What is Antioquia? I get asked this question several times. So I thought I should create a blog post talking about this new interesting place, and explain what it is and why it has became more famous recently.
First of all, Antioquia is a village, located in the Valley of the Lurin River at 1500masl, 75km away from Lima (43km away from Cieneguilla). It can be reached through the paved road that leads to Huarochiri, passing by villages like Chontay, Sisicaya and Antapucro, in 2 hours by car.
The reason it has became famous among Limeans and local travel agencies is that the inhabitants of Antioquia have decorated its houses with colorfull paintings of flowers, horses and birds. The village now is full of joy, energy and happiness in its streets. The new environment invites the traveler to stay there and to visit again.
The drawings look like they were made by 3-year-old children. Almost five years ago, the local Center of Research, Education and Development (Cied) thought how the Limeans can be interested in a village in the 65 Kilometer of the Highway to Huarochiri, the project consisted in painting the houses that in those times looked unpainted and dirty.
A group of peruvian, argentinian and uruguayan plastic artists arrived to the village and for a week experimented with many designs to decorate the houses of the village, these artist where supervised by the paintor Enrique Bustamente, finally they chose the paintings to turn Antioquia into something different.
In July 2003, the Andres Avelino Caceres school had the first paintings on its wall. The Main Square had the first flowers and birds of many colors, besides a big sun and a moon in each side of the main gate. At first, the inhabitants where not happy with the project and did not care about the paintings, but after they saw how beautiful it looked everybody wanted to have their house painted as well.
Finally, the 300 families of Antioquia changed their skeptical attitude and got inmersed in the project.
Basically, they got an idea, put it into reality and now more and more people wants to visit Antioquia year after year, and the reason is mainly because the travelers want to see the famous, beautiful and unique painted houses! Of course when visiting you can also feel the great environment, and you can relax in a really peaceful place while enjoying the greeat green scenery.
Best time to travel
This area can be visited almost all year, nevertheless during the winter months (April – November) there is a sunny and warm weather.
To take into account
In these villages (excepting Cieneguilla) there are not all basic Tourist services like restaurants or hotels (this is why it is so attractive), modest restaurants can be found in the highway. In the Antioquia Main Square a restaurant and restrooms can be found. Also there are grocery stores where you can buy drinks and snacks.
If you have any input about Antioquia please leave a message hereunder.
Also, if you want to enjoy Antioquia with us, we have a programed Tour Package Full day to visit Antioquia for this Easter – Thursday April 09th. The spaces are limited so if you want to join us book as soon as possible.
