Colombia > Villa de Leyva > Tunja trek

Tunja trek

The walk towards Tunja is beautiful and not too hard. It takes about 3 hours in total, perhaps 4 if you hang out a bit.

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(This map is not to scale.)

You start at the market (Calle 12 and Carrera 6), walk on Calle 12 towards the school, then you cross the square there and follow the road east. There are some more houses along the road, and then it becomes just trees and nature. The walk is easy, just follow the path. You'll cross a small stream, then another small stream and then you'll see a closed gate. Follow the path turning left (don't go through the gate).

A bit further you'll get to a valley, and at your left you'll see a finca (little farm) and perhaps some donkeys. Walk a little bit further and you'll see some cactuses and incredible views. You've arrived at the end of the walk, this is a great area to relax a bit.

It would also be a good place to camp. If you do, ask the people in the finca whose land this is and offer to pay perhaps 10000 pesos if it is theirs. After relaxing, just walk back. Note you might see a few lost shoes along this way. I have no idea why.

If you wanted to, you could continue on this trail and walk all the way to Tunja (10 hours), but you'd need a guide because there are a lot of intermixed trails. An alternative way to continue this walk (this would take all day) is to move on to the left and go steep down the hill, and then follow a trail to Chiquiza, a beautiful village consisting of a church, a central square and about 8 houses around it. Interestingly, the square of Chiquiza is not square-shaped - one of the few in South America that isn't.

After this, you could go back to Villa de Leyva, but taking the same steep hill back would be hard so you'd need a different trail along "Pinturas Rupestres de Sachica". The trail ends on the road, where you can walk or catch a bus to Villa de Leyva. You should get a map or a guide if you want to do this part of the trek.

First posted by Peter on May 28, 2008, 08:16. Last edit by Peter on May 28, 2008, 08:16. Edit this | History.

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