We'd had a tortuous journey from San Agustín and across the mountains of southern Colombia, jammed into a colectivo bus, a small jeep-like vehicle. With 10 passengers squeezed into a space for 6, we swayed and rocked as one as the jeep swerved and jolted to avoid rocks and holes. We were feeling quite battered and bedraggled by the time we arrived in San Andrés de Pisimalá, a tiny village at the end of a road. We were in San Andrés to visit the Tierradentro Archeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| Underground tomb, Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
The Tierradentro site is known for the underground tombs that were built between 500 and 800 CE in the hills of southern Colombia. Underground tombs can be found throughout the Americas, but the Tierradentro Archaeological Park houses the largest collection in a concentrated area.
The Tierradentro Park is very near the small rural town of San Andrés de Pisimalá (San Andrés). The Park is not well known beyond Colombia and is rarely visited by tourists, partly because it's out of the way, and partly because this area is controlled by the FARC guerrilla group and considered dangerous.
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| Our still full colectivo leaving San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
We felt the journey on the colectivo was more dangerous, but eventually we arrived in San Andrés. With our still-full colectivo disappearing in the dust, we looked around finding that San Andrés was a very tiny commune at the end of a dirt road, with nobody about.
At the crossroads where we were dropped off, there didn't seem to be any shops, there were no ATM cash machines, and as we learned later, there was no internet. Fortunately, we'd booked accommodation in advance at the La Portada Hospedaje & Restaurant, so went looking for it.
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| Marg with her case in the main street San Andrés, Colombia |
The roads were not paved, so we struggled along the dirt road with our wheelie suitcases to find La Portada. It wasn't difficult as there were hardly any other buildings.
Because our colectivo was so late getting us there, we didn’t have time to go to the main Tierradentro Archaeological Park that afternoon as planned. But the La Portada people showed us a rough, hilly, narrow track beside their hospedaje, suggesting that if we left straight away, we would have about 40 minutes to get to one of the neighbouring sites before it closed for the day.
Off we went up that rough hilly, narrow track like a couple of kid goats, eagerly trotting and hopping from rock to rock along the rough track and making good time. Then we went around a sharp bend and saw that it was uphill for quite a way. OK. We can do this.
Off we went again, but more like nanny goats - a little slower now. Then we turned another bend and it was uphill again but steeper! No frolicking now; we were just about on all fours trying to climb up.
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| Looking down the hill at the Tierradentro Archeological Park (UNESCO), Colombia |
We eventually got to the top of the track to find we had arrived at a peak that overlooked the archeological park.
We also saw that to get there, we had to go just as far down the other side of the peak on a steep track that was just as rough as the one we were on, then return the same way! Aarrgghh - with 15 minutes before closing time - nope, let’s not do that.
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| An underground tomb beside the track, San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
So we looked at one of the side attractions we had hurriedly passed on the way up, and settled for that, quite sad that we had missed the main event.
We had planned to have only one night here in San Andrés, so were originally going to leave the next day. However, we really wanted to visit the main park. So we decided to spend the next morning doing the park from the proper front entrance as planned, then get a later colectivo to where we could fly to our next destination instead of taking an 8-10 hour bus.
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| Traffic that we walked past going to Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
Making an early start the next morning, we set off on a brisk 2 km walk down hill to the park's main entrance, passing some of the locals on the way. From there, we had a very steep half-hour walk up into the hills and burial sites. It was certainly worth the effort though, because we got to see lots of tombs.
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| Staircase into a burial chamber, Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
To get into the underground chamber required us to carefully descend a very steep, narrow and usually spiral, set of steps cut into the rock. They were very difficult to negotiate because of their steepness, and there was nothing to hold onto. But at the bottom, each chamber was amazing.
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| Inside a burial chamber, Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
In some, there was no lighting, so we descended into the gloom with the light of our cellphone, which was not good for photos, but still exciting. The lack of, or limited lighting helps to preserve the decorations inside the tombs.
Some of the tombs were highly decorated while in others there was very little, or none that had weathered time, or that we could see in the gloom.
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| Artwork inside a burial chamber, Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
The decorations tended to be geometric patterns painted on the walls in black and brown, with some red, along with some carvings.
It is thought that the decorations correlate to the status of the tomb owner, and that the tombs had been created to house the remains of the elite of the civilisation that built them. Not much is known about this civilisation but it is believed they inhabited the area between 200 BCE and 1600 CE.
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| Artwork inside a burial chamber, Tierradentro (UNESCO), San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
Even those tombs that were less decorated, seemed to have a hallowed feel, and we were really glad that we had delayed our departure to visit the Park.
Satisfied with our morning, we walked back out to the entrance faster than going in, and had time to visit the Park's ethnological museum which had some wonderfully interesting displays.
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| San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
After that, we had to power-walk up the steep hill in the very hot steamy climate, in time to catch the afternoon colectivo to the town of La Plata.
Along the way we were suddenly met by three cows coming down the road followed by two young boys. Marg waved her arm to keep them to one side of the road but they did an about turn and belted off up the road instead - whoops! Don't think the locals were impressed.
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| Marg with one of the women from La Portada Hospedaje, San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
Moving on…..we made it back to La Portada in time for our colectivo, and our lovely hostess made sure we were safely organised for the next part of our trip. The two women running La Portada were amazing friendly people, despite our lack of Spanish and their lack of English.
Around an hour into our colectivo trip, in the middle of nowhere, Leigh became very unwell and had to have a stop at the edge of the road – maybe the chicken meal last night! After stopping several times, the driver and other passengers were beginning to run out of patience because of the hold ups. It wasn’t a great time for anyone but she was really unwell!
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| Marg waiting for our colectivo, San Andrés de Pisimalá, Colombia |
Still feeling very ill she managed to complete the ride to the main bus station in the town of La Plata. But when we got there, we didn't have quite enough cash to pay the colectivo driver, so looked for an ATM at the bus station. However, there weren't any ATM's, banks. or money changers at all.
The colectivo driver wanted his money, so leaving an unwell Leigh waiting at the bus station with the luggage, he drove Marg into town to an ATM. Then, colectivo ride paid for, he found her a motorcycle taxi back to the bus station to Leigh! What a patient man.
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| Lonely bus station waiting for Marg, La Plata, Colombia |
At La Plata bus station, we caught a bus for the 4-hour journey to the larger town of Neiva, the only town around with an airport. We were tired and Leigh still wasn't feeling well so we bit-the-bullet and paid a huge amount for a 1-hour flight rather than taking a cheaper 9-hour bus ride. Soon we were in the air and on our way to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.
This
is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries
of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.