A Pauna cracker: Somewhat satisfying and not too dry

@wwaycorrigan

[For a YouTube version of this blog entry, click here.]

After having visited over 50 of Colombia's Andean towns, in particular in the Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Santander departments, I do feel I'm in a strong position to evaluate the region.

Pauna has its plus points. 

Yes, I'm well aware that what's important for me may not be too critical for another. Then there's the fact that I'm quite the minimalist and have rather modest wants when I explore a new place.

Distant beauty

Those looking for close-to-high-income-nation standards in terms of accommodation, food and general tourism infrastructure will be disappointed in the vast majority of Andean towns. 

The exceptions are the likes of Barichara, Girardot, San Gil and Villa de Leyva, places with a now-established reputation, having been popular with international tourists for years.

Most other towns are either only beginning to discover their tourism potential or remain seemingly indifferent to it.

That pretty much every one of them, no matter how small, has some sort of accommodation available for visitors usually has less to do with tourism and more to do with business e.g. emerald mining or some major construction project that had/has been going on for years. Indeed, from my travels, only Saboyá fails on the hotel front.

Nonetheless, if it's simply just a bit of bucolic bliss in a majestic mountain setting you're after and you're not terribly fussy, then a case could be made for any Andean town. Even more so if you like to wander around hilly countryside without the need for a guide.

Those looking for warmer climes — warmer than Bogotá that is — should seek out places below an altitude of 2,000 metres. It's generally short sleeves with shorts day and night, all year round, in such places, save for the need to cover up from tropical downpours.

The Boyacá town of Pauna, at 1,215 masl, firmly fits into that category. With an unusually dull and rainy early January in Bogotá, the feeling that I was being unfairly denied some sun sent me in Pauna's direction. Well, that and the fact that the brothers who own my preferred panadería "office" are from there, so on hearing this, I thought it would be as good as any place for an unplanned escape.

Briceño's beauty is a little more obvious than Pauna's.

Weather-wise, it wasn't quite the sun-drenched spot I was hoping for — the whole Andean region is enduring a protracted rainy season. It was, though, still quite warm, with afternoon highs around 25 degrees Celsius.

The main tourist attractions appear to be the various swimming pool "resorts" on the town's outskirts. Seeing as how my visit coincided with high season, I gave these pools a wide berth. Surrounded by screaming, water-splashing children together with tipsy adults blaring out music is not my idea of relaxation.

'In a land of plenty when it comes to tourist attractions and natural beauty, a place does have to offer something different to entice potential visitors.'

Architecturally, Pauna has little going for it. Its main square and church certainly won't win awards for beauty. In contrast, in nearby, smaller Briceño, 12 kilometres away via undulating, largely dirt-track, traffic-free roads — yes, I did walk there and back — the main square and church are quite picturesque.

Cascada la Tunera: Click here to get a better idea of it.

Pauna's prettiest side is from a high. There are a few hilltops around from which to view it, although the best one is from a private residence that's used as a holiday home. Thankfully its temporary occupiers allowed me in for the obligatory photo and a YouTube Shorts video. Cheers, Horacio! The two Aguila beers he gifted me were also well received.

Pauna's people power

The biggest draw for nature lovers is surely Cascada la Tunera. This impressive, somewhat hidden waterfall — it can be heard well before it's seen — is about five kilometres from the town. An internet search tells me that the fall is about 50 metres — I would have said more.

There's also a far gentler tributary waterfall next to it that is quite alluring thanks to the golden-brown soil over which it flows.

Back in Pauna, another area where it won't be winning awards is for its coffee. Yes, this is a coffee-growing region but the townsfolk don't make a good brew. Unsweetened, strong coffee is hard to find. There is an exception, though. Páramo, the fancy ice cream shop on the main square, makes a panela/sugar-free, tasty tinto for an agreeable 1,500 pesos.

Alluring: The golden-brown soil over which this waterfall flows seems to sparkle.

Coffee concerns assuaged, with all the wandering I did, it would have been nice to refresh with my preferred Poker beer offering i.e. a litre bottle. Or at least the 750 ml serving. 

Alas, similar to some other small towns I've visited, only the 330 ml bottles are available at 2,500 pesos a pop (in my Bogotá barrio, one can still get a litre bottle for 4,000 pesos). On the plus side, sticking to my not-too-strict beer budget, it meant my alcohol consumption was kept in check.

