{"id":1029,"date":"2011-07-15T18:41:48","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T23:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2016-02-19T21:49:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T02:49:11","slug":"q-a-fridays-off-the-beaten-track-boyaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/07\/q-a-fridays-off-the-beaten-track-boyaca\/","title":{"rendered":"Q &#038; A Fridays: Off The Beaten Track, Boyaca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I often get asked about the real off-the\u2013beaten\u2013path destinations in Colombia and my general answer is that Colombia in general is an off the beaten path destination. There are, however, certain places and routes that are yet to be truly discovered by international travelers.<\/p>\n<p>One of those places is the Boyaca department.\u00a0 Located only 3 hours away from Bogota, Boyaca has a wide range of activities, climates and destinations on offer. It is one of the very few departments in Colombia that it is well organized in terms of information for tourists (there are maps), the roads are in great condition and the people are authentic!<\/p>\n<p>There are various circuits that you could do. my favorite is called \u201cSugamuxi\u2019s\u00a0 Circuit\u201d (Anillo turistico de Sugamuxi), the short version. You head north leaving Bogota through the northern motorway passing by many little towns like <a title=\"Our Top 5 One Day Trips Outside of Bogot\u00e1\" href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/04\/our-top-5-one-day-trips-outside-of-bogota\/\" target=\"_blank\">Suesca<\/a> (great for rock climbing), the amazing Sisga Dam, Villa Pinzon where the Rio Bogot\u00e1 begins, Puente de Boyaca (a huge monument where one of our biggest liberation fights took place \u2013 helped by the English!) before arriving to Tunja, Paipa (famous for its hot springs and the Sochagota lake) and Duitama.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1032\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1032\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Picturesque-bridge-in-Bogota.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1032 \" title=\"Picturesque bridge in Boyaca\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Picturesque-bridge-in-Bogota-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Picturesque-bridge-in-Bogota-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Picturesque-bridge-in-Bogota-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picturesque bridge in Boyaca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are hundreds of little colonial towns all over the department and could take me 4 posts to talk all about them so I\u2019ll just go into the highlights of this route. I have three favorites:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1030\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1030\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Mongui-Cathedral.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1030 \" title=\"Mongui Cathedral\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Mongui-Cathedral-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Mongui-Cathedral-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Mongui-Cathedral-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The spectacular Mongui Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mongui and the Tota lake.\u00a0 Mongui is a truly hidden gem. It is not only locally famous for being the place where most footballs in Colombia come from =), but for being the prettiest town in Boyaca. That\u2019s all cool to know but once you get there you are overwhelmed by the fact that there is a monastery dating from XVII. You have to pay 2000 pesos to get in and to discover \u2013 what is left obviously &#8211; real oleos, frescos, furniture, pictures from the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century and a bible dated all the way back to 1700! I can only compare this place to the Monastery in Cuzco, it is just breath taking!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1031\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1031\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-falls-ovr-a-Boyaca-Town.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1031 \" title=\"Night falls over Boyaca Town\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-falls-ovr-a-Boyaca-Town-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-falls-ovr-a-Boyaca-Town-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-falls-ovr-a-Boyaca-Town-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Night falls over Boyaca Town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The next on the list is the Tota Lake. Tota lake has an extention of 55km2 and a depth of 60 mts. It&#8217;s a huge lake with outstanding views, perfect for eating trout at one of the many good restaurants by its shore. During weekdays Palaya Blanca, the only beach on the coast of Tota is avery nice calm spot to visit&#8230; but avoid it on weekends at all costs as it gets way too crowded.<\/p>\n<p>Hope this helps you all, and as always if you need more help don&#8217;t hesitate to contact us at <a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\" target=\"_blank\">www.seecolombia.travel<\/a> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Marcela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I often get asked about the real off-the\u2013beaten\u2013path destinations in Colombia and my general answer is that Colombia in general is an off the beaten path destination. There are, however, certain places and routes that are yet to be truly discovered by international travelers. One of those places is the Boyaca department.\u00a0 Located only 3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[35,3,115,128],"tags":[224,223,2735],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.4 (Yoast SEO v18.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Q &amp; A Fridays: Off The Beaten Track, Boyaca - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/07\/q-a-fridays-off-the-beaten-track-boyaca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q &amp; A Fridays: Off The Beaten Track, Boyaca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I often get asked about the real off-the\u2013beaten\u2013path destinations in Colombia and my general answer is that Colombia in general is an off the beaten path destination. 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His first trip was to Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina and it was there, wading in some waterfalls near Mostar with just a litre of cheap beer and some bread in his belly, that he was bitten by the travel bug. After many more trips and a spell working in London, Paul relocated to Buenos Aires for some months before moving to Colombia. 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