Colombia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 551

forgotten civilization, bargain-basement
prices and a plethora of outdoor activities
- from white-water rafting to horseriding.
There's plenty to discover here, in particular
the archeological park . Some 3300 years
ago the jagged landscape around the town
was inhabited by masons, whose singular
legacy is the hundreds of monumental
fanged stone statues comparable in detail to
the more famous Moai statues found on
Chile's Easter Island.
Much mystery still surrounds the
civilization