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Coffee in San Agustín’s mercado, where I watched a TV announcer report that Colombia’s president has caught the coronavirus, and that there are 50 known cases in Colombia. I leave in six days for Mexico: the clock is ticking.
Taxi to the Museo Arqueológico, which has many curious statues. In particular, why is one next to little robot toys?
One theory is that the artists who made these statues were under the influence of the hallucinogenic San Isidro mushrooms. The truth is, no one really knows who made the San Agustín sculptures or for what purpose.
Entering the Parque Arqueológico Nacional de San Agustín, I followed a shaded walkway...
...to the beautifully manicured Mesita A.
The park consists of three mesitas, or “tables”, A, B, and C, and the Bosque de las Estatuas, with a total of more than one hundred stone sculptures. Mesita A is the biggest and most impressive site, settled as a village some two thousand years ago and converted into a burial ground 300–800 AD.
Mesita B was inhabited around 1000 B.C., and contains this happy creature...
...an image of a fanged monster holding a child by the legs...
... and a giant bird with a snake in its beak.
Mesita C originally comprised a single funerary mound surrounded by 15 statues. Many of of these are now in the Bosque de las Estatuas.
San Agustín high speed.MOVThey are arranged alongside a footpath, which I filmed at high speed so you could see every one. Pay attention!
San Agustín, Fuente de Lavapatas, right side.MOVSan Agustín, Fuente de Lavapatas, left side.MOVFinally, Fuente de Lavapatas, discovered in 1937, with rock carvings on the riverbed (but difficult to see: I filmed it from each side).
Nearby is a beautifully colored stream.
Enough of San Agustín and it’s crazy sculptures! I head back to Macizo Caffee for another veggie wok.
I am getting nervous about the coronavirus situation, so I change my flight to leave Colombia 4 days sooner, just two days from now. I want to leave before the borders close down - and it’s happening any day now. But getting to the airport in Pasto requires a very special bus ride, which I will describe in my next episode.
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