July 2, 2018 – July 8, 2018

Tierradentro, meaning “inner land”, is known for its underground tombs built by a civilization that was at its height from about 600 – 900 AD.  Little is known about the people who built the tombs and many of the sites were subject to looting before the area became protected.  This part of Colombia was rarely visited by tourists for many years due to guerrilla activity and poor roads, however it is now considered quite safe to visit.

We arrived in town late, set up camp in a hotel parking lot, and planned to visit the tombs in the morning.  We arrived at the gate entrance bright and early Tuesday morning, only to be told that the museum and the main tombs sites were closed the first Tuesday of every month…seriously, one day a month, and we hit it.  The guard then told us that we could hike high up on the ridge on the opposite side of the road and visit some other tombs that were unlocked.

The hike ended up being the highlight of the visit.  We did make it to the site of several tombs as well, but the entrance steps were very high, maybe 2.5 to 3 feet each step, and after peeking into a few, we decided it wasn’t worth the effort to descend into the rest.  The tombs are dug into a thick volcanic ash layer that forms the cap of many local ridges and plateaus. We finished off the ridge hike by looping down to a neighbouring town and walking on the road back to our truck and camper.

 

We left, intending to make it to San Agustin that evening.  We drove through small towns where everyone was glued to TV sets in bars, in mechanic shops, in bakeries…anywhere there was a TV set, watching Colombia play in the World Cup.  Later that day, after Colombia lost, we saw many motorbikes and cars being driven through the country side by bleary eyed men, as, it would seem, like in Canada, watching sports seems to go hand in hand with consuming cervezas.

We were about an hour of so from San Agustin, and it was late in the day when we came to a road construction flagman and a line of traffic.  Road side vendors walked the centre line, stopping at each vehicle trying to sell bottles of water, snacks, selfie sticks, lottery tickets and any variety of other items.  One older man stopped to speak to us.  He was probably in his seventies, looked about ninety, had two teeth and spoke the most difficult to understand Spanish we had yet heard.  We were not quite sure what he was trying to tell us, but he kept pointing to a road that went up into the hills.  Finally, after much back and forth, we thought we understood….the road ahead would be closed for a full hour between 5 and 6 each evening, something in connection with the construction project.  We turned around, found a nearby (free) camping spot, deciding to wait until morning to reach San Agustin.

The main attraction at San Agustin is the archeological park where large stone statues made of wonderfully carveable volcanic rock were found marking the tombs of people who lived and died here beginning about 2000 years ago.   Apparently hundreds of other statues are scattered throughout the valley, which, by the way, the Rio Magdalena (Colombia’s longest river) runs through (This was the same river we walked along in Mompox about one month ago.)

We left San Agustin and headed to the small city of Popayan, where we had booked a hotel room for a few nights.  We had been warned that the road was rough, but we knew that buses and semi trucks drove it, so we were pretty sure we would get through.

As it turns out, the road was VERY rough, full of potholes that could not be missed.  We drove about 140 km in total that day, the first 40 and the last 40, approximately, on pavement, and it took us 4 hours.  When we finally arrived in the parking lot of our hotel in Popayan and opened the door to our camper, we were faced with a small disaster.  Food items had fallen from our cupboards.  Carefully stowed computer bags were on the floor.  The folding stairs for our camper, which weigh about 8 pounds and which we always place in the camper in the same orientation, had been flipped upside down.  Our fire extinguisher had come out of the cupboard and had partially discharged leaving fine, yellow, fire extinguisher powder everywhere. Our cooking pots were strewn about and one of the lids was bent.

 

After cleaning up the camper, we enjoyed a few days in our budget hotel, had some nice dinners out, walked around the town and then were back in our truck and camper to continue our drive south.