so many stars

once again i seem to have become somewhat rubbish at updating my blog, this of course is due to rubbish internet conections and not my laziness! After Bogota i headed for a small town called Villa de Leyva it is a popular weekend destination with people from Bogota, but as i got there on thursday there was a distinct lack of people around and i didn't meet anyone til the following evening.friday morning i spent wandering around the cobbled streets and into the nearby hills for a lovely view of the town, in the afternoon and on my way down the mountain i found myelf in the gardens of a lovely hotel and so not to miss the opportunity i spent a few hours beside the poolside pretending i actually stayed there, i think the security guard at the entrance sussed me out but he let me off anyway. that evening i met two couples at dinner, columbian girl and her dutch boyfriend and another columbian girl and her american boyfriend so we spent the rest of the evening speaking a sort of spanglish! we also decided that the following we would go horse riding to some waterfalls that are close to the village.The horse riding was great fun, alot more relaxing than it had been in Ecuador, due to the fact that my horse wasn't totally mental this time! the waterfalls too were very pretty if a little cold! and the scenary was lovely. Our guide was a really sweet girl who was only 14 but had been riding for 12 years!!!- she was ace. it was a long ride to the falls (longer than we hd expected) and by the time we had finished and had to ride back the sun was already low in the sky and our bums slightly sore so to make the return a little quicker we had some races! the american guy had easily the fastest horse (much to his delight) and so never wanted to stop racing, he was just over taking me when we both heard a clatter of metal on the track beneath us. all i saw was his saddle beging to slip and then suddenly everything was on the road-one of his saddle straps had totally snapped, luckily he was fine, somhow he had managed to just dismount!! Our little guide didn't panic at all, she had us all looking for the missing piece of leatherand when we couldn't find it he simply wapped his saddle for hers and somehow managed to temporaily attach it together and she rode back like that. This did however slow our progress to only a trot (probably the most uncomfortable speed ever) and soon it was getting very dark. The sunset over the mountains was beautiful and then as we were so far away from other lights we could see so many stars everywhere and on the ground instead of stars were hundreds of glow worms flashing it was like they put on a little show for us, well cool! i don't know however how the horses found their feet on the track as i could bearly see my hand in front of my face by the time we got back. And after our marathon trek we did nothing but enjoy well deserved meal back in town.saturday midday until sunday morning (!) was spent on a bus to the coast, i arrived, fairly tired, and the heat when i got out of the air conditoned bus hit me as soon as i got off the bus! the first thing i noticed was that the two old men sat at the cafe beside me were tucking into a bottle rum and it was only 8.45am! (welcome to the beach!) i then spent the next hour wandering from hostel to hostel trying to find a room- i had forgotten it was a bank holiday weekend, oops-i have eventually found somewhere nice to stay and there are loads of people here. today i started the first day of my open water diving course, a very early morning-8am in the water (compunded by the fact that i had been drinking on the beach til 2.30!). Finding that my mouthpiece worked was a revelation for me and quite an amusement for my instructor! it is bit scary being under the water and totally depending on my equipment but i think i can get used to it, there i also a massive boring book to study whic was a bit of a shock when i did look at it. i'll let you know how i get on.