The Unknown Colombia - Adventures and Travels of El Indio Andino

In the previous chapter, we kicked off our journey by diving into the vast, beautiful eastern plains of Colombia known as los llanos . For easier representation, I will be using the term llanos in the blog. It refers to the plains. This region is mostly lush, wet grassland, and because of that, cattle ranching has become a huge part of the local culture, woven into everything they do. Comida Llanera You can see this influence everywhere—in their music, their dances, and especially in the food. It is ironic, though, the comida llanera (food of the plains) is all about meat, even with so many fantastic vegetables and grains around! Honestly, finding great vegetarian food has always been my biggest challenge and complaint while exploring the plains. Typical food from the plains  Restrepo, Meta Anyway, back to Restrepo! This town is our starting point for all the adventures we will have here. Sticking to the local custom, signified in the song Ay, sí, sí , ‘y a las seis de la mañana...

  Corrales is less than an hour away from Monguí and this is one of the most beautiful towns in the Sugamuxi province of Boyacá. This place has won the award for the most beautiful lights of Christmas for a long time. The town sits on the bank of the mighty Chicamocha river that eventually flows through the Chicamocha canyon in Santander department, forming the 2nd largest canyon of the world. Corrales is just about an hour from Sogamoso and the roads are good. To reach Corrales from Duitama , my suggestion would be to take the route to Nobsa and proceed through Sogamoso’s outskirts to reach this beautiful town. This town grows onions, corn and potatoes. This town is every bit contrasty to Monguí’s colonial set up. The white and green painted walls and windows give way to white and brown and in some cases white and black painted walls and windows. These are equally impressive if not more beautiful. This town has a very pretty church that stands tall dominates the skyline of the...

  Monguí is not a big town. It is small. In fact the urban zone of Monguí has less than 3000 people and including the rural zone, less than 5000 people. It neither has the advantage of access like Villa de Leiva nor the popularity of Barichara that sees a ton of visitors and backpackers. Monguí on the other side sees less visitors and hence is untouched by the ‘tourist bane’ phenomenon.  Once you land up in Monguí, there are some must do activities. Let us start looking at them one by one. Why does Monguí exist?  Monguí is an important point in the ancient trade route between the Andean domains of the Sugamuxis and the plains in the east. Their trade included corn, salt, emeralds etc. Beyond Monguí is the Páramo de Ocetá and the Páramo de Pisba beyond which are the ancient plains ( Los Llanos ) that extend till modern day Venezuela. Monguí thereby is the first settlement in the Andean region. Add to that the access to Sogamoso, the capital of the Sugamuxis. The main...