Considering there are easier towns to reach from Bogotá — Pauna is over a 160 km drive away and the windy road after Chiquinquirá is, well, rustic to put it mildly — it's unlikely to attract the masses.

Having said that, my trip coincided with an annual five-a-side football tournament. With a not-to-be-sniffed-at winners' prize of 12 million pesos, the competition attracts teams from far and wide. Thus, the town was heaving for my last couple of days there.

In a land of plenty when it comes to tourist attractions and natural beauty, a place does have to offer something different to entice potential visitors. So credit to Pauna on the football fest.

It gets less credit for its slogan of being the 'green gate to Colombia'. No doubt many other municipalities would contest that one.

For me, alongside the setting, Pauna's big pull factor is its people.

*Accommodation info:
Hospedaje El Mirador has quite spacious, bright rooms available for 25,000 pesos per person with good WiFi.
I also had a night at Hospedaje Doña Evita for 30,000 pesos (this was forced on me as El Mirador was booked out for the football tournament and I had no reservation). Doña Evita, ran by an affable elderly couple, is more like a house than a hostel/hotel. No WiFi is a drawback, though.
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Saboyá, Boyacá: A rare hotel-less Colombian town

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

It used to surprise me somewhat how even the most insignificant and sleepy Colombian towns had at least one hotel to host the occasional passer-by.

Saboyá: One could sleep in the church if it was open. 

I'd often wonder how the owners made money from the business. For one, for many of these small-town hoteliers, from my observations, renting rooms is simply a bit on the side or a hobby for retirees.

Sleepless in Saboyá

If they're lucky, a couple or so times a year they get the chance to cash in during festivals and holiday high seasons.

Whatever the case, after over ten years of visiting such small urban settings, particularly in the Andean region, I've now come to expect every one of them to have a hotel or some sort of tourist lodgings.

So, rocking up to the Boyacá town of Saboyá and discovering it is inn-less was quite the shock.

Having walked practically every street in a vain search, I called into the police station, figuring they'd know of some accommodation options.

'It had all the hallmarks of being a very quiet, peaceful night's sleep in the countryside. A number of mosquitoes ruined all that.'

The first thing one officer said to me was that there were plenty of hotels in nearby Chiquinquirá, 11 kilometres to the south. Eh, excellent. But not exactly what I was looking for. My plan was to stay in the tranquil town, not to go back from whence I came. (My exploring of the far bigger Chiquinquirá with its many hotels and churches — it's dubbed the religious capital of Colombia — would come 24 hours later, but I had to pass through there to get to Saboyá.)

There are plenty of accommodation options in the nearby and much bigger Chiquinquirá. 

Thankfully, there was a solution. The police officer told me of a house about three kilometres outside the town that had rooms for nightly rent.

Wrong Way glamping

In fact, the main business of Alojamiento Rural Prados de Piedra Pintada is glamping. A couple can hire a dome for a, um, mere 275,000 pesos per night, breakfast and three hours of jacuzzi use included.

It was, as much as it might surprise the regular reader, a tad outside my budget for this particular mini-escape from Bogotá. I settled for a spacious ensuite room for 35,000 pesos, about 10,000 pesos more than I'm used to paying on such trips.

Alojamiento Rural Prados de Piedra Pintada: It could do with a jazzier name.

For one night, I felt it was worth it. It had, after all, the hallmarks of being a very quiet, peaceful night's sleep in the countryside, a chief reason I'd left Bogotá in the first instance.

That was until a number of mosquitoes at various intervals came buzzing around my ear, thus ensuring broken sleep. At just over 2,600 metres above sea level, it's surely close to the limit of the range for these winged warriors. Close but unfortunately not quite outside their combat zone. Oh well.

The hotel room I had in Chiquinquirá the following night was free of such pests. It was also, unfortunately, free of any natural light brightening up its four walls. Trade-offs, eh?

Glamping: You can look but you can't go in (unless you pay 275,000 pesos). 

Back to Saboyá, while it might be hotel-less, it's not without its friendly folk. (Incidentally and curiously enough, the names of two of the locals I befriended had an Arabic flavour to them; the affable yet unobtrusive tienda owner, Omar, and the farmer, Samir.)

Omar, on hearing my surprise at the dearth of accommodation in the town, is now thinking about making a few rooms available at his establishment for peso-pinching peripatetics like me. So he said anyway, although not quite in those words.

Thus, I'll have to return in a few months to see if he has come good on that idea. If so, I'll be in line for my cut of the profits.
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