museo el fosil

Worth visiting and very affordable but not much to see. Does give one a sense of what the region was like as a huge body of water.

This musuem is very small but quirky and great. The main attraction is a giant fossil which is very impressive. They give you a small guide to the fossils which is full of interesting info but not too long. It's a taxi ride from town 10,000 pesos each way and the taxi driver will wait for you. It's worth a trip for those who, like me, like musuems but in short bursts.

Villa de Leyva, a charming mountain town in Colombia, has a wonderful town square with many local shops and restaurants selling typical items from the South American country. Made entirely of cobblestone, the roads are very bumpy, which makes for a tough ride by car. However, the most fun can be had when a walk is taken by the tourist. When I visited this winter, I was taken in by the atmosphere when walking. I saw firsthand about every shop there was. There were many shops with souvenirs, like mini chivas, a sculpture of a “party bus”, a festive mode of transportation among young Colombians. I got these for several of my friends back in the USA. All of the souvenirs are fairly cheap, making it easy to take some of Colombia with you. The food varied from Americanized to as typical Colombian as it could be. The real highlight to Villa de Leyva is when it is night and winter. A big attraction in the town is the Church, which is beautiful and at the center of the square, but I did not attend service there (a mistake on my part). The most amazing attraction is known as “El Fosil”, a completely preserved kronosaurus fossil. It is extremely large and quite astounding to view. While there, the townspeople all get out Christmas lights and decorate the whole plaza and hang lights in every window. It is quite a spectacle to see. This was especially important to me because I was born in Colombia and now being immersed in the festivities of Christmas time in my native country, I felt pride and melancholy. Another interesting aspect of life in the plaza is the fact that there is no Wifi unless you stumble into an advanced and modern hostel. To be honest, this was at first a bother to me, but as I visited the square more and more, I enjoyed getting away from the life I was used to. It was easier to be with family and enjoy my limited 2 weeks trip, as well! The town of Villa de Leyva also put things into perspective for me. I saw how the people here functioned differently than in the USA. For example, there is practically no internet in this town, and everyone got along fine without it. Jobs are a lot more based on running little shops, as opposed to the variety of jobs in the USA. After spending time in Villa de Leyva, I saw how much different life can be in other countries, and appreciated my home and the town even more because of this. Overall, I believe that this town is a great place to spend time in if visiting Colombia, due to it immersing any tourist in the charms of the mountains.

It is a small museum, which is OK too, not like some where you could spend hours. You get a feel for the fossils found there. Get directions, as it is outside of town a couple of miles.

Great little museum showing astonishingly well-preserved fossil remains of large creatures. Nicely displayed collection of other fossils, could have done with more information in English.

I was surprised that you could get so close to what remains of the skeleton of this giant kronosaurus (a type of marine dinosaur) but it was very well presented. There are also lots of other interesting fossils that have been unearthed in the surrounding area displayed in cases around the main exhibit. Worth a visit if you're in Villa de Leyva.

We went one morning a week day and everything was wonderful. Sunny day. Poor attention at first. There is a guide that gathers smaller groups but the explanation is not as interactive or animated as expected. Some parts are poorly sorted and little information about it. But well worth a visit because it is close to Villa de Leyva and the truth if it is worth a visit. Being derca city allows you to enter other attractions in the afternoon if you go in the morning.

Not a lot to see not a lot to write about... Do some other interesting activity... Two fossils and a lot of ammonite are not worth your time

This is a museum built around a colossal, impressive plesiosaur fossil found in the area, with little else to recommend it other than pleasant grounds and a decent sampling of smaller, less noteworthy fossils and amateurish (but enjoyable) dino-themed mural art. It is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area for a few days and/or are interested in dinosaur remains. It's a 10-to-15 minute drive from town, and makes a good combination excursion with the "Colombian Stonehenge + phallic sculpture garden" in the same vicinity.

I make a point of visiting large and small museums when travelling, and this one was very disappointing. I was expecting to be able to go out onto the grounds to see more exhibits, but everything is contained in a small building. What you see in the photo on TA, is pretty well it. That's all. The Museum is only a 10 minute visit and they charge 6000 COP.

You can't miss this when you go to VdL. Historically, it's quite a finding and the people showing you around really do their best.

One hour will be enough to visit the very few rooms of this museum. A guide will take you through all the items on display and you will be able to see the skeleton of a giant marine creature which was found only few years ago in the very place where it is displayed.

When you go to the Smithsonian or the American Museum of Natural History, you are seeing fossils brought in from around the world and reconstructed with the addition of reproduced bones. This museum was build on-site around a giant marine pleiosaur in the middle of the Andes Mountains. I find this impressive. They built the building around it and added other fossils from around the area to add to the experience. If you are looking for a comprehensive interpretive multimedia experience, this is not it. But if you want to see a marine dinosaur encased in silt and fossilized over thousands of years and raised toward the sky into the mountains and left in place instead of being taken apart and moved to an urban museum back home, then this is a truly unique experience.

We stayed at hotel in Villa de Leyva and rode bicycles to this museum that is in middle of shopping village. The entrance fee is a few dollars per person. The main attraction is a prehistoric ocean creature fossil that was unearthed there & the museum was built around this fossil. Nice little museum worth visiting and strolling around shopping area.

There are alot of fossils in this museum but not that many that are impressive, you can probably go around it in 10 mins, but its cheap to get in and worth seeing the large fossil as that is quite impressive.