We left the White City of Popayan which is in south-western Colombia, to visit two UNESCO sites we'd read about which are in south-eastern Colombia. The first UNESCO site was the San Agustín Archaeological Park in the small town of San Agustín, and the next was Tierradentro Archaeological Park in the even smaller town of San Andrés de Pisimalá.
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| Ancient statues at San Agustín Archeological Park (UNESCO), San Agustín, Colombia |
Our first stop, the San Agustín Archaeological Park, contains what has been called, the largest collection of stone religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America. It is sometimes compared to Easter Island.
To get to San Agustín, around 6 bus-hours away from Popayan, was somewhat trying! It was a long and winding and mostly dirt road.
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| Our chiva bus to San Agustín, Colombia |
We were getting there by a colourful chiva bus. The chivas are famous for taking large groups of passengers around the narrow, treacherous and remote Colombian mountain roads.
During the long trip Leigh needed a toilet stop, and managed to communicate this to the driver. With no towns nearby, he stopped by the side of the road and everybody got out.
The local men and women relieved themselves by the side of the road, with the women having privacy because of their big full skirts. Leigh, wearing jeans, was directed to the jungle. In there, she found a sign that read ‘watch out for wild pigs’ and so came out of that jungle pretty quickly, hoping the driver had put it there to ensure a speedy return to the bus!
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| Isolated drop off point for San Agustín, Colombia |
A few hours later, the bus stopped at a
crossroad in the middle of nowhere, and the driver said - after we figured out
the translation - “get off here for San Agustín”. But wait….we bought tickets to go the whole
way! There was no town here, only a dilapidated building.
We were off-loaded anyway, and stood around confused. Then a woman who
appeared to be the bus agent, explained that the bus did not go all the way
and we had to take the rest of the trip by taxi. Ok, but where are the taxis; we were in the middle of nowhere!
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| Centre of San Agustín, Colombia |
Then a 4WD pulled up. It was to take us into San Agustín town and was already paid for by
the bus company. Lovely. Had we known beforehand we might not
have stressed-out about being in the middle of nowhere. But then our Spanish is
very chico (small), so we can't really blame the bus company.
In the speedy 4WD, we very soon arrived in the centre of San Agustin. Upon hearing that our accommodation was on the other side of town, we paid for our 4WD to go a bit further and drop us there.
It was Hostal Huaka-Yo which proved to be a great place to stay. It was set in gorgeous green park-like settings with reception and dining up the hill, and rooms down the hill.
After unpacking, we walked about two hundred metres up the road to the entrance to the San Agustín Archaeological Park, the reason why we were in San Agustín.
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| Leigh at San Agustín Archeological Park (UNESCO), San Agustín, Colombia |
The Park contains the biggest collection of large religious monuments and stone sculptures in Latin America, and is considered the world's largest necropolis. More than 500 statues have been found, but the surrounding area is thought to contain many more that have not yet been excavated.
It was discovered in 1758 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
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| Leigh at San Agustín Archeological Park (UNESCO), San Agustín, Colombia |
Apparently, little is known about the origin or purpose of the sculptures, but it is believed that they date back to around 500–400 AD, and are evidence of an ancient civilization thought to be the San Agustín culture. This is one of the ancient Pre-Colombian cultures of South America. The San Agustín's have a history that emerged between 4000 and 3001 BC.
After arriving at the Park, we visited the interesting museum near the Park entrance, then worked our way through the Park along its shaded jungle-garden trails. There was a lot to see and the statues were a mix of small and very large.
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| San Agustín Archeological Park (UNESCO), San Agustín, Colombia |
We had a wonderful time wandering around. Then we came to a section of the Park that had a bamboo bridge over a stream. The stream floor was strewn with flat stones, many of which had been carved. We spotted images of frogs, birds and snakes sparkling in the sun as the water washed over and around them. It was a magical place.
Overall, it was an incredible place to visit even if it was tricky to get to.
After a couple of nights in San Agustín, it was time to move on to our next UNESCO site in the town of San Andrés de Pisimalá (San Andrés).
The next morning, we got a taxi back into San Agustín town to catch a bus toward San Andrés. But our bus was a small colectivo rather than a big bus. A colectivo is a Jeep or 4-wheel drive, with bench seats in the back. They are used throughout this region to move people and goods around the mountains.
Each colectivo seats 8 smallish passengers in the back. If more passengers need a ride, they are put in the front seats beside the driver or hang off the tailgate at the rear – no one is refused a ride. We have seen upward of 16 people in and on, one of these small colectivos.
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| A typically full colectivo in Colombia |
We managed to get a seat in the back of a colectivo for the 45-minute swerving and jogging ride to the rural town of Pitalito, the first of three stops and bus changes between San Agustín and San Andrés, our destination. So after Pitalito, we were one town down and two to go.
In Pitalito, we found our way to the right bus place, and with our poor Spanish, managed to catch a minibus north to Garzón where we had to change buses again.
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| Villages near Garzón, Colombia |
It was a slow and dusty 2.5 hours to Garzón, dropping people off and picking others up on the way, and swerving to avoid rocks and holes in the road. But while it added time to the journey, it also added interest because we got to have a peek at some rural Colombian towns and villages.
Garzón is known for its coffee, and considered a place where the best coffee in the world is grown and processed. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to sample any as we had to swap buses again, to get to La Plata. We were now two towns down and one to go.
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| Boy and chicken (bottom left) in our colectivo to La Plata, Colombia |
Our bus from Garzón to La Plata was another colectivo that also stopped at many villages along the route. At one small village, we picked up a boy with his live chicken which he safely stowed under his seat with the other produce.
Off we went, firstly on a real sealed road but all too soon this changed to dirt. There were some incredibly rough parts where the road was being rebuilt so we went off-road which was even rougher!
Eventually, we reached La Plata.
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| Horse transport dropping off goods at the bus station in La Plata, Colombia |
La Plata is a rural town of around 57,000 people located beside the Rio La Plata (River of Silver). As with Garzón, it's known for its coffee, and also rice, bananas and sugar cane. This was evident in the transport and goods being moved around the town by horses and carts, donkeys, scooters, and motorbikes.
It seemed like a nice town, but our minibus ended up at a very scruffy and dusty yard called a bus station, rather than the main bus terminal. As with all of our bus trips in Colombia to date, we were the only 'gringos' there, so got lots of curious stares as we waited for our bus.
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| Chiva bus leaving the bus yard in La Plata, Colombia |
While we were waiting, many chiva buses were coming and going from the small yard, which was quite a feat as the entrance was very narrow. After about 90 minutes, our colectivo arrived.
Then was a struggle to get a seat. The driver wouldn't let us inside the cabin (reserving it for mothers with babies and older women), so while our luggage was tossed onto the roof, we fought our way into the back. We were all squeezed in like a sardines but at least we had a seat!
Eventually, feeling rather battered and bedraggled, we left for San Andrés, a tiny village at the end of a road where we would visit the Tierradentro UNESCO World Heritage site.... but more on that in the next blog.
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”.