Trailing to Patagonia: San Agustin, Colombia - Stone Statues and a Great Family!

We left Bogota and began driving again through the mountainous Colombian roads. This time we were headed toward the town of San Agustin, famous for its Precolombian burial grounds, including hundreds of unexplained stone statues.

When we arrived in San Agustin we realized that the small town was in fact tiny, with not much room for a camper like ours. Although we don’t often pay for a place to stay for the night, we decided to spend a night at a campground. We found a man named Manuel who had a small hospedaje behind his house, and a large front yard that he charged $5 a night to camp in. Perfect. But we didn’t realize then just what a great find it was!

Manuel's

A nice spot for Cubby

The shower!

The bold resident rooster, used to being fed by tourists.

We loaded up with water courtesy of Manuel, and after we told him all about our trip he invited us to come to his house later that evening to meet his family. We accepted, set up the camper, and went to a “piscina natural” (natural pool) nearby for a quick swim.

That evening we went to Manuel’s and met his wife Pati, his two young sons, and a few other friends of theirs that had come to visit. There were two other travellers, Linda and Dario, there as well. They told us that they had been travelling through Colombia, and had already been camping at Manuel’s for a week - they were having so much fun with the family that they just couldn’t leave!

Playing with the family dog, Chiquis

We soon found out exactly why this was. Manuel’s family was incredibly sweet to us, and treated us just like family. That night they happened to be making delicious empanadas. The empanadas just kept coming – they fed us until we were stuffed. We had a great time with the family, talking and eating, and it was decided that we would stay at Manuel’s another night so we could relax there after going to the ruins.

The next morning we got up and headed to the ruins. San Agustin ruins are not the typical pyramids and building structures that you see at most Mayan or Incan ruins. What you find at San Agustin is hundreds of stone statues and tombs, scattered over the hills around the Magdalena River.

Not much is known about the culture that built the statues. They were built between 1-900ad, and it is supposed that it is a burial ground for tribal elders and important persons, because there were offerings like pottery and gold objects left in the tombs.

San Agustin statues

tomb

There is also an area of carved rock in the middle of a stream, called la fuente de lavapatas. Although the carvings are wearing away, it is obvious that it once was very elaborate with many pictures and designs carved into the rock, and the stream runs overtop, filling the carvings with water. It is theorized that this was an area used for ceremonial purposes.

At the top of the hill there is an incredible view of the surrounding areas – must have been a magnificent and spiritual place back then.

Some statues resemble humans, others have animals features, some seem like a mixture of both. Was there a deeper meaning behind these statues? Impossible to know. The culture that carved the statues seems to have disappeared before the arrival of the Spanish.

While there are hundreds of statues at the San Agustin arqueological site, that’s not all of them! Statues and carvings are found all over the surrounding area as well. Linda and Dario took us to some of the best ones that they’d gone to.

more statues

At the site called La Chiquira, there is an amazing lookout point over the river below, the Rio Magdalena. You can spot many waterfalls in the gorge.

carving at La Chiquira

looking down at the river

From the lookout point, you can hike down to the river. It was very steep and muddy, we had fun slipping and sliding down to the river.

We made it down to the bottom and went for a swim. Well, in my case, just a dip – it was COOOLD!

brrrr

Dario, Linda, and me, back at the top

Well that night, we hung out at the campground and Manuel taught us a card game. Pati convinced us to stay another night because the next day she was planning to make bread – it was going to be a big event, using the brick oven outside and inviting friends and neighbors. We decided that we could even have a barbeque using the brick oven and we would treat Manuel and Pati.

The party was a big success – the amounts of bread that were made just blew my mind! Pati also made a sugary icing to spread on the bread. It was delicious…

Starting the fire in the oven…notice the tray of meat already waiting

Bread-making machines!

Looks like someone got into the flour.

Bread that was left over at the end of the night, after everyone had eaten AND taken a bunch home.

And it was decided again that we would stay another night…

The next day Manuel and Pati took us fruit-picking on their property – they grow lots of cool stuff, like nisperos, bananas, oranges, and coffee. They let us keep the whole bag of fruit we picked!

We hung around that day and told Manuel and Pati that the following day, we really would have to be leaving... of course, Pati was already planning an event for us. “You can’t leave,” she told us, “tomorrow I’m making sausages!” Hahaha…this family is great. A supposed one-night stay had turned into four, and we could easily end up staying a month with them (and probably gain 10 pounds)! But we did need to move on with the trip, so we insisted that we had to leave but will be back someday.