Augustinians and Magdalenas
San Augustin is a pain to get to. I don't mean inconvenient or expensive, but litterally to arrive here by land you must endure a fair amount of physical discomfort. It's part of the cost, and serves to keep the tourist levels to a minimum despite the attractions. The trip shouldbe about 6 hours, and after 7.5 hours of hip-jarring bumps on a night bus, we were let off at a town which took us an embarrasing amount of time to work out was NOT San Augustin but some other town a few k's past it. The driver seemed very regretfull at having taken us to the wrong town, but equally insisted that transport was finished for the night and to wait until morning to get a ride back. He gave us 8,000 pesos for said trip and we got a nearby dingy hotel. The next day when we finally did arrive in the actual and genuine SA, we pitched tent (with a slight resentment one has for an object you've been carrying around for 3 months on your back and used but twice) and organised immedietly to visit the local archelogical sites by means of horseback.
I've been horseback riding before, and I remember it as a painful and sadistic mode of locomotion in which the four brown legs under you are powered, resentfully, by fierce kicks. Any slowing of kicks results in a deceleration to full, frustrating stop. The horses we rode the first day at San A. were nothing like that. Hannah's beast was a yellow stallion with white hair and a noble bearing named Mono, mine was a smaller chestnut affair named Matius. Matius liked to run. The day on these guys was pretty fun, they proceed tirelessly and at every speed there is a different method of sitting to master. The wind in your hair (No helmets. This is Columbia.) and soft muddied clops of hooves, I tell you now I can see why humans seem so obsessed with riding the bloody things. Matius liked to run.
The archelogical sites were fascinating, the culture deeloped entirely independant of the Incan empire, and disapeared just before the arrival of the Spaniards. The stone artwork is of a higher quality than anything we've seen, and in style is closer to indonesian than anything else in South America. In addition to all the stuff you'd expect, they have artwork depicting cobras, elephants and gorillas, and show people who resemble indonesians, indian, african and egyptian in both physical appearance and dress. They have a statue of Ganesh, the hindu god! They have depictions of brain surgery, cesarian sections and a knowledge of how the human heart functions in startling detail, all dated to around 3000BC (so, just before the creation of the earth if you get your history from 'ze Bible'). Matius liked to run. There are hundreds of stones all around the area, so we spent the first two days touring around the major clusters. The second day this was expediated by a jeep and driver who let us stand on the back and just hold on as we toured around, and even sit on top holding onto the luggage racks which we did until we were sore and sunburned. After we'd seen the dusty old sites, stopped off to see how a local speciality is made and gotten some lunch, he then took us to see something which made me forget all about the Augustinians and their boring antedeluvian globetrotting/science.
The biggest, longest and most important river in the country: The Rio Magdalena! She tumbles down in a spectacular 400meter fall, a height exceeded only to the dry Angel Falls in the whole continent. We knew there was rafting nearby, so the third and last day of our stay we strapped on the lifejackets and rode the class 3/4 rapids. I've never been before, but I'm a fan for life. The Magdalena bucked and splashed, unnerved and unseated, sped and crawled, hit us and caressed us, and finally exalted and exausted us. It's a prety intese activity, probably made more difficult by first time jitters and the fact all our instructions were in spanish. Definetly my 2nd most exciting Magdalena-related experience evar.
We packed our tent and made our back, across more night-time, hip-busting hours, to Popayan, then to the border, which we crossed this morning while the sky itself cried for our going. South, then, to Ecuador and it's capital Quito, our very last and final stop before flying out to Santiago International, then home..
I've been horseback riding before, and I remember it as a painful and sadistic mode of locomotion in which the four brown legs under you are powered, resentfully, by fierce kicks. Any slowing of kicks results in a deceleration to full, frustrating stop. The horses we rode the first day at San A. were nothing like that. Hannah's beast was a yellow stallion with white hair and a noble bearing named Mono, mine was a smaller chestnut affair named Matius. Matius liked to run. The day on these guys was pretty fun, they proceed tirelessly and at every speed there is a different method of sitting to master. The wind in your hair (No helmets. This is Columbia.) and soft muddied clops of hooves, I tell you now I can see why humans seem so obsessed with riding the bloody things. Matius liked to run.
The archelogical sites were fascinating, the culture deeloped entirely independant of the Incan empire, and disapeared just before the arrival of the Spaniards. The stone artwork is of a higher quality than anything we've seen, and in style is closer to indonesian than anything else in South America. In addition to all the stuff you'd expect, they have artwork depicting cobras, elephants and gorillas, and show people who resemble indonesians, indian, african and egyptian in both physical appearance and dress. They have a statue of Ganesh, the hindu god! They have depictions of brain surgery, cesarian sections and a knowledge of how the human heart functions in startling detail, all dated to around 3000BC (so, just before the creation of the earth if you get your history from 'ze Bible'). Matius liked to run. There are hundreds of stones all around the area, so we spent the first two days touring around the major clusters. The second day this was expediated by a jeep and driver who let us stand on the back and just hold on as we toured around, and even sit on top holding onto the luggage racks which we did until we were sore and sunburned. After we'd seen the dusty old sites, stopped off to see how a local speciality is made and gotten some lunch, he then took us to see something which made me forget all about the Augustinians and their boring antedeluvian globetrotting/science.
The biggest, longest and most important river in the country: The Rio Magdalena! She tumbles down in a spectacular 400meter fall, a height exceeded only to the dry Angel Falls in the whole continent. We knew there was rafting nearby, so the third and last day of our stay we strapped on the lifejackets and rode the class 3/4 rapids. I've never been before, but I'm a fan for life. The Magdalena bucked and splashed, unnerved and unseated, sped and crawled, hit us and caressed us, and finally exalted and exausted us. It's a prety intese activity, probably made more difficult by first time jitters and the fact all our instructions were in spanish. Definetly my 2nd most exciting Magdalena-related experience evar.
We packed our tent and made our back, across more night-time, hip-busting hours, to Popayan, then to the border, which we crossed this morning while the sky itself cried for our going. South, then, to Ecuador and it's capital Quito, our very last and final stop before flying out to Santiago International, then home..