San Agustin and Las Lajas – on our way to Ecuador

Statues at San Agustin Archaeological Park

Leaving San Andrés and Tierradentro we continued our tour of pre‑Hispanic Colombia and traveled to San Agustin and its archaeological park.

It took us a full day to get from San Andrés to San Agustin: first we took a converted ute to La Plata, then a bus to Pitalito and then another converted ute to San Agustin, all small towns in the Colombian Andes. When we finally got to our final destination, we looked for accommodation and were rewarded with a really nice room at La Casa de Francois, a beautiful hostel up on the hillside overlooking San Agustin. It also seems to be where all the French tourists stay (we suppose the name has something to do with that) and we enjoyed the company of the many French backpackers and tourists at this hostel.

Statues at Mesita A, San Agustin

Checking out the statues at the Bosque, San Agustin

One of our favourite statues, Mesita B

San Agustin is a much more popular tourist destination than Tierradentro. People come here to see the over 500 statues that have been found in this region, known as the Upper Magdalena region. People have lived in this region for about 2000 years, and the burial chambers and sculptures date from between the 6^th and 14^th Centuries. These statues were sculpted from volcanic rock and take many forms, often representing animals, humans or both, sometimes with masks and headdresses. Some of these statues were buried in tombs, others were arranged as custodians in the ceremonial chambers, while others acted as the tomb’s columns.

We only had one full day in San Agustin, so we took a collectivo to the archaeological park soon after it opened and spent 3 hours visiting the trail of statues. The San Agustin Archaeological Park was established in 1937 and has a number of groupings of statues. Our favourites were in Mesita B, where the statues have an incredible amount of detail and examples of different styles of sculpture. The walk was mostly flat and the paths well maintained – nothing like the challenging hike at Tierradentro!

Photo-bombing statue

Incredible, tall statue at Mesita B

Statue in the Bosque

San Agustin Archaeological Park

In the afternoon we went for a walk to two other sites: El Tablón and La Chaquira. These two sites were located at an hour walk from our hostel and were quite easy to get to. The site of El Tablón was not that special in our opinion, it was composed of another few statues that were very similar to many of the ones we had already seen in the Archaeological Park. But the view of the valley at La Chaquira was really beautiful and we spent so much time admiring the landscape that we almost missed the pre‑Hispanic carving we came there to see! La Chaquira is carved into a large rock overlooking the valley and was quite different to the statues; it was worth the walk in the afternoon heat.

Can you spot La Chaquira?

View from La Chaquira

The next day we got up early to start our journey to Ecuador. Our goal was to get to Ipiales, but we knew it was likely we’d have to spend the night in Pasto instead to avoid overnight travel (and night time robberies). Our trip from San Agustin to Pasto was a memorable one to say the least! We took a collective taxi to Pitalito followed by a converted ute to Mocoa. So far so good…

It was the next part of the trip that made us anxious. This road has many nicknames: Trampolín de la Muerte (Trampoline of Death), Trampolín del Diablo (Devil’s Trampoline), Adios Mi Vida (Goodbye My Life)… This was the most direct route to the border crossing we wanted to take to Ecuador (and the only safe border crossing between the two countries), but it was also the most dangerous. It is considered the most dangerous road in the country and one of the worst in South America. Having debated whether to take this route or go back to Popayán and down we decided to risk it after speaking with the owner of La Casa de Francois who said she did the trip all the time and assured us it would be fine.

Road from Mocoa to Pasto

And in the end it was fine, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some nail biting moments and cause for concern. Although it is highly likely that our concern was augmented from having read some horror stories about this road. It twists and winds up through the mountains; the road is not paved and we passed many vehicles with burst tyres; small waterfalls cross the road at several points; the road is often barely wide enough for one car, forcing one party to back up when another vehicle is coming from the other direction; for only half the journey the road has steel rail guards, for the other half of the journey there are only wooden poles with plastic tape between them (sure that will stop a bus from crashing down!) or nothing; we encountered several (cleared) landslides; the entire route had precipitous falls – if our vehicle was to make a wrong turn or if the driver lost control then it would be a steep plummet. And although the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, we often preferred to stare at the wall next to us than at the views in order to avoid seeing how close the van was to the edge in the curves.

