Mysterious Civilisations

Well plans change just as easily as they are made and the next day saw me abandon my plans to head towards Popayan in favour of a slightly more complicated route straight to San Augustin. The slightly more adventurous route saw me head towards the jungle and through the mountains twisting my way with a cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other towards the small little town of Mocoa. Comfortingly or perhaps equally as likely disturbingly the army presence was quite heavy in this area and we had our luggage searched and documents checked whilst also playing taxi on occasions! The scenery was quite spectacular with both the valleys below and mountains above covered with every type of tree and shade of green possible. The road was not quite so spectacular and the bus did its best to cope with the combination of bitumen, gravel, rivers and other traffic that necessitated reversing into passing positions, we did however make the journey pretty much on time.

Arriving in Mocoa at 6pm I had decided to stay the night but just as soon as I got off the bus another one was leaving to Pitalito, the next connection in my line towards San Augustin. Figuring the opportunity was too good to pass I jumped on and another couple of winding hours saw me arrive at my destination. With the time now at almost 9:30 I was off to find a hotel for the night (you know where this is going) two minutes later I was on another bus towards San Augustin arriving there later than I wanted but relieved to have made it here especially in one day. I settled into a comfortable hostel to catch some sleep and get ready to see the statues in the park that I had heard so much about.

I walked form my hotel down to the park which was a little over 20 minutes away taking in the lush green valleys of this very fertile region of Colombia. The park is a really interesting place to wander around and I managed to find a guide that was able to actually explain a fair but about the culture & symbolism of the statue builders if not actually about the Augustin civilization in its self.

The Augustin civilization itself existed somewhere around the 3000 BC up until eventually being conquered by the Incans sometime around the 15th century AD. At the point of being conquered the people buried the statues to stop them from being desecrated or destroyed and it is only through local people and grave robbers that they were initially located, all up they have only excavated approximately 10% of the site. Sadly for visitors but in the best interests of the area they are no longer continuing to excavate until UNESCO can secure the money to excavate and protect the statues to prevent them eroding in the weather. When they do uncover the area they expect to find pyramids and evidence of an advanced civilization such as writing and art forms.

The statues on display are quite remarkable in their detail and design borrowing influences supposedly from various different cultures, suggesting that cultural exchange was important to them. The statues have the serpent influence from the Aztec tribes, the eagle/serpent/jaguar influence from the other latin American tribes, evidence of monkeys originating from asia as well as evidence of Egyptian and Indian culture. The statues also have representation of the duality of moon/sun, good/evil ect, as well as the anthropomorphic figures of both human and animal components with the jaguar, the frog, the caiman, the monkey and the serpent being the most significant. The statues also show evidence of people using hallucinogenics to influence their state of mind and feel more connected to the animals they worshipped.

The main influence however would be fertility with most statues of the girls showing either a pregnant belly or an offering of their first born to the gods. The park is also littered with statues of penises, strangely both circumcised and uncircumcised. The statues also contain other indications of fertility such as masks of the uterus and fallopian tubes as well as nine lines to represent the nine months of the birth cycle and a couple even depicting caesarian sections. One statue even shows an intricate representation of the valves and chambers of the heart. The statues also show the importance of the agriculture in their society with many statues devoted to corn and the germination time & season for the corn crop. The civilization also believed the king should being buried with three virgin girls and the queen being buried with three cremated virgin boys to accompany them in their afterlife.

There is apparently evidence in the Bogota museum that shows that the civilization was advanced in the ideas of both brain surgery, heart surgery as well as other medical techniques. Evidence also suggests that they had a detailed knowledge of the reproductive methods of the animals and may have been advanced enough to have used caesarian section for birth as well.

The whole setting of the park is also incredible with the green fertile valleys leading into the almost jungle like setting of the park itself. After a visit to the park I took the opportunity to walk around the village and visit some of the more remote sites where statues were found. It’s a very nice walk although a fraction humid and the biggest danger is your walk being cut short by constant conversations with the locals here who are interested in every aspect of your visit and country.

Today saw me head off to visit some more ruins and some of the spectacular scenery around the area. The first two stops of the tour were to take in a couple of the bigger waterfalls in the area, one around the 450m mark and the other around the 300m mark which were quite impressive.

After that we went off to visit another park of statues, supposedly the second most important site in the area. The site is quite interesting having various statues and burial chambers but is however lacking slightly in the detail that the main park contains. The statues here are also a lot more spread out and again the area is quite scenic. After this we took in another couple of smaller sites that allow you to further see the way they both worshiped the afterlife and how they buried the dead, it however does not answer any of the questions they left. The final visit took in the narrowest point of the river Magdelena, the biggest river in Colombia that shrinks down to a width of a little over 2m near San Augustin. At this point and especially with the rain the river was flowing furiously and it would be a great place to go rafting especially after the narrow point where the river opens out.

The next day I took the long 12 hour trip to Popayan (thanks to the easy road being taken), a nice colonial town that is almost completely whitewashed. The city is pretty enough full of churches and a nice main plaza and the overwhelming presence of white building after white building in the centre. The city has also been completely reconstructed after a devastating earthquake that almost ruined the city. With the Colombia's bicentenary approaching I decided to head to Cali, the second biggest city for what should be a big party.