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Published: September 10th 2007
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Tombs and Statues
The statue covers the entrance to the tomb which originally was totally underground San Agustin is the self-proclaimed Archeological City of Colombia and indeed it is home to some very impressive pre-Columbian tombs and statues, but in this case it was getting to San Agustin where the real excitement lay.
On Wednesday morning Mark and I left the safety of the brand new Scottish-run hostel in the tranquil colonial town of Popayan for a rough adventure to in search of pre-colonial history. The next 7 hours was a hair-raising, heart-racing, bowel-loosening adventure on what can safely be described as the worst road i have ever travelled on. I mean i have travelled on earth roads before but at least in those cases the government had the decency to flatten the road, here the road was made up of stones sticking out of the ground which made you bump up and down and it was actually impossible to put your head back on the head rest because the bumps made it shoot forward hurting your neck. Part of the reason the government hasn't flattened the road is probably because they are too scared. After one hour we passed a military checkpoint which was also the last bit of good road, because after that checkpoint
Stone Crocodile
Certain animals were sacred and had powers to protect those heading into the afterlife you are in guerrilla territory. It is a cruelly ironic contradiction that the most beautiful areas of Colombia, the jungles and the rolling mountains where we were, are the most dangerous. If you are not kidnapped by guerrillas (which is apparently quite unlikely round San Agustin these days) the lack of any law and order has made it a haven for bandits who hold up buses and rob passengers.
But i am happy to say we made it unscathed (apart from bruising from the bumps) although there were two major scares linked to guerrillas and bandits. Firstly was the sighting of two young men in military uniform about 4 hours into our ride, they were leaning against a wall with rifles slung across their back. What made this scary was that we had passed the last military checkpoint after 1 hour (Remember its int the previous paragraph!) and their uniform was different to the normal camoflauges worn by the Colombian army so i am going to state with about 82% certainty that i saw two members of Las FARC. The bandit scare came when we stopped at a crossroads and were told to get off the bus because it now
wasn't going to San Agustin. Instead they were going to give us 2.000 pesos to catch a jeep up the hill to San Agustin. I wasn't convinced as it was three male passengers who told us "Come on, you have to get off, don't worry we will take you up the hill" and as i looked up this hill i couldn't see anything just the fading afternoon light and mountains in the distance. I looked at Mark sincerely and said "There is a strong chance of a mountain bum raping happening right now but i don't see any other option". The threat of "Brokeback Mountain" (sorry just couldn't resist it) diminshed rapidly when the farmer and his family also got off the bus and their chicken in the bag didn't kick up a fuss so we decided it would be ok.
The next day was another journey round the Colombian countryside but this was far more fun and done in a lot more style. Five of us gringos (possibly the only 5 young travellers in San Agustin...there were however lots of middleaged Yanks and Germans about) organised a jeep tour and i spent most of it standing on the
Intrepid Explorer
This man discovered the statues in the 1920s....maybe back of the jeep saying to Mark and Dan "We must look so cool right now". It was also really fun waving at bemused school kids on their 5 mile walk to the nearest school...some waved back while some just stared at these tall white folk and a couple almost walked off the edge of the hillside!
During the day we stopped at three "natural sites" (a river and two waterfalls) and three archeaological sites and the town of Isnos for lunch. But the best part of the day was roaming around on the mountain paths on the back of the jeep, giving worried looks to the person standing next to you when both feet left the thin ledge you were standing on. The scenery was amazing, one moment deep gorges, the next a collection of farmers houses with beautfiul flower arrangements outside. Sugar cane plantations that stretched all the way down one side of the mountain and the short dark-green leaved coffee bushes down the other. Rising smoke in the distance indicated a sugar "factory" where the cane had been harvested as was being made into "panela" for the tasty local "agua de panela". We finished off the day with a couple of beers as we all tried to digest the wonderful sights we had witnessed that day.
Most of the third and final day was spent walking round the Colombian countryside as we managed to miss the entrance to the massive Parque Arqueologico. When finally inside we were treated to more of the big toothed statues of humans with animal features protecting the tombs of an ancient Cacique (Indigienous Chief). By the time we left the park i had definitely had my fill of tombs and statues. That evening i did something that i didn't want to do...take a bus back through guerilla/bandit zone in the dark. In the end everything was fine...afterall i am writing this story from the safety of Quito two weeks later...but again there were scares and dangers.
First was the possibilty of bandits on the bus. That was only a minor threat as nearly everyone on board was an old farmer or a woman. The only other guy was a travelling salesman from Cali who i had befriended while we waited one hour at the crossroads (where i had been dropped off on the way to San Agustin..remember) and he seemed far too religious to be a robber. But everytime we stopped to drop someone off i had a mini-moment of panic as the bus seemed to take so long to start up again...at one point we were stopped and i could hear voices at the front of the bus asking where it was heading...at this point i am going to say it was probably an impromptu guerrilla road check...totally unconfirmed but thats what i thought at the time and i breathed a huuuge sigh of relief when the bus pulled away without anyone boarding the bus to find a lone gringo at the back. In the end the biggest real (not imagined) threat was the cold as the windows couldn't stay closed as the bus shook and bumped its way home, my measly hoody did little to warm me and making it back to the friendly hostel in Popayan was like returning to a small piece of heaven.
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