Blogs from San Agustin, Colombia, South America - page 5

1st August- 3rd August Finally crossing into Columbia had come too soon! strange to realise that i have been travelling for 5 months already! my longest travels so far! It was the journey from hell!!! Quito- border (Tulcan): 6 hours border crossing (1 bus, 2 taxis): 2 hours Ipiales- Papayan (8 hours) waited 4 hours for connecting bus papayan- San Augustin (8 hours)- on the worst bus ride ever! bumpy as hell, and having to sit in the aisle as seats were sold out!!! arrrggghhh!!!! San Augustin was nothing special as a town, but lay as a base to discover the surrounding historic sites- el tablon, La Chaguira, La Pelota, El Purutal (these four sites being visited on horseback..there´s no other way is there baby?!!). also Archaeological Park and Alter of the Idols. These lay witness ... read more

If you believe my guide book then San Agustin and Tierradentro are one of the most important archaeological sites in South America. Well they better be because the bus ride to San Agustin consisted of over 4 hours being shaken in a minibus as the road to the town is still not paved. Tierradentro is another 7 hours of which 2 are again on dirt road and on the way back there are about 2 more hours of the same. After all that you see statues carved out of stone in San Agustin and underground burial chambers in Tierradentro. This area was a few years ago a hot zone with quite a bit of guerrilla activity. At one stage the guerrillas even stopped and checked the traffic on route quite regularly but I guess they ... read more