Department of Boyacá - Colombia

Capital: Tunja
Altitude: 2.782 meters over the sea level (Tunja)
Distance from Bogotá: 145 Km.

Tunja is the capital city of this district.  It is situated in the eastern part of the country.  Its main activities are agriculture and cattle breeding; in this sense, the population is dedicated to such practices and there are many productive areas in the zone.
The weather is cold, the landscape is green, there are a lot of valleys and rivers.  It has calm places, small villages with ancient houses, churches and monasteries.

Tunja

This is the capital of the district.  It has many historical places and ancient residences from The XV and  XVII Centuries.  Churches are its principal cultural richness, they present an incredible colonial architecture plenty of constructions and details made of wood and gold.

Villa de Leyva

This city preserves a colonial style which gives a calm environment to the region.  This is a privileged natural and historical village.
There are many historical places to visit in Villa de Leyva: Nariño´s House, La Plaza Mayor and Las Columnas  Muiscas.
Villa de Leyva has also a beautiful desert that contains some archaelogical sites like:

- El infiernito: the astronomic center of The Muiscas (an ancient civilization).  There are ruins of an observatory and some phallic monoliths as a symbol of fecundity.

- The desert of Valle de Leyva: a place where it is possible to practice moto cross and mountain cycling.  Besides it is possible to find fossils from a prehistoric time.

Paipa

This city is considered the tourist capital of the district.
It is located 3 hours from Bogotá.  This is a city with a colonial style.  There are many interesting places to visit like the thermal waters of Paipa, the lake of Sochagota and the mash of Vargas.

Tourist places

La Plaza de Bolívar, Los Cojines del Zaque, La Casa del Fundador, Pozo de Donato, Paredón de los Mártires, Pila de los Monos, The Cathedral, Santiago de Tunja, The Santo Domingo Church, The San Francisco Church and The Monument to la Raza.

Tourist attractions

Parque Arqueológico Monquirá (Archaelogical Park)

This place is known as The Infiernito.  It is situated 5 Km. from Leyva.  There are 30 phallic stone columns and more than a hundred small columns that were built 2200 years ago. 
Some antropologists believe that this place was consacrated to religious cults and fertility.  Others believe that this was an astronomic observatory.
Nowadays, many researches are taken place in order to discover the origins and purposes of the stone columns.

El laguna de Tota

A beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.  It is possible to sail by any kind of boat.  This lake has lots of trouts.  It is one of the biggest and most beautiful lakes of the country.  It is 17 km. long and 7 Km. wide.  It is an ideal place for walkings.  Besides, it is possible to admire the beautiful landscape inside a cruiser.

Parque Nacional El Cocuy (National Park)

It is placed over a mountainous district.  The park extends itself over 306.000 hectares by covering the regions of Boyacá, Casanare and Arauco.  The vegetation shows variations according to the altitude of the soil.  It contains 250 animal species, between them: cóndor, ducks, paujiles and bambies.

Santuario de Flora y Fauna Iguaqué (Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna)

The flora and fauna are extremely different.  The most famous lake is Iguaqué.  The weather is cold and dry.  There are many zones for camping and a center for tourists.  It is possible to find sea fossils.  Inside the sanctuary, it is possible to do walkings in order to observe The Iguaqué Lake, some nice roads, places like Colorada, Carrizal, Ojo de Agua and San Pedro de Iguaqué, this last one, an archaelogical zone covered by rupestrine pictures.