Marvelling at Pre-Colombus Colombia

  San Agustin, Colombia
Sunday, April 22, 2007

We arrived at the bus station in Popayan at 7am in order to buy tickets to San Agustin from a woman we´d met the day before. She´d told us her coach left at 7:30, but when we turned up she took us to someone else who sold us a ticket for Pitalito which is about 40 minutes away from where we wanted to go.

She explained in extremely rapid Spanish that there was a problem with the road and that we´d have to get off the bus early then take a taxi to San Agustin. We weren´t sure what was going on - what was wrong with the road? Our guidebook said this area has seen a lot of guerrilla activity in the past and advised us to make extensive enquiries about the safety of travelling to the region. We´d read the messages and tips other travellers had posted on the board at our hostel in Popayan - but did that count as "extensive enquiries"?

01 Waiting for a minibus to take us the last 5kms

We were slightly apprehensive to say the least, but the bus was full (as usual we were the only gringos) and our fellow travellers didn´t seem too concerned, so we tried to relax. It wasn´t easy - the road was awful - it wasn´t sealed and the number of potholes was almost of Georgian standards. We bumped around for nearly five hours then stopped for a break and then bumped around some more.

We were advised to get off the bus at a crossroads about 5 kilometres from San Agustin and wait for a small pickup to drive by. This we were told to flag down and get the driver to take us to town - it sounded implausible, but it worked and were weren´t overcharged.

03 Hills near El Maco where we stayed

It was raining hard when we got out of the truck in San Agustin, but the sum the driver now wanted to take us the kilometre and a half to our hostel was too much so we chose to walk. By the time we got to Finca El Maco we were exhausted. The rain had stopped and it was very muggy - the last five minutes up hill were tough.

06 Our lovely chalet at El Maco

What a fantastic place to arrive though. Rene, the Swiss owner, showed us the accommodation options (tipee, chalet or dorm) and we chose a lovely
two storey chalet with a bathroom and hot water! We postponed lounging in the hammock and exploring until we´d had some lunch so we walked back down the hill to what the Lonely Planet described as "hands down the best restaurant in town" for once we weren´t disappointed: the marinated pork steaks in Donde Richard were mouthwatering.

05 Meeting some of the pets at El Maco

When we got back we saw we were no longer the only guests. Daniel another Swiss guy had arrived. He´s been in South America for one year and eight months now and get this - he´s cycling from Buenos Aires, via Patagonia, to the north. We shared a few beers and discussed the possibility of hiring a guide between us the following day to show us around the park.

08 Road built by the people that made the statues

The Archeological Park in San Agustin contains over a hundred carved stone sculptures, some dating from over three thousand three hundred years ago. Little is known about the people that created these amazing pieces, but its thought about 80 generations of them lived here, each contributing their own carvings.

09 Statue

After a delicious breakfast we walked the 20 minutes up the road to the park and quickly found Jerry Lewis (aka Luis Alfredo). He agreed to take us around and explain in English what we were seeing. He promised he wouldn´t get offended if, at the end of the tour, we wished to give him a tip.

10 Statue

Jerry has some interesting theories and as the enigmatic people who created these works of art left no written records and had already disappeared or dispersed before the Europeans arrived, who´s to say if he´s right or wrong. He claims that the people living in this area were experts in neurology, open heart surgery and Cesarean birth (he points to certain diagrams on tombstones and statues as proof). He also claims the shape of the eyes in some of the statues shows an Asian influence, some of the headdresses show an Egyptian influence and some of the animals depicted (elephant, tiger, lion etc) show there was contact between this culture and Asia.

13 Statue

As someone wrote on the message board in our hostel in Popayan "Jerry´s a great guide. He has some interesting theories and it´s true he see penises everywhere!" Nice stories, but as I say who knows for sure. What is certain that these statues are quite remarkable and it was amazing that, apart from a English guy and his American girlfriend, we were the only foreigners in the park, and practically the only visitors.

14 Statue

We spent over four hours marveling at all the statues which ranged in size from a couple of feet to over four metres. They showed men and women (who were all modestly dressed with bikini bottoms or "sex protectors" as Jerry put it), animals and Shamans under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs - the eyes were the giveaway!

17 Welcome break - sugar cane juice press

The Rough Guide points out that the San Isidro mushroom, a powerful hallucinogenic, grows especially well here. It muses that its influences were being felt by the stonemasons who created the surreal imagery of sex-crazed monkeys, serpent-headed humans and other disturbing zoomorphic creatures.

23 I look like an alien

After our tour we caught the bus into town and Jerry took us to eat at a wonderful restaurant. Over the food he was telling us more about his life. He´s quite a character - take for example the story he told us about when he won the lottery. Six years ago he won $6,000, a large sum of money particularly in Colombia, did he save it, invest it or give it to a good cause? No, he checked himself into a five star hotel in the departmental capital and blew the lot (or should I say "sniffed" the lot) in four days on girls, drugs and whisky!

20 Eagle

We were all quite aghast at this story, but he assured us he has no regrets and even said his antics have made him quite famous. More than once when he´s been guiding a group of Colombians they´ve recognised him from the tales. We´d decided Jerry was the man for us so we asked him to meet the three of us at El Maco for a horse-riding tour of some more of the archeological sites.

24 Downtown San Agustin

After a few beers with Daniel back at the ranch we had an early night as I thought I was going to need to be on top form in the morning. Jerry had warned me that he thought the best way to ride horses was at a full gallop. I have to admit I was nervous. He arrived to collect us 10 minutes early, with a local girl called Jennifer who´d never seen the sites we were going to visit, so he asked if it would be OK if she accompanied us. Of course we said yes.

29 Riding

We started down the hill a little quickly for my liking and then we galloped up the next hill and I admit my language did turn the air slightly blue. It was all I could do to hold on. We rode for around an hour through some lovely very green scenery, but I´m not sure I fully appreciated how nice it was as I was hanging on for dear life
most of the time!

28 On a horse

The tour took four hours altogether and we visited three different sites. We saw some bigger elaborately carved statues and two painted ones unearthed in 1984 and 1985. Jerry said the colours have already faded quite significantly. It´s because of the damage that the elements do to the stones that UNESCO advised the Colombian authorities to halt excavations in the mid ´90s even though they estimated about 90% of the treasures still remain buried.

27 Painted statue

Towards the end of our ride I did start to enjoy myself a bit more and even made my horse gallop of my own volition. Although I like to think this was because my skills were improving dramatically, I suspect it may have something to do with the sugar cane whisky we sampled on our way between sites!

30 Amazing scenery

When we got back Jim and I skipped lunch with Daniel and Jerry in order to go and do some laundry - the sun was out and we hoped our trousers would dry before the morning. We lounged around at El Maco then walked into town to buy
our bus tickects back to Popayan. The bad news was, the bus was due to leave at 6:30am.

36 With our riding companions Daniel and Louis

We walked back up the hill just before 7pm to order some dinner and settle our bill. Rene cooked us some amazing pasta and even baked us some bread and made fresh mango jam for the bus journey the following morning. What luxury! We joked at chatted with him and Daniel for a few hours over some beers and then retired to our cabin to pack our bags once more and get some sleep before our crazily early start in the morning.