Day one: Car drive to the destination hotel and hike
Rivas Ridingcolombia picks you up from your hotel in the morning and you will travel by car for around 3-4 hours to a hotel outside of Villa de Leyva town where you will sleep all the nights. During this travel, Rivas Ridingcolombia will tell you about how the local people live in this area and you will eat some typical goodies. You will take lunch and then you can hike during one or two hours or we can visit the Villa de Leyva Town. Villa de Leyva is a small town that better preserves memories of old colonial times and expresses the best of Spanish influence. It was founded in 1572 and built according to Spanish architectural norms. Even the location of the city, which is in a valley, seems to be an emotional encounter of the New World with places from Spain.
Day two: Ride to San Miguel de Sema Town
After a good breakfast and a 30 minutes ride by car, you will get the place where the horse ride will begin. You are going to explore the mountainous area of the Raquira Region, located between 2,300 - 2,800 meters above sea level, with temperatures between 14 and 24 centigrade during the day, normally dry weather, with rainy weather on some days.
There are many small and adventure trail going up to the top of those mountains. You will pass through oak forest and brooks. The length of the horse ride is around four hours. You will visit a typical rural small town (San Miguel de Sema). You can visit the church (if it is open) and the typical construction and you can eat some goodies. After the arrival, you will have a tardy and succulent lunch.
Day three: Ride to Fuquene Lake landscapes
After a good breakfast and a 30 minutes ride by car, you will get to the place where the ride will begin. Today, you are going to go up to the mountains range, taking different unpaved roads or trails. You will pass through oak forest and brooks. Close to the top of the mountains, you can see behind and watch beautiful landscapes. After you cross the mountain range, a new valley is open to the view to observe from the top of the mountain the Fúquene Lake.
Until the 1970’s Laguna de Fúquene was Colombia’s largest lake. Today only 3,000 hectares are left from the originally 10,000 hectares because the flat lagoon was dried or filled with land to gain acreage for agriculture and stock farming. You will stop here to enjoy the landscapes, eat snacks and to rest a little bit. After the arrival, you will have a tardy and succulent lunch. The length of the horse ride is around 4-5 hours.
Day four: Hike and visit historic towns
The horse rides are in the mountains going up and down and you can canter in the flat parts of the trail. So, after two days of riding the horses, they will be tired and they need to rest for one day. The plans for this day are:
In the morning, you will visit a beautiful waterfall called "La Periquera". It is one to two hours hike. After lunch, you will visit the Candelaria convent. The convent was built in 1604 by the Agustinos religious organization called “Recoletos”. It is a museum for the tourist but it maintains its operation as a monastery.
After visit the convent, you will visit Raquira Town. Due to a vast ceramics tradition dating back to pre-Hispanic times, Ráquira is the handicraft's capital of Colombia.
In addition to pots, pitchers, coffee cups, and kitchen utensils, there are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, pieces for Nativity scenes, piggy banks, etc. Perhaps for this ability of Ráquira inhabitants, the name of the town in the “Chibcha” language is “City of Pots”. These indigenous peoples used them to store their food, and prepare their meals. Artisans work with black, white, yellow, and red clay. The hike and visit to the waterfall "La Periquera" take around two to three hours.
Day five: Ride to the Waterfall La Chorrera
After a good breakfast and a 30 minutes ride by car, you will get to the place where the ride will begin. You will take an unpaved small rural road and some trails, in order to arrive in a big and clean waterfall called “La Chorrera” where you will eat a snack. On the way, you will go throw Oak forest and the nice view of the Candelaria Desert. The length of the horse ride is around four hours.
Day six: Coming back to Bogota
It is the day you come back to Bogota. You have two hours before to leave for Bogota. You can go shopping or do something else that you could not do the other days. After that, you will start the travel to Bogota and you will stop in the middle of the car drive for lunch in a restaurant with a beautiful view.
Note: This tour can be redesigned according to your preferences.
