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Hello All!
From Popayan, we took a 6 hour-bus ride to San Agustin. San Agustin is quite a sleepy village, but it hosts one of the finest archeological museums in South America.
It is worth noting, that until around 2003, the whole region has not been properly open to international tourism, due to ש dominant control of local guerrilla units, but thanks to a massive army activity led by the Colombian president inflicting a strong army forces control, the region became safer for tourism. After asking around quite a bit, we decided to explore the area, and we are so happy having decided to do so.
After 6 hours or so, we arrived just when the sun was setting over the verdant hills scattered around the village of San Agustin; We were left on the main road - but surprisingly a connecting 4*4 truck was already waiting for us to take us into the village, 6 km up the winding road. We hopped in, and within 15 minutes, we arrived in San-Agustin, safe and sound. I met a nice lady in the local tourist office, and she told me in details about the tours available for tomorrow. Later,
she helped us to find a nice family to accommodate us for the next few days.
Next morning, we had a delicious breakfast prepared by our hosts - a 75 yrs old Mama and her daughter. Then we were ready to go out and explore the nearby archeological park.
Rightfully,
San Agustin archeological Park was declared by UNESCO a WORLD Patrimony of the Humanity. The San Agustin archaeological Park includes a wide variety of stone sculptures carved between AD 100 and AD 1200. The park contains an amazing array of separate stone sculptures, in the shapes of animals and warriors and human faces, some mythical, some realistic. They are carved out of volcanic rock -- some are over 4 meters tall and weigh several tons. The site, excavated by K. Th. Preuss during the 1940s, has been declared a World Heritage Site.
Within the Park, there is a little museum depicting the mystery of a northern Andean culture that flourished in this region from the 1st to the 8th century. At some stage in history, this flourishing culture has vanished, and historians are trying - until today - to solve this incredible riddle.
After visiting the
museum and it´s fine exhibits - though not a word in English ... - We continued with a short trail within a lush tropic-forest, in which 38 sculptures, are nicely located. We then continued further on to a larger group of these religious monuments and megalithic sculptures that also stands in a wild, spectacular landscape. As said before, Gods and mythical animals are skilfully represented in styles ranging from abstract to realist, part of them are ¨watching¨ interesting deep burial sites. These works of art display the creativity and imagination of that Andean culture and we were so impressed to see these sculptures amidst sheer beauty of nature. We had to walk quite a while to be able to see all of the exhibits but it was well worth it.
Noon time arrived and we made a lunch stop in town. At 1330 we were ready for our next activity - horse-back riding. This time we planned a trip among 4 other sites of megalithic sculptures that also stands in a spectacular landscape, within short ride from San Agustin. We got acquainted with our 3 friends and our guide, and soon we were lightly galloping towards the sites. We
went through some pretty side-roads, getting to know the little farm - houses on the way, as well as the green small fields cultivated intensely by the local farmers: Lulo - local acid fruit used mainly for juice, bananas, corn, sugar-canes and more. As said before, we visited 4 sites where we could observe bizarre - even a bit frightening sculptures, still preserving much of it´s original details and colours! It is believed that they serve as guardians of certain ¨burial sites, and thus they are sometimes depicting important Shamans and great warriors of the community. The kids were surprisingly excited and listened with great attention to our guide, but of course were much happier to return to their ride on their new friends. Well after all it was a great combination of riding within archeological sites, nature and farming region, which made a perfect day.
We returned at late afternoon and went out in search of food.. Well, in contrary to the fantastic sites of that town, the culinary part turned to be a sheer disappointment. We could not find a descent restaurant so we returned to the same old option - street food. As always, this option
has its own ups and downs, but this time we indulged ourselves on a corn Arepa and Papa Relleno - A stuffed potato with meat and a strange yellow ¨wrapping¨that holds the whole mixture. Delicious, and quite filling.
Next morning, we took a 4*4 jeep tour - the driver was right on time to pick us from our posada, and on we go with another couple from Austria and Colombia. This time we visited the river Magdalena gorge at its narrowest point - 2.20 m only, then another 3 archeological sights - also in some beautiful locations - and 2 waterfalls, one of which is the highest in Colombia, totaling 400 meters! On the way back, we stopped in a sugar-cane factory, to learn how the locals produce brown-sugar blocks for wholesale. It was quite a different tour, since we stopped in a local family factory and not in a tourist stop with all the merchandising stuff they try to sell you ¨by the way¨. So the workers were extremely friendly and co-operative - view the photos attached and see for yourselves. The kids and even I were fascinated by the process, the sweet - caramel smells and the
final blocks making a Lego kind of tower on one of the tables behind. I finished our intense day with another visit to my favorite food stall, not even trying to look for a restaurant... The kids and Lilach stayed at our posada, while I tried hitch-hiking to town. It went pretty well and I was lucky enough to catch the same motorcycle on my way back to the posada, with food delivery of the day...
Next Early morning, we hopped on a
buseta - a local mini van - to start our loooong journey from San Agustin to the Colombian border town of
Ipiales. It took us 14 hours, 4 buses, one ¨Colombian death road¨ - very dangerous at winter time with lots of mud-slides - but not at our day!! Finally we arrived at night time to Ipiales. Next morning, we woke up very enthusiastic about crossing the border to our next country today - ECUADOR. But first, we payed a short visit to one of the most unique churches in South America -
Las Lajas Church and Monastery. Located in a narrow gorge 8 km south of Ipiales, this beautifully decorated church is literally hanging over
the river some 60m below. It has a nice altar inside the church, some very beautiful stained-glass, and a rocky wall decorated with religious statutes and a Chinese script, describing - as we learned from the ¨Father¨- a miracle that happened to this vagabond, who was blind and miraculously regained his ability to see while visiting this site. An enormous amount of miracles are believed to have happened ever since, second in number only to the famous church of Lourdes, France. Although only few were confirmed by the Vatican, but it did not prevent from millions of pilgrimes to reach and present themselves within the church and it's pastors, as thousands of littke colorful metal plates attached to the surrounding rocks, witnessing these miracles. We caught the eye of the church's Father and soon we were chatting with him about his church, and of course about Israel and .. Judaism. Indeed, a very special person and very knowledgeable.
We finished our tour, took a taxi back to our hotel, not before we noticed a strange phenomena - local girls sitting on the roadside, waving with a strange "device" - a wooden long stick with half a plastic bottle attached
to it's end... The taxi driver explained us that they are signaling to the passing drivers that they sell... gasoline... That is their way of entrepreneurship, and although the price is equivalent to that in the big gas-stations, the locals do help them buy purchasing a few liters on their way. Strange...
We packed our stuff quickly, returned to our taxi, and headed straight away to the border check point - all paperwork took us only 15 minutes, then a quick money change and -
ECUADOR - here we come!
Well, it is time to say: So long Colombia - we had such a great time, getting to know it's charming and curious people, great nature and good cuisine. We will surely miss that all! Miss you Mucho,
Tal
To view our full gallery, click on the following link:
San Agustin Gallery
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