Archeology In San Agustin

The San Agustín Archaeological Park(Spanish: Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín) is a large archaeological area located near the town of San Agustín in Huila Department in Colombia. The park contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America and is considered the world's largest necropolis. Belonging to San Agustin culture, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The dates of the statues are uncertain, but they are believed to have been carved between 5–400 AD. The origin of the carvers remains a mystery, as the site is largely unexcavated.  From Wikipedia. 

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Southern Colombia and we got up early in the cool damp dawn to be among the first to walk into the site at precisely eight in the morning to avoid crowds. It turned into a serene dog walk too after Layne and I visited the museum which houses maps and speculation about these mysterious statues. There is an exhibit of some of the pieces recovered from looters who were particularly active during the civil war years in Colombia, the last two lawless decades of the 20th century. 

The local dogs were getting their breakfast when I walked back to GANNET2 to pick up Rusty. Colombians generally are incredibly kind to their dogs which is one feature of this country I prefer by far to Mexico.  

These statues have been compared to the heads on Easter Island but are much smaller and according to Layne who has visited the island much more detailed and expressive. We spent three hours wandering around and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Even though we came away with no more idea who the people were who lived and created their art in these mountains…

They 

We spent Saturday largely out of touch with the outside world buried in the archeological trails of the park and later taking a rather hair raising drive across the mountains far from cellphone signals and pavement, a drive I shall try to describe tomorrow. 

It is a gorgeous spot beautifully laid out, with visitors (and their leashed dogs) free to wander at will. I should have liked a few more benches for visitors to sit on which would have allowed more time for contemplation in this extraordinary, peaceful place.

It seems extraordinary to me now that I am back on the grid that while we were wandering and pondering this unexplained lost world our own world took another giant step toward conflagration. I am not much interested in making my page anything other than what it is: descriptions of what I see as we wander. I’m not interested in advertising marketing selling or persuading. I have done my best to shut out the daily trolling and negativity pervasive on online social media but the situation in the Middle East does not bode well. I just wanted to mention that as war escalates I am not living in a bubble and I do wonder how our journey might be impacted and I am considering all those aspects.  But here on a silent predawn Sunday morning in the Colombian Andes I shall focus on what we are doing and the extraordinary and less extraordinary things we are doing. I have seen war and I don’t like it. I am aware of it, very much so in various places around the world but right here I shall continue to focus on Colombia. I am reminded of the movie “Casablanca” 

Rick: “Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now. Here's looking at you, kid."

Let us hope against hope for peace that our small lives can continue unnoticed by people with too much power and too much capacity to cause harm wherever we may be.