Sunday, 26 January 2014

San Agustin. Remnants of people lost to history!

Spread through hectares of forest around the town of San Agustin, is the largest collection of pre-Columbian statues and monuments, most of which were found to be guarding burial sites filled with pottery and gold offerings. Little is known about the people of this northern Andean culture, one of the earliest complex sociaties in the americas, who appeared to flourish from the 1st to the 8th century, and then disappeared.









The entrance to a typical tomb, guarded by some pretty imposing characters..








Two-headed statue that appears to be holding a baby upside down ... early midwifery?




An unearthed tomb structure!  Pretty cool..




Colombia's tallest waterfall ... oh, and the 3rd tallest in South America.  Not as spectacular as we were expecting, but definitely worth a look.



Salento - The Valley of the Wax Palms

Cocora Valley, near the quaint town of Salento, is the home of the national tree of Colombia, the Quindio wax palm.

They are the tallest palm in the world, and can grow up to 60 metres high - some of them seemed taller to me though!




Views over Parque National Los Navados.   Stunning!







Bogota, Colombia


We had a short stopover in Bogota, Colombia's capital city. The highlights were the gold museum and the amazing street art. Check it out. 

The Bogota Gold Museum has a huge display of pre-columbian gold artifacts dating back to 2000BC.  The museum has a load of information about ancient metallurgy techniques including the use of wax molds for the production of identical pieces ... totally fascinating how long man has been manipulating the resources of the earth.




Golden fish hooks ... really wouldn't want to lose your rig using one of these!





Giant noserings ... a major feature of pre-colombian cultures!





Shoe-shine ... thumbs up!









Thursday, 16 January 2014

San Gil

Adventure-tourism capital of Colombia ... enough said.


Grade III-V rapids in the Rio Fonce ...








Juan Curi waterfall - 180m high ...


... and some people rappel down it!


Cute little historic town of Barichara.






Paragliding!!