La Vega, Cauca

La Vega is a municipality in Colombia, located in the southwest of the country, in the department of Cauca. Its municipal term limits to the north with La Sierra, to the south with San Sebastian and Almaguer, to the east with Sotar and to the west with Sucre and Patia. Its foundation was in September 9 of 1777, its population is of 45 563.

Maybe, you only can see houses and more houses but if we take a deep look, La Vega has amount of nature and many animals, not only domesticated (cat, dogs, cows, pigs, etc), if not foxes, armadillos, deers, monkeys and more; we will describe this later. This is the central place to can guide you to the real Tour.

La Vega

La Laja

Flowers

Some kilometers beyond La Vega, is La Laja, a sidewalk, that is the place where my parents, aunts, uncles and i traveled because of my grandmother's birthday, who lives there. It isn't too difficult to arrive there, you can do it by car, bus, motorcycle. This place has a power to give you calm and de-stress of the city's life already the trees, the wind, the river, the songs of the birds and the silence create a peaceful environment to enjoy with your family.  We stayed there almost one week and we went to the river, to fish, walking inside caves, to special meetings, ride horses, and more. 

Making panela

La Laja has a variety of vegetation which help farmers for the food,  job and decoration; there, people take care of the environment following these steps: throw fruits peel to the plants, plant trees, do not throw garbage on the floor and protect the animals which live in there. 

La Laja, as a village, has traditions since commemorative times: they make natural panela with a handmade burner, they go in summer to the horseback riding, as there are different religions, in December or Easter, the evangelicals, dominicans, catholics and others go to their correspondent church and festivals. 

Activities to do there

Quarry

This place has a symbolical meaning of family, because my parents and the rest of my family are from there and some members of them are still living there, so go there every vacations to meet with my family is really amazing. 

The panela, as i said it before, it's natural and i love to see how my uncles make it, but i have to admit that i see because there is a point of the panela's process in which it's almost done, and the taste is magnificent, that part of the process is called "el punto". I almost forget,  this vacation was the last year in October, in the rest week.

With my family we went swimming to the quarry, a place with a long waterfall, surrounded by trees and a huge wall which has parrot nests, there we lunch sancocho and roast potato with chili pepper, amazing and glorious. Something really interesting about "The quarry" is that there's a myth about it... tells the myth that if you swim to close to the waterfall or throw stones into it, the waterfall will get angry and will increase its size and its sound will be more terrifying, as the snarls of a beast... is better for you to stay apart if you don't wanna drown. A little scary but there are many myths about it and others are more optimistic, for example: tells the tale if you have warts and you don't want them anymore, you have to count them and each one of them you name each one of them to a match and then you go to the river, you turn to not see and throw the matches into the river, finally you run out of there and don't look back because if you do, on your skin will appear more warts or the ones you have won't go away.

I met people there  with whom played in the mountains, the caves (weren't far of the sun of course), rode horse, played  Monopoly, etc. My grandmother's birthday was on Sunday (i don't remember the number of the day) and we were happy because it was going to be a surprise party!

I remember when my uncles, aunts, cousins, parents, friends and me decorated the house and then, my grandma entered and everyone screamed "Happy Birthday", she was surprised and we were really happy; after that, we took pictures with her and made a roast, the most interesting thing about it was the wood fire my uncles made, so with some friends we not only ate meat but millows, a dream come true. 

With my uncles and my aunt

As i had some school's job i was a bit worried about it so when the vacations were finishing, I was stressed and I wanted to come back but at the same time I didn’t want to leave the farm, I was enjoying the mental peace, something that I can’t have all the time in the city; I think that was the unique problem I had in my vacations. On the other hand, i rode the horse of my uncle, named Apostol, it was really amazing because that was the first time that I not only rode on it, but I could run on it, it was amazing but at the same time a little scary because of the speed and for a moment I thought I was going to fall, that day is memorable too. 

Santa Juana

With my family went to Santa Juana at night, a village which there are some parties showing the culture, for example, most of the people of that village are evangelical and for that reason they represent the Bible's moral and their history through the theater, i remember once when they spoke about how the virgin Mary appeared to the priest of the village when the population was in suffering because of a death of someone really loved by all of them. 


Talking about appearances, something really amazing and terrifying is the horror tales, where people meet in a  circle with chocolate, coffee, bread, and more food, at the night and start to tell those tales...is cool the way that they say it but it's cooler that those stories are real, for example: the elf, the witch, the widow, the morrocoy, and more; one example of these tales is that one of the elf which tells if children were running at night it was dangerous because he could carry on of the children, maybe for all the viewers of this blog won't believe it, but that last time i was with Rocio, my uncle's wife and we were walking to my grandmother's home and we listened a sound really stranger and that was the crying of the elf. 

This place has a school where my mother and uncles and aunts studied, they used to tell me how hard was their childhood in the farm and how smart they were, because when my mother or any of my aunts and uncles said that he or she couldn't learn, that was "idiot", my grandmother motivated them with these words: How do you say that, if you are so clever? 

Would i recommend it?

I really would recommend this place, because you can enjoy the beauty of the nature and of course, you can explore the place already there are yungas which are full of trees, animals, it really looks like a forest of the Amazon. You can see the fog appearing and disappearing during the early morning and you can even touch it, of course if you do it, you would feel like a cold water. Have i mentioned the strong wind during the evening? No? Well, it's true, and an experience similar to be in a twister, i've never been in one, but maybe you can imagine.

La Laja in the morning

Also, it isn't too difficult arriving there, because you can arrive by car, even on motorcycle, of course depending the place where you live; if you are from another country, you can travel in airplane to Popayan and there, you get a bus or another conveyance to approach you to La Vega and then to la Laja; please do not forget the Cauca has differents places to visit which have a culture to know, different food to try and more.

Where would i like to go the next vacations?

For my next vacation i would like going to Spain already there is my other grandmother and i think it'd be great to pass some time with her. Also, because since Spain i can travel by train to England and there i could improve more my english and get a little of british accent, because i love that! Finally, i would like to tell you a conclusion about all this: every place we go, is marked by cultures which help you to leave the daily and make you focus on relaxing, already you go to other place to relax, not to stress more. In this place, the nature has its own maximum splendour and you just don't wanna leave it anymore...

My Grandmother's House