Two buses and two hours from Zipaquiria is the new village of Guatavita. The old puebla was flooded when a dam was constructed to provide water to Bogota. Just uphill from the old town a charming 'colonial' village was reconstructed using some of the parts of special buildings and the church before it was destroyed. The center of this very small town was designed to handle weekend visitors from Colombia's capital city. Sunday is a huge artisan market day so we chose to go on Saturday.
Our favorite part of the day was meeting a friendly couple who have lived for ten years on a small farm in the beautiful mountains outside the town proper, Mafe & Eduardo. She teaches local women to knit hats, scarves, slippers, purses, ponchos, ect. from cotton yarn which she sells on Saturday and Sunday in the square. We spent a couple of hours talking with them and were invited to return to stay in their home as their guests. We are moving north tomorrow so this will probably not come to pass, but once again we were treated to their generosity and friendly spirit of the Colombian people!
Yesterday we took another day trip to a nearby town where we visited the cemetery and enjoyed walking through town admiring the countryside. Unfortunately we have both been suffering a bit from travelers' tummies, Keith much worse than me, so we headed home early in the day, which seemed to help a lot, he is chipper today.
We did get to peek inside the cathedral here in Zipa during mass. It was an unusual design, brick and stone arches and ceiling. We couldn't really wander too far in because of the service in session. Most churches here are not open to the public except during mass so their interiors remain mysteries to us. There are many devotions around town outside of churches, some even perched way high on the hillsides!
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