Southern Colombia: San Agustin statues and Tatacoa desert

 This year I spend a week traveling to the south of Colombia.

We ate in the region of la lechona.

We passed some beautiful scenery:

Our first stop was the Tatacoa Desert.  To get there we had to cross this countryside in Aipe

to get to this ferry to cross the Magdalena river.

On our journey we saw a dog travelling on a motorbike (see his little head at the back on the right):

I expected the desert to be all sandy but this one wasn't.

We stayed at accommodation in the desert (and got eaten alive by mosquitos!),

with plenty of wildlife (though these geese were domesticated)

One morning we woke up to birds and went out to look.

We found this roadrunner.  I never knew they were real.  Always thought it was made up for the cartoon!

The town by the desert is Villavieja:

From there we drove past Neiva to head south:

passing this beautiful reservoir (Represa de Betania). 

We encountered several 'tolls' manned by kids:

And we saw some "muñecos de año viejo".  The tradition is to make a puppet representing all the bad things of the year and to burn it at midnight.

I loved the Covid one!

In San Agustin we stayed at a lovely lodge with amazing views.

In the mornings we'd be woken by a chorus of birds and one morning there was a particularly loud one so I got up to look (top left of the tree, 2 black birds, they were chachalacas and supposedly announce rain - though we didn't get any).

It did get me up to see the sunrise and enjoy the lovely views.  

Sunsets were equally beautiful.

The reason we went to San Agustin was to visit the archeological park which contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Below are some snapshots of the park.

San Agustin was a small town 

and we were there for New Year's Eve when we ran into some kids throwing flour in the NYE tradition there.  Luckily they didn't throw flour at us, though people were dressed to get covered - some with goggles on too.  A bit like Holi in India?

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the hotel.  They were hosting a dinner. but we stayed on our balcony with our champagne and enjoyed the music and fireworks.

I say 'enjoyed' the music but to be honest, it was very cheesy music traditionally played at NY in Colombia (carrangera).  I figured "when in Rome..."

Rio de Janeiro replacement trip!

Last year my friend Allison and I were due to go to Rio de Janeiro.  As with many trips in 2020 this one got cancelled.  So, we looked at alternatives this year.  She came to visit me in Colombia (for the 2nd time)...

... and we decided to visit the Coffee Triangle (or Coffee Region, Coffee Belt, Eje Cafetero).  Made up of 3  Colombian departments: Caldas, Riseralda and Quindio).  

We started with the hot springs in Santa Rosa de Cabal.  These pools had both hot and cold waterfalls feeding them.

 

There were lots of butterflies fluttering around (but it was hard to photograph them).

We were fortunate to have a rain free day.  The next day, as we were leaving, the skies opened up!

Our next stop was Salento.  A very picturesque town in the Coffee Triangle.

From the top of the hill (where our hotel was) the views were amazing.

The town is very touristy and we enjoyed wandering around and drinking coffee!  

... and drinking some wine...

These jeeps are the taxis there and are called Wheelys.

Allison also visited the Cocora Valley with its very tall Quindio Wax Palms (the national tree of Colombia).

Near Salento there's another town called Filandia.  This is equally picturesque but with a lot less tourists.  We visited the town...

...and had lunch there (at restaurante Jose Fernando).

After our coffee region visit we returned to Bogotá and were lucky enough to have a clear day so we visited Cerro de Monserrate.

We went up by funicular...

...took in the views...

 ...and visited the church.

From the church you could look across to the statue of Christ (Guadalupe) on the other mountain.

In 1912 Canadian tightrope walker Harry Werner crossed from Guadalupe to Monserrate,

Not for me!  We went down using the cable car.

Then we visited the International Emerald Museum (https://museodelaesmeralda.com.co/).

Apparently emeralds are in a prism shape in the mines.

From the museum we saw Monserrate. 

So, it wasn't Rio de Janeiro but it was a fun trip and great to catch up!