Postcards from abroad
We are really enjoying the white city of Popayan. The reason it’s painted white is because, when it was settled in the sixteenth century, people couldn’t walk in the streets without getting bitten by ticks. So they painted the buildings with lime wash to get rid of the ticks, and it is now traditional to… Continue reading Popayan – the city with two UNESCO awards
We told you in an earlier blog that it was challenging to get to San Agustin where all the sculptures reside. We flew in to a tiny airport which has one or two flights a day - and that was forty-five minutes away. But the usual route is to drive from Popayan - 134 km… Continue reading A drive to Popayan
We haven’t given you much sense of the towns in Colombia, partly because they are so varied, and partly because I am not so great on buildings. But San Agustín is a charming, uniformly-painted, cowboy kind of place, so here are some street scenes for you.
Having spent yesterday at the UNESCO park (easy access, well signed, good museum) with all those mysterious sculptures, today we set off early from our luxurious hotel to walk to some sculptures ‘in the wild’ (ie where they were found). Twenty-five minutes, said Google Maps. Hah! The only other tourists arrived by horse so that… Continue reading Extra effort resulting in extra rewards
After a complex journey yesterday, we finally arrived in San Agustín, Colombia’s most important archaeological site. Over 2000 years ago, unknown peoples started carving the volcanic rock lying about the place into wonderful statues of mythical creatures, strange tomb guardians, animals, and so on. We visited the park this morning, spending over four hours transfixed… Continue reading San Agustín – home of mysterious statues