“This way”, says English Olly, “I’m sure I saw a spot up here”. Our merry band of travellers trudges uphill past the bus station and there in the dimming light we see the glowing doorway. We are searching for a local “Tejo” hall. The Colombian equivalent of a game of darts in the pub, tejo is far more interesting, well at least to us foreigners. Inside we are eyed warily until one of the gang hops over to the bar and orders a round of Aguila, the local beer. Suddenly we are welcome and the host rushes over to get us set up. We are divided into teams, each given a heavy iron puck and then lead to our game area. Clearly novices, the host gives us the easy option – instead of trying to throw our pucks 20 metres to hit the target we get off with about 10 metres. The aim of the game is to throw the puck (whilst sipping your beer) and hit a small packet of gunpowder set in the middle of a 1m by 1m clay board. Landing your puck in the clay close to the target gets you some points, exploding the gunpowder gets you more.
We are in Villa de Leyva, a small colonial town 3 hours drive away from the northern part of Bogota. I specify the north because if you go to the main bus terminal in central Bogota to catch your bus the journey will take at least an hour and a half longer as it winds its way through the sprawling suburbs of Bogota. Villa de Leyva has a reputation of being a great weekend getaway from the city. It’s central plaza is billed as “the largest plaza in Latin America”. Who knows how they work that out, but it’s big for sure and a very pleasant spot to wile away the hours watching the local passers by or absorbing the last rays of sunlight. It’s the kind of town where it’s easy to just stay “one more day”. The whitewashed colonial buildings couple with cobbled streets and the surrounding mountains offer a striking back drop. It’s in the central plaza that we got speaking to our fellow travellers. Two are North American (locals would be annoyed at calling them “American” – after all we are still in the Americas) and we settle on a mini Thanksgving – roasted chicken all round (4000cop each (USD2)) and tejo and beers as an accompaniment. Not at all a bad celebration.
Salud! 