Tierradentro

San Augustin de Tierradentro was our last stop in Colombia before moving on to Ecuador. After a nice long stay in Bogota, Lisa and I decided that it would be nice to get off the beaten path, out into the countryside, and do some hiking. We spent one night in Popoyan and then headed south to Tierradentro. We had heard that it was nice and thought that we'd check it out. Like Mompos, Tierradentro is a very isolated place. Getting there involved a six hour bus ride through dirt roads that ran up and down the sides of mountains high up in the Andes. It had been raining alot, and the roads were like mudslides, especially on the way out. Riding a 30 year old bus with no suspension up and down the sides of some of the tallest mountains I've ever seen on bumpy muddy dirt roads made for an interesting trip. There was more than one moment when I seriously thought we might not make it out of there, at least not any time soon. I was amazed that the bus was able to continuosly move uphill, very slowly, mile after mile through the mud. The roads were some of the worst maintained and scariest that I've ever seen. The 50 mile trip took about six hours! San Augustin itself was a very laid back little village full of friendly people and in an incredibly beautiful setting. Its main attraction is some pre-colombian tombs left behind by the areas indegenous people. The tombs themselves were mildly interesting. The real attraction for us was hiking through some amazing countryside. It rained quite as bit during the time that we were there. We ended up getting very wet, but it wasn't all rain. We did see some sun for at least a little while.
The road to Tierradentro.... one of the better portions:
All taken from the bus window:




San Augustin de Tierradentro:




A view from one of the tombs surrounding the village:


Hiking through the countryside:


Descending down into an ancient tomb.... we were told by our guide that the tombs were over 4000 years old. This didn't seem very believable to me and it turned out that the real number was closer to 1000.... still, pretty old:
Inside the tombs:



The rain comes and goes quick in this part of Colombia.... a view from one of the tombs:
Same view, not even five minutes later.... needless to say, we were wet and cold, but it was worth it:

Bogota

It's been a few days since we left Bogota. We stayed for four nights. It didn't seem like long enough but we have too many other things that we'd like to do and not enough time. Bogota is a big city. More than 8 million people live there. It has everything anyone could ever want.... in our case this included awesome coffee shops, international restaraunts, super high speed internet, and even a modern cinema megaplex with movies in English. Surrounded by mountains and sitting at a high altitude, the weather is consistantly cool, but not too cold year round. It feels like late October all year. I don't think I'd have any problem living there. We stayed in La Candelaria, the old historic neighborhood in the center. We unknowingly arrived on time for Colombia's bicentenial independence day celebration. The streets were packed with people to the point that in some places we could barely move. The city put on a good fireworks display. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The view from in front of our hostal:


Our room.... we shared it with some Australians, an Isreali, and three guys from Chili who snored so loudly that the whole building shook.... amazingly, I got a good nights sleep every night. It was a great hostal. Lisa fell in love with a little kitten named Ginger who lived here:

Colorful streets.... the hills, cool air, nice grafiti, colorful sunsets, and palm trees kind of reminded me of San Francisco

Lots of soldiers all over.... the city felt very safe:
Plaza Central:
We visited a few very old churches. This was our facvorite:





The University museum had a small exhibit on political cartoons, all of them offering commentary on Colombia's bicentenial.... "two hundred years and we have not learned." I'm not sure who is being depicted here:

Pablo Escobar, infamous cocaine trafficker and ruthless murderer of countless people.... in 1989 Forbes magazine named Escobar the seventh richest man in the world, with an estimated personal fortune of 25 billion dollars. At one point he offered to pay off Colombia's 10 billion dollar national debt in exchange for clemency and the opportunity to enter polotics. His offer was declined. Continuosly hunted by Colombian and American agents, he, along with his personal body guard were killed in a shoot out in 1993.
















Monserate.... up on a mountain overlooking Bogota.... the views were amazing










Mummy in the Museo Nacional: