Villeta

Villeta sits at around eight hundred metres in a warm valley, close enough to Bogota to be its standard hot-weather weekend and far enough down to be genuinely tropical. Sugar cane grows on the surrounding slopes and is processed in trapiches - small mills where the cane is crushed and the juice boiled in a row of open pans until it thickens enough to set into panela, unrefined blocks of cane sugar that are the standard sweetener across rural Colombia and the base of aguapanela. Several trapiches take visitors and the process runs in the open. The town holds a panela festival each January. Waterfalls in the surrounding hills - Quebrada Cune among them - are the other draw, along with pools.

History

Before the Spanish conquest the Panche lived in the region, and the modern town was founded as Villa de San Miguel on 29 September 1551 by Alonso de Olalla and Hernando de Alcocer; its name means little village. At 850 metres in the Eastern Ranges, it has long lived on sugar cane and its products, and its warm climate, trails and waterfalls have made it a resort for people from Bogotá (Wikipedia, Villeta, Cundinamarca).

What to look for

• Open-pan trapiches - cane juice boiled down into panela blocks.
• Cane on the surrounding slopes - feeding the mills.
• A panela festival each January - the town's main event.
• Waterfalls in the hills - and pools in the town.

When to go

Year round; January for the festival. A full day.

Practical notes

Weekend traffic from Bogota fills the road and the town. Trapiche visits are informal and vary. It is hot and humid. Waterfall access involves rough tracks.

Nearby

Tobia is south; Bogota is east up the mountain.

Key facts