Ráquira Travel Guide

Ráquira is know for it's pottery.
So you can buy all kinds of pottery everywhere.

However, also the whole town has little potteries here and there, sitting in gardens, on market places, on the sidewalk.

Before walking around in Raquira we went to a restaurant to eat. It was a cheap eatery and we asked for the comida corriente, which is a set menu of the day. For 3500 pesos (July 2007) we first got a soup then a plate with a piece of meat or chicken (we were asked what we wanted to have) and some rice a potato and beans and a little bit of salad. I got pasta instead of beans as I’m not very found of beans. A soft drink was also included in the price.

I visited Ráquira on a daytrip from Villa de Leyva.
One of the days in Villa de Leyva I wanted to see several of the sites in the area: El Fósil, Estación Astronómica Muisca (El Infiernito), Convent del Santo Ecce Homo, La Candelaria and Ráquira. To see them all in a day you will need a car. I was lucky because when I visited Colombian Highlands office I met an Australian couple who wanted to visit the same places. We walked to the bus terminal to ask the taxi drivers of the price. Outside the terminal there are some drivers with pickups, which are good cars for the road we were taking. After some negotiation we got down to the price 110 000 pesos to be divided between the three of us. We arranged to be picked up at 8.30 the next morning by the square, and everyone was on time. We got the time we needed at each location and were back in Villa de Leyva in the late afternoon.

There are very few buses a day to Ráquira from Villa de Leyva.

The whole town of Raquíra is one big shopping center.

It does not matter, which shop you choose, they all charge you more or less the same.

What to buy: Any kind of potteries, crude or painted.
Wall hangings, mobiles (not the cell phones...) to hang all over your place, ash trays, vases, baskets, little junk things (but still cute), any kind of kitchen stuff, such as mugs, pitchers, cups....
you name it.

What to pay: Not very much - of course, it depends on the things you buy.
Mobiles e.g. are 3-4 USD, mugs e.g. 2 USD, etc.

Favorite thing: ... there is almost everywhere a chair or bank or something to rest.
Usually in a cute setting, such as here, where you can start conversation with Mr. Pottery :-)