Barichara travel guide

From San Gil a direct paved road leads in 22 km to Barichara. Often touted as the most beautiful small town in Colombia, it would be difficult to argue against this claim. Barichara is a beautiful colonial town founded in 1741 and designated as a National Monument in 1975. There are several interpretations of this indigenous Guane name, the best is ‘the place of rest with flowering trees’. It has a wonderfully peaceful, bohemian atmosphere, with white and green or blue paint everywhere and a lot of fine stonework. The walls of many buildings – whitewashed with doors and zócalos (the lower half of the building) painted green, blue or turquoise – are made with a technique called tapia pisada, which uses compacted mud mixed with water. The churches are built of the brown stone found all over Santander, and the streets are paved with it throughout. Fortune has been kind to Barichara; it is a prosperous little town, as can be seen by the number of boutique-style artesanía and clothes shops. This is very much a place to relax as an increasing number of Colombians find at weekends, mainly from Bucaramanga but also Bogotá. Artists congregate here too, but midweek it is very quiet.