December 30, 2015: Bogota to Boyaca

30 Diciembre 2015. Night before New Years Eve

 Well, where to begin?

About two weeks ago, the Bogota hotel (Casa Medina) — like all excellent hotels — wrote to us asking if there was anything they could do to make our stay in Bogota more pleasant. I wrote back saying that we planned to rent a car (actually we already had done that, but it needed to be picked up at the airport, four days after we came to Bogota — since we didn’t want to deal with a car until we were ready to head to Villa de Leyves today) and that we’d love it if a car could be delivered to the hotel and we can drop it back to the hotel or to the airport on Friday (January 1) in the evening. We had done this once before in a developing country and it was the lap of luxury not to have to taxi to the airport, wait on a line, navigate from the airport.. So I figured, I’d give it a try again.

Someone (Carolina) from the hotel wrote back quickly and said that was no problem. She then wrote again to say that she had reserved a VW Jetta for us.. all was good. So I canceled the other car at the airport. When we arrived at the Bogota hotel, they reconfirmed that the car was all set and said they needed to scan our drivers licenses.. All good. .. in fact too good to be true, so being as compulsive as I am, I reconfirmed about the car each night as we got back from dinner.. All good.

This morning, following breakfast, we went to the reception desk and when I asked about the car, the guy (not Carolina — By the way Casa Medina is overflowing with staff ready to help. Everyone speaks English but at very different levels, although everyone acts as if they speak fluent English). So the guy, very friendly, asks me if we plan to charge the “transit” to our room (??) I repeat that we have a rental car and that we assumed we were paying the rental company. Then things got more confusing… So I asked if Daniel was around — he might be a manager or something, but his English is totally fluent and we needed to get going to Villa de Leyva since we wanted to take a longer route to stop in some towns…

Daniel appeared and in the meantime Mike and I both searched our emails for all the correspondence from Carolina. Daniel looked everything over and I could see from his face that he already knew there was some kind of mess-up.  He came back and said that there was a problem in that the car “had not appeared.” He apologized profusely and said they would get to work on the issue immediately. It was now 9:30. We wanted to be on the road at 9. Then I started putting my iPhone to work and whatever site I tried said that there where no cars available for rent in all of Bogota and surrounding areas.

The hotel kept offering us food and drinks and time wore on. And we realized things were bleak.. But this was the Four Seasons.. and they learn to problem solve. But we were getting irritated, and it probably showed as we sat in the lobby on iPhones and computers.

Then an American woman appeared — who must be a high level management person; never saw her before. She made apologies on behalf of the hotel and the company and again asked that we have some food… She assured us they would find us a car.

At around 10:30, she came out — all smiles — to tell us they had located a car and that it would be a very comfortable car to drive… Immediately both of us asked “How big is this ‘comfortable’ car?”  She then said it was a Toyotoa Prada, which meant nothing to us.. Mike immediately said .. “If this is an SUV I will not take it; we were clear about our needs.” She turned green and said it was an SUV.. I then checked it out on the iPhone and it’s huge.. like one of those Cadillac Escalades…Must say, I was ready to take it since it meant we could get on the road.. But Mike stood his ground. He said he would not drive into small villages with such a car..

She said they would work on it.. again suggesting we eat.

About 45 minutes later she and Carolina and Daniel and the other guy all appear and say they found another car.. a Toyota Corolla but it would bake another 30 minutes to get here. We said we’d wait.. More time on iPhones.

I said to Mike.. “looks like Daniel might be asked to loan us his car for two days…”

Then they came and said the car was here.. We walked out and there was literally an entourage from the hotel staff there, well beyond Carolina and that woman and Daniel and the other guy… They were carrying shopping bags from the hotel restaurant and a cooler… And there was an older Colombian man standing there looking very nervous next to the car (definitely not a rental car, definitely not new).  So they tell us that in the shopping bags they’ve put sandwiches and fruit and desserts and cookies.. and in the cooler are soft drinks and cold waters.. And more apologies.. and no charge for the car.. just have a good trip.

The older man gives us the keys and he opens his wallet to give us the paperwork for the car.. We get on our way, sort of laughing and trying to figure out if the car belongs to the guy and somehow the hotel is paying him to loan us his car.. As we drove I checked the paperwork.. So what I think is: the car belongs to the hotel and this guy is a driver for the hotel. Obviously it is not fancy enough to take guest anywhere, so maybe he is hired to run errands for the hotel or something. But clearly he uses the car as his vehicle.. or so I think.

Anyway, off we went.. car was definitely not clean (no time) and gas only 3/4 full… but it worked (stick shift) and we headed out of Bogota.

Once we were well into our drive, I noticed that the key ring with the car key.. has several keys — at least two of which are clearly residential keys. Hopefully the guy has another set because I’m pretty sure his primary set is now with us.

The drive to Villa de Leyva was interesting and it feels like a million miles from Bogota. It took us about 3.5 hours (Bogotanas say it takes a 2.5 hours but that is not possible)… Most of the trip is one lane in each direction — climbing mountains and very very very windy roads.. you climb well over 2,000 feet and then descend into the valley…

We had decided this morning to go to three small villages before getting to Villa de Leyva, but given that the sun sets around 6 and we got such a late start, we went past Villa de Leyva to just one of the towns Raquira… about 12 miles further west.. but at least 40 minutes because of roads..

Raquira is amazing.. but overly touristicated (is that a word?) Having come from Bogota where everything (nearly everything) is brick, Raquira is a shock because it is color, color, color and more color.. Even the city hall is painted in many colors. It’s a small colonial village with a big “plaza mayor” and the streets leading to the plaza in all directions boast two story buildings that are painted with every conceivable color (many different colors for each building).. and the shops that line the streets are selling colorful ceramics and hammocks and other tchochkes..

Strolled Raquira and headed to Villa de Leyva (where we will spend New Years Eve)… Our hotel (it was next to impossible to find any place to stay as Bogotanos come here for weekends and holidays) is called Meson de los Viareyes. I’d give it about one star.. but it’s fine; no one speaks any English.. I had to do the whole check-in, and discussion about breakfast and suggestions for dinner places and where to park the car .. all in my terrible Spanish. Oh, I forgot to explain that when we got into town at about 5:15.. we followed the google maps directions and we wound up on a street (all the streets in the entire town are cobblestone and very narrow.. ) that we thought was where the hotel was.. but alas, Google maps messed up.. so we got out of the car to ask someone and he said (in Spanish) that we were on the opposite side of the Plaza.. so we drove again and hit barriers because there are pedestrian streets. Got out again and asked again.. Now we were told that we were a few blocks away in the other direction.. Eventually we figured it out, but had to park two blocks from the hotel because the hotel is on the pedestrian street. It was now nearly 7 pm.

Finally squared it all away.. and a young guy from the hotel walked with Mike back to the car to help him navigate the streets to the parking area for the hotel.. and help carry up our increasingly heavy bags.

Last thing.. An older guy from the hotel walked me up to the room while Mike was navigating the car issue.. and I quickly checked the bathroom (I’ve learned from staying in other one star hotels) and as I thought — no hair dryer.. So I don’t know that word.. But I said the word for “hair” and made a motion and a sound like a dryer.. but he got a big smile and went into the bathroom to show me the shower cap!.. No not.. “antes de “.. and I pantomimed it again.. and he said “dryer!”.. I said “Si” and he returned with the gizmo..

OK.. we are off to dinner somewhere here in town.. More tomorrow..

Best.. Fern