The tape would not have been much protection from the drop…

Trampolin de la Muerte

We had two things going in our favour for this trip. First, it wasn’t raining. We would not have gone if it had rained, as those small waterfalls with a rivulet coming over the road apparently turn into a torrent if there has been rain recently. Second, we were in a small van, not in a large bus or truck, which has less manoeuvrability and our driver was driving pretty slowly. We survived the Trampoline of Death, lived to tell the tale, and ended up in Pasto for a night. We had wanted to get closer to the border (and Las Lajas Cathedral) but we ran out of light after 10 hours of travel and it is strongly recommended to avoid travelling at night.

Las Lajas Sanctuary

Early the next morning we took a bus to Ipiales, stored our bags at the bus terminal and took a collectivo taxi to Las Lajas Sanctuary. This Gothic Church – completed in 1949 after 33 years of construction – straddles the Guáitara river canyon 20 minutes from Ipiales and is one of the most beautiful churches we’ve ever seen. It is built into the canyon and part of the church’s wall behind the altar is formed by the canyon rock. The bridge that connects Las Lajas to the other side of the canyon is adorned by white statues of angels playing musical instruments, including the saxophone (which incidentally is a Belgian instrument). On the other side of the canyon, where there are plenty of lookout points and pathways which offer spectacular views of the church.

In 1754 a local woman supposedly saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary at the site of the church during a storm while sheltering between lajas, a local variety of shale. Subsequently this point became an important religious site and prompted the construction of the Sanctuary.

Plenty of viewpoints for this amazing church

Some of the clergy enjoying the views

We walked inside the beautiful church and saw many members of the clergy speaking with visitors; it seems that a lot of masses are held at this church every day; they even had a guide on attending mass and asking visitors to wait outside for the next mass if one is already underway.

Our visit to this impressive church was a really nice way to end an incredible journey in Colombia. We have enjoyed our time in Colombia tremendously and are already looking forward to our next trip to this gorgeous country. Next we will cross the border into Ecuador and head to Otavalo in time for its famous Saturday market.

What a sight!

Statues on the bridge crossing the canyon

And another statue

The beautiful Las Lajas Sanctuary

Popayán and the Tierradentro ruins

Tierradentro Archaeological Park

Our last week in Colombia was a very busy one, filled with colonial architecture and pre-Hispanic ruins. We were determined to get to Otovalo in Ecuador in time for their famous Saturday market, so our time south of Cali was unfortunately limited. From Cali we took a bus to Popayán, the former seat of power and a nice colonial city.

Founded in 1537 Popayán is referred to as the “white city” and it’s clear why – the colonial town boasts chalk white building after chalk white building. The town is very well preserved and has plenty of churches and a nice town centre, focused around Parque Caldas. The most important buildings around Parque Caldas include Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and the Clock Tower. Referred to as the nose of Popayán and completed in 1682, the clock no longer keeps time and has been stuck on the same time for many years.

Popayan with Belen and La Ermita churches in the background

Popayan, the White City

The Cathedral and Clock Tower

Food at Mora Castilla

Popayán has been home to 17 of Colombia’s Presidents, more than any other part of the country. It also hosts the largest Semana Santa (Easter) celebrations in Colombia and the second largest in the world after Seville, Spain. More importantly for us, UNESCO designated it a City of Gastronomy, the only city thus recognised in Latin America. It goes without saying that we had to try some of the local cuisine. We visited Mora Castilla, a restaurant that specialises in tapas sized portions of the regional cuisine.

We weren’t sure what to order, so the lovely owner recommended a few dishes for us and we followed his exact recommendations. The food was absolutely delicious; we had local tamales, carantanta con hogao, patacón con queso, empanadas de pipián, all washed down with salpicón payanés and champus. Everything was so good that we just couldn’t say no to dessert; there were two options on the menu and we got one of each. The desserts did not disappoint either! We had a really tasty local version of lemon cake and a “postre Eduardo Santos”. The owner told us the story behind the latter: apparently when former president Eduardo Santos visited Popayán a banquet was prepared for him, but the dessert they had prepared somehow got ruined, so they threw together a dessert with whatever ingredients they could find in the kitchen, with a surprisingly delicious result! The president like the dessert so much that he asked what its name was; since it didn’t have one, they named it after him.

