Checking out Pre-Colombian Colombia in San Agustín

To complete my cultural immersion in Colombia, I think I left the blog to the wayside! Here's trying to recap my journey:

Well, backtracking to early May...After soaking in life in Colombia´s sprawling capital for a couple of weeks with my lovely host family, I set off on a night bus to San Agustin. The main draw of this sleepy little city, nestled in the Andes, is a wealth of pre-Colombian statues, unearthed by archaeologists from around the world just a century ago. Little is known about the people that created the sculptures, which naturally lends to their mysterious appeal and my curiosity to visit!

The bus ride was surprisingly comfy, they even served snacks, drinks and provided a blanket to fend off the nip of over-exaggerated air conditioning! 9 hours later we were making our ascent up windy, cliffside roads to San Agustin. The scenery of the area is simply beautiful. Fed by frequent, tropical showers and plenty of warm sunlight, everywhere you look is bright green, accented by flowers of pink, orange, and yellow and earth of rich reddish brown.

Waking myself up with some locally harvested coffee at the hostel, I made my way to town to check out their Monday market. Countless stands dripping with a rainbow variety of fruit and veggies greet the eye while the smell of homemade stews and soups waft over from ´bars´ where you can have your fill of home cooking for a couple bucks. After breakfast I took a stroll through the meat area, stalls of white marble stained red with chunks of fresh cuts exposed to the open air. (I decided to cook vegetarian for the duration of my stay!)

Making delicious cane sugar juice.

After boosting my energy with a local specialty, freshly squeezed cane sugar juice (guarapo), I started walking to the archeological park that keeps the majority of sculptures that have been discovered. I had the afternoon to wander among the sites, imagining what the cultures that created these fantastical figures were like. Unfortunately, very little information was offered, so much was left up to personal interpretation. Basically, the statues were discovered by unearthing artificial mounds. Deep in the earth lay tombs, protected by a sort of gate of statues. The statues are made from volcanic stone and have been amazingly preserved underground, some for 5000 years!

The use of animal representations native to the Amazon region indicates that there was contact between the Andean region of San Agustin and the tribes down in the Amazon basin.

Almost all were warrior-like with characteristic feline fangs. What amazed me the most was the uniqueness of each statue despite some shared motifs. I think that's why I have 300 pictures of statues on my phone...

The following day I joined in on a Jeep tour with a group of Belgians to see various in situ statues. This time we hired a guide at one of the sites, who was able to make some sense of what we were seeing.  

On the way to another site, we stopped by a panela factory. Panela is a product of sugar cane used to make drinks. Agua de panela tastes like very sweet iced tea, at least to me! We were able to wander around and observe the process…and sample the panela at its various stages. (in other words, peel chunks of caramel-consistency off the table!)

Trapiche to extract the sugar cane juice.

Boiling down the juice.

Finished product-Panela!

My last day in San Agustin I joined up with a Colombian family staying at the hostel and we braved the rain, through it´s varying intensities, to check out some more archaeological sites. I enjoyed chatting with the daughter, an anthropology student. She had spent the last 3 months shadowing the lives of ´campesina´ women (rural farmers) in the area.  She also explained to me some of the tensions and land disputes that exist between those rural Colombians and indigenous groups. She was of the mind that although the government has taken various measures to protect the rights of the indigenous groups, that their cultures are slowly disappearing.

Coffee bushes are planted on nearly-vertical mountainsides. Our guide demonstrating how they manage not to fall of the edge!

By the time we reached the final point of our hike, the rains became torrential. After taking refuge and sipping a beer in hopes of waiting in out (beer always seems to be available when you need it in Colombia), we were forced to trudge through muddy trails for over an hour back to the hostel. It was all worth the trouble, but I was definitely happy to be heading Colombia’s only desert the next day! Next stop: Desierto de la Tatacoa.