. I saw 3 of these and thy are really pretty. Just when I thought I had my food ordering phrases down I tried to order 'pollo' (chicken) and realized that I was not being understood until corrected with a word that sounded like "pojo", as well as being laughed at by the girl serving me. I later learned that in Colombia the double L acualky has a J sound. Between things like his and how fast people speak my learning is moving very slow. I ran into 2 Brits who had recently come to this hostel in villa de leyva and joined them and a french girl for a hike in a park about 30 minutes outside the town. We hiked about an hour in and saw some waterfalls as well as watched some people pay $4 to take a zip line down into the park on what looked like a structure about as sturdy amyThs tree forts Ethan and I nailed together in grade school. It was really good to get out in the wilderness like that and gave me huge relief that I can't say biking these busy roads has done. We got a ride back with a nice local family in an old land cruiser which was really nice because it saved us from having to wait a while for a taxi in the middle of no where. Our hostel (Colombian Highlands - Casa Ranacer) is about a mile outside of the town's 'plaza mayor' so between walking back, getting cleaned up and heading back into town for dinner and then back again at night, us our spontaneous hike, ended up being about 7 miles of walking/ hiking steep grades yesterday. So much for my planned day of rest on my legs. Before heading to dinner we met up with another newcomer to the hostel, Luke from Colorado, and had some surprisingly great pizza at a little Italian type place. It was honestly better than most all the pizzas I've had in Italy. The power went out earlier, and I really needed to get on the Internet and charge my phone so when it was still out around 9pm I decided it was a sign I should postpone my plans to get up at 5 and start the ride North towards San Gil. Also contribuing to the decision was the fact that I was hanging out with a group of 6 others who due to English being our common language decided to use it primarily for conversation and wanted to stay out after dinner for drinks. It's quite interesting to me that you can have a group of people that informally decide on a language to use for the evening. Also, not surprising that the 2 Americans have nothing to bring to the table in this matter. Over the evening of Colombian rum and extremely slow service we exchanged with eachother what we do, where we've been etc. Some interesting topics arrose and for those who know me well would agree that they were the equivalent of sparks on a pile of gunpowder based on my personal positions. Such as a discussion over how evil the United States is as the imperialist nation that only goes to war for national gain, and a girl who is big into natural medicine telling me that I most likely became diabetic because I was not a nice person in my past and that I should attend some healing festival with her. Such is traveling I suppose. I did supress myself to a level beyond normal for me but at least couldn't help but ask the French girl how her country would be if it wasn't for the US in WWII and reminded her that aside from lives, the costs of the war were never repaid to the US whether be aid to the allies or reparitions from the axis powers. I also felt the need to share with my other best friend of our group that only being diabetic is quite the blessing considering there are others who are blind in a wheelchair etc. I said I am open to being healed, but if so my boy Jesus will take care of that. After we returned to the hostel I spilt my toe open on a small step while wandering around wih a candle. Go figure I would get hurt off my bike. So needless to say it seems I wasn't supposed to leave today. Well I apologize for the length but at least know that those reading clicked on my blog with an interest and aren't being force fed my email updates as I have sent out before. However please reel free to skim over my rambling. Hope everyone is doing well, adios.