Catedral Basilica Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion

Sarah in a doorway

Iglesia del Carmen

Although Popayán is a pretty colonial town, after an afternoon we had seen enough to satisfy our curiosity. We enjoyed our short time there, but have to admit that the highlight of our visit was definitely our dinner at Mora Castilla. We were in Popayán from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning, the city seemed to be pretty empty of people, especially on Sunday – nothing was open and only police were on the streets.

Painted tomb at Tierradentro

From Popayán we took a direct bus to San Andrés de Pisimbalá, the town next to the pre-Hispanic ruins of Tierradentro. The bus trip was not as bad as we had read – sure it was bumpy and windy at times, but not nearly the near death experience we had read online. We were however quite impressed by the enormous amount of dust that our backpacks had gathered during the trip there. This entire area used to be a no go zone for tourists. Guerrilla activity and fighting deterred all but the most adventurous of visiting this region. But now that tourists have started trickling into the area to visit the famous burial grounds roads are being built, replacing the dirt tracks that used to be the only route to these towns. Although it is still not exactly a smooth ride, it demonstrates that peace brings prosperity.

We stayed at La Portada in San Andrés for two nights in order to visit the Tierradentro Archaeological Park, which was named UNESCO world heritage in 1995. The visit involved a long hike to visit all the excavated tombs on a circuit through the mountains, with stunning scenery as a backdrop. These tombs – also called hypogea – have only been excavated recently; while some initial work was done from the 1930s – 1950s, most of the excavation took place between the 1960s and the 1990s. Work here is ongoing; we passed several burial tombs that are known to exist but are yet to be excavated. In Gold Museums around the country you can see some of the artefacts that were found in these burial tombs, but seeing the tombs in person is a very different experience.

We had beautiful views on this hike

Inside a hypogea

Paintings and carved faces in this tomb

Black vulture that followed us for a while…

We decided to do the circuit anti-clockwise, visiting the most important site (Segovia) first and avoiding a really steep one hour uphill climb. The entire circuit took us a little over 7 hours of hiking – the trail was tough but worthwhile, as climbing the many mountains afforded some spectacular views of the Colombian Andes. We shared the views with wild horses and black vultures (the fact the vultures were circling us most of the hike is a bad indictment on our fitness level). The friendly guards who look after the tombs double as guides and provided us with a lot of useful information about the hypogeas.

Tierradentro means “Inside the Earth”, an appropriate name for these burial tombs. To access each we had to descend a number of stairs – big stairs that were challenging for us to descend and climb, we can only imagine how difficult it would have been for the indigenous people at the time of construction who were a lot shorter. According to one of the guards nobody really knows why they built such big steps. The tombs are located between 2 and 7 metres underground and not much is known about them. Almost all the ones we saw had columns carved out of the walls, many with figures carved into the columns and a number still decorated with red and black paint. Most of the tombs had lighting to help appreciate their attributes, but those that lacked lighting were at times eerie.

Figures carved into the tomb columns

Sarah enters the tomb

Sarah looking at the sculptures

The Archaeological Park also has a couple of pre-Hispanic anthropomorphic sculptures carved from volcanic rock, representing dignitaries and deities, which are located at the El Tablón site. After visiting this site we went back to the town of San Andrés, where we had a big lunch at La Portada before embarking on the second and most strenuous part of the hike in the archaeological park. This part of the circuit leads to Alto de Aguacate, the hightest point of the hike, which provides stunning views. A lot of visitors to the Park don’t go as far as El Aguacate because the hike up there is quite demanding (and the walk down is tough on the knees!) and because most of the tombs found up there were raided by guaqueros (tomb raiders) and are therefore not as well preserved. However, we found the views during the hike to be so breathtaking that it was well worth the effort to get there. We were absolutely exhausted and pretty dusty when we finally got back to town, but quickly recovered after a shower and a beer!

Views during the last part of the hike

Tierradentro is not a popular tourist destination and it is a bit off the beaten track, which meant that we had the place to ourselves for the most part. There were only a handful of tourists visiting the Archaeological Park while we were there, making the experience even more special.

The hypogeas and the hike were absolutely wonderful; another highlight of our time in Colombia! We will continue our tour of pre-Hispanic Colombia, heading to more popular San Agustin and its Archaeological Park as we continue our journey south to the border of Ecuador.

The chalk white walls of Popayan

Popayan’s theatre

Cathedral at night

Shack encountered on our hike

Inside the tomb

Amazing designs in the hypogea

Duncan in the Colombian Andes