San Agustín to the Ecuador Border

San Agustín, Colombia, is famous for its stone statues.  It's a World Heritage Site.  I figured, why not?  A friend of mine and I left Bogotá for San Agustín on an overnight bus and arrived early the next morning.  The town is actually bigger than either of us anticipated (bigger than Salento), but it's still small enough to walk most of the city in an hour or two.  We were greeted at the "bus station" (really just the side of the road where the bus driver told us to get off) by tour operators and hostel representatives.  It was a bit overwhelming for us weary-eyed travelers, so we grabbed a cup of coffee to mull over where to stay and what to do with our time there.  After deciding on a lovely hostel about a 15-minute walk up a dirt road to a hill with sweeping views of the valley and town below, we decided to head to head to the archaeological park.

Parque arqueológico de San Agustín contains statues carved in stone that depict fictional animals and maybe gods to the people that carved the sculptures.  The statues are part of burial plots hidden in seemingly man-made hills, complete with tombs and sarcophaguses.  The stone artifacts were discovered in the early 20th Century, if my memory serves correct.  Archaeologists had to dig out the stone statues and some still have stains from the dirt.  It's a very fascinating self-guided tour that took us three hours.  Sadly, the museum connected with the park was closed when we were there, but we still saw enough of the artifacts to appreciate the history of the area.

My friend and I also took a jeep tour of the surrounding area to visit a few more archaeological parks with similar stone statues and see some amazing landscape.  The river that runs nearby narrows from about 10 meters (roughly 32 feet) to about two meters (roughly 6.5 feet) into a gorge of stone.  It's quite impressive.  We also saw some amazing waterfalls.  I've marveled since that day at how water falling over a cliff can be so beautiful -- no matter how many waterfalls you see, they are somehow still all impressive and leave one feeling awed.

After San Agustín, I found a new travel companion and we headed to Pasto, Colombia together, on our way to the Ecuadorian border.  We traveled on a road called the Trampoline of Death (I know my mother isn't very happy reading this...lol), which is a one-lane dirt and gravel road that zigzags and circles and twists through the mountains, leaving little to no room to pass traffic going the other direction.  It supposedly rivals Death Road in Bolivia.  Several times our bus had to back up to an area with sufficient room to allow oncoming traffic to pass.  There are no guardrails (unless you count caution tape!!) and there are sheer drops on one side of the bus at all times.  Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, I found it thrilling, beautiful and impressive.

Pasto was just an overnight stop necessitated by bus schedules and timing.  Still, we were nearing Easter Sunday and the town was getting ready for its festivities when we arrived.  The next morning was Easter Sunday and it seemed that the entire city was celebrating and heading to church.  My new friend and I eventually made it to the bus station, bound for Ipiales (the border town).  While in line buying tickets, we met two Colombian people headed the same way and decided to travel with them to Las Lajas, a church that defies description near Ipiales.

Santurario de Las Lajas is one of the most impressive churches I've ever seen.  Legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared to a local girl in the 1700s near the present-day location of the church.  In fact, the church was constructed in it's specific location because of the appearance of the Virgin.  It has spires that rival European architecture and spans across a river canyon.  The inside of the church is stunning and huge.  As it was Easter Sunday when we arrived, we got the full feel of the throngs of people that flock to the historical church because of it's supposed legendary healing properties and the multiple appearances of the Virgin Mary.  It was an experience unlike any before or since.  I was humbled and inspired.

After Las Lajas and Ipiales, me and my three traveling companions crossed the border into Ecuador and the town of Tulcan.  Tulcan is so small that there isn't much to it, but it is well-known for it's cemetery.  Strange, I know.  A cemetery, really?  Yep.  It's famous because of the topiary sculptures and because legend says that there is some strange force (souls of the dead, perhaps?) that guards it at night.  We toured the cemetery for about 20 minutes; fascinating!

Another night bus from Tulcan, and we arrived in Quito the next morning...all about that in the next blog update!