More Colonial Towns and Highlands

Our first impressions of Columbia have been very positive. We have been told that with regards to FARC, the para-militaries, and the drug industry, things have been pretty quiet in Colombia for the past 4 – 5 years. We have been told that the current President has increased the military support to improve safety and that he promotes a vision for the country which includes tourism as a significant factor. Our limited exposure to date certainly suggests that they are moving in the right direction to achieve this vision. There is a strong military presence - especially anywhere tourists visit – and the people are very welcoming and gracious. It isn’t unusual to walk down a street and have people say “hello and welcome to Colombia”.

Our first stop, Popayan, was a little town with a beautiful colonial centre from the 17 and 1800’s with six or seven churches in a 5 block radius and even more little coffee shops – I am pretty sure that this is where Tim Horton’s and Starbucks got the idea for a store on every corner…..
After Popayan, we headed east, back up into the highlands to a small town called San Agustin. The six hour bus trip was not “hair-raising” like many others have had, but it was much bumpier… certainly the roughest road that we have ever been on - and the lack of shocks on the old bus didn’t help! Despite the whiplash, the trip offered some spectacular scenery.

San Agustin is another very small colonial town and Columbia’s archeological “jewel” because of it’s proximity to the Valley of the Statues. There is an excellent archeological park as well as numerous other important sites in the surrounding areas. The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site a number of years ago so further exploration in the park has been stopped temporarily until an appropriate development plan has been agreed upon. Based on what has been found to this point, it isn’t hard to imagine that this will someday become as popular as Machu Picchu. At this point, they have found over 500 tombs with carved statues, dated from 3300 BC to just before the Spanish conquest. The stone carvings are scattered throughout the area and are two to 20 feet in height.

The most interesting aspect of the statues for me was the very obvious Asian, Indian and Egyptian references – seriously, please explain to me how these people could possibly know what the Egyptian “styles” of the day were? For your imagination…

Some of the carvings were used to cover the sarcophaguses and some were placed at the entrance to the tombs as gifts. The Augostinos believed in the afterlife, therefore they mummified their dead and buried them with food, tools, dishes, and gold jewelry - in addition to the carvings – to ensure that had enough “supplies” to hold them over into the afterlife……..