The drive from Popayan to San Agustin was only 70 miles but it actually takes 6+ hours to get there. So you can tell the road between is not that great and was definitely the bumpiest drive yet...we would actually bounce a foot off your seats on the unpaved road. So there was no sleeping on this bus.
Once our bus hit the foot of the mountain leading up to San Agustin, we then got off and the bus company paid a jeep to take us the rest of the way into the center of San Agustin. We took a 6am bus so we arrived just before noon and had a cab take us to our hotel just outside of town. Two people who had recommended the place we stayed out (Finca El Maco) and we were really glad they had. We had a private cabin with a loft which Trevor of course claimed and the most comfortable beds we have slept in yet. We actually meet two Canadians on our jeep tour who had switch hotels 3 times because of the noise and conditions of some of the places in town.
With the day still young our plan was to walk over to the Parque Arqueologico which had several archaeologic sites that included statues, tombs and burial mounds. When we got to the first site we were impressed with the statues but as we as we continued to walk around the 78-hectare park we started to get bored of the stone graves and statues (there were hundreds). It also didn't help that all the signs were in Spanish and used a vocab beyond ours, so we didn't fully understand the history behind it all. The statues and tombs were actually fenced off but at one of the sites there was no security or people so we decided to hop the fence for some more interesting pictures. Trevor actually even climbed into a couple graves. We ended up spending about 3 hours in the park before heading back into town to try and book a tour for the following day.
My brother and I debated between doing a jeep tour or horse back riding and ended up deciding on a full day jeep tour. On the tour there were 8 of us (4 Canadians, 3 Argentinians, 1 Dutch) with a couple riding in the jeep cabin and the rest in the back of the jeep. When we first started out I wanted to sit in the back of the jeep however after about 2 hours in the back I made the switch to the cab. The road are all dirt and dusty, so if you sit in the back you end up completely covered in dust.
On the tour we visited two huge waterfalls
Salto del Mortiño (180 m) and Salto de Bordones (320 m). We also visited a couple other archaeologic sites (Alto de los Idoles) where we saw more statues, tombs and burial mound and Obando a small sites with some underground tombs and a tiny museum with some of the excavated pottery. On the way back we also stopped by El Estrecho where the Rio Magdalena is at its narrowest. I think a lot of people must have died jumping across the rocks to the other side because we had at least 4 people tell us not to jump across the rocks before we even visited it. You could also tell from the whirling current that if you fell in, you were getting sucked down.
Once our bus hit the foot of the mountain leading up to San Agustin, we then got off and the bus company paid a jeep to take us the rest of the way into the center of San Agustin. We took a 6am bus so we arrived just before noon and had a cab take us to our hotel just outside of town. Two people who had recommended the place we stayed out (Finca El Maco) and we were really glad they had. We had a private cabin with a loft which Trevor of course claimed and the most comfortable beds we have slept in yet. We actually meet two Canadians on our jeep tour who had switch hotels 3 times because of the noise and conditions of some of the places in town.
With the day still young our plan was to walk over to the Parque Arqueologico which had several archaeologic sites that included statues, tombs and burial mounds. When we got to the first site we were impressed with the statues but as we as we continued to walk around the 78-hectare park we started to get bored of the stone graves and statues (there were hundreds). It also didn't help that all the signs were in Spanish and used a vocab beyond ours, so we didn't fully understand the history behind it all. The statues and tombs were actually fenced off but at one of the sites there was no security or people so we decided to hop the fence for some more interesting pictures. Trevor actually even climbed into a couple graves. We ended up spending about 3 hours in the park before heading back into town to try and book a tour for the following day. 
My brother and I debated between doing a jeep tour or horse back riding and ended up deciding on a full day jeep tour. On the tour there were 8 of us (4 Canadians, 3 Argentinians, 1 Dutch) with a couple riding in the jeep cabin and the rest in the back of the jeep. When we first started out I wanted to sit in the back of the jeep however after about 2 hours in the back I made the switch to the cab. The road are all dirt and dusty, so if you sit in the back you end up completely covered in dust.
On the tour we visited two huge waterfalls Salto del Mortiño (180 m) and Salto de Bordones (320 m). We also visited a couple other archaeologic sites (Alto de los Idoles) where we saw more statues, tombs and burial mound and Obando a small sites with some underground tombs and a tiny museum with some of the excavated pottery. On the way back we also stopped by El Estrecho where the Rio Magdalena is at its narrowest. I think a lot of people must have died jumping across the rocks to the other side because we had at least 4 people tell us not to jump across the rocks before we even visited it. You could also tell from the whirling current that if you fell in, you were getting sucked down. 
No comments:
Post a Comment