"Barichara, a colonial jewel" Barichara by colombiantraveler

After five hours by car from Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia, or two from Bucaramanga, the main city of the department of Santander, you will be surrounded by distant blue mountains and under a blue and clear sky that shelters a settlement with a population of ten thousand people.

It is Barichara, one of the most beautiful colonial jewels of Latin America, which emerges like a dream out from the distance. With an average of 22 Celsius grades and 1,336 meters above the sea, Barichara will give you the opportunity to feel how the “patiamarillos” (“the yellow-feet people”), as they name the original native people because of the color of the land, used to live and what their costumes were.

The most noticeable thing that catches your eye is the colour of the soil, and the constructions in general. They are all made of a kind of natural and unique stones with an undefined color that is a mixture of red and yellow. The churches, the roads, and the small families’ houses are built in the same way, making you feel in real touch with the earth.

So, once there, prepare to enjoy the great experience of living like colonial people used to live during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because this is the best kept Barichara’s secret: How this colonial place continues living like if time hasn’t passed! How it is possible to maintain the colonial constructions just the same way they looked in the Seventeenth century, when the town was founded!

María Teresa Russell

Guane path (takenby Mauricio Olaya, www.flckr.com)

Wear a pair of trainers, sunglasses and light clothes; take a bottle of water, and a cheerful company and enjoy the tour to the small village called “Guane” - named after the “Guanes”, the native indigenous tribe which used to live in these lands -, throughout an old and very well designed road built in red soil and stones by the end of Nineteenth century. After one hour and a half of an easy walk you will reach the original settlement where the “Guanes” descendants live. You must be there and feel by yourself the sensation of being in a place where the time stopped more than 400 years ago.

Once there, don’t forego the opportunity to taste, in one of the small stores around the main park, a cool drink made of fermented corn, named “chicha”. Visit the small church built in 1600, and the paleontologist museum that houses marine fossils from the prehistoric time when this town were covered up by the sea.

María Teresa Russell

Parque del Río Chicamocha, general view

It takes two hours from Barichara, by car, on the main road to Bucaramanga, to reach this overwhelming and new park located on the top of the impressive Chicamocha Canyon. I must say that being there was a fantastic experience especially because of the breathtaking view. Enjoy the typical food and other entertainments like driving boogie-cars, feeding ostriches and goats, and flying hanging from cables over the Chicamocha River. It is also very interesting to admire the gorgeous and huge sculpture made to homage the people born in Santander.

María Teresa Russell

• Pros:Unexplored and quiet town, uncontaminated by tourism
• Cons:None. Everything is fantastic.
• In a nutshell:Paradise of nature, friendly people and old arquitecture