The Jeep Tour of San Agustín

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  San Agustin, Colombia
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

So for the equivalent of $15 I take this jeep tour that starts at 9am and doesn't finish until 5pm.  We started out at the Estrecho de la Magdalena, a portion of the Magdalena river that's particularly violent, as the water gets shoved into a small corridor.  Again, I'm climbing down wet rocks and stairs, so familiar to me after the Ciudad Perdida trek. I found a nice 6 inch long red centipede on the stairs...you know how I love bugs and South America has many so I took its portrait.

Our next stop was Obundo...I took a picture of the sign because I knew I'd forget the name of the place.  Here there are several tombs reaching deep into the earth.  A lot of pottery was found in the tombs. The highlight of the museum was a six section mural detailing the history of the indigenous people of the region from the beginning to now.  We were able to climb down into the tombs and have a look around, imagining what it would be like to rest there forever.

Next we continued on to Alto de los Idolos, that houses several statues, sacred sites, and burial grounds of the ancient people who populated this place 5000 years ago.  Some of the statues still have paint on them, hinting at their former glory.  The largest of the statues stood over 7 meters tall and when I approached it I felt the energy of the huge vortex that surrounded it.  Whatever the people of that place did in that location had a lot of power associated with it.  At some of the sites I was able to put my hands on the rocks, and although the air was cold (in the 50s), the stones were warm, pleasant to touch, comforting.  Many of the stones were decorated with the Sacred Geometry that populates my doodles (spirals, crosses, circles), which made me think out loud, "Ah, yes, you knew, didn´t you." 

Further up the road was Alto de las Piedras, which contained several more beautiful statues and stones.  Again I found myself drifting away into my imaginary, as I did on the trek to Ciudad Perdida, and in the city itself.  Faced with objects from thousands of years ago always puts me in a state of deep contemplation, ultimate respect, of rememory. 

The next two stops were "Saltos" or jumps of the Magdalena river.  Really, they are huge magnificent waterfalls.  The scenery of the mountains and the water is powerful, moving.  I encounter parts of myself that I cannot achieve running back and forth to work every day, in the darkness of the city and the public buildings that house my daily activities.  In contrast, this place is light, inhabited by only the angels and the animals. 

Finally, we were taken to a farm where we got to see the process of making Panela, a substance that tastes like honey, carmel, and marzpan.  The sugercane is milled into shreds, and the sweetness is extracted through a boiling process in five different pots, each time getting more and more distilled.  In the end the sticky substance is poured into molds (covered with bees), and left to dry. 

When I returned to the hotel Matt (my English friend I met in Cartagena) was in the reception with four woman and a man from Ireland that he brought from Popayán.  It was nice to run into him again, as the group we had put together in Cartagena was a lot of fun.  After my day at the Internet cafe today, we plan on doing the horseback tour of San Agustín and also the archeological park tomorrow.

Hope eveyrone is doing well!  Enjoy the big bang tonight and other fireworks displays!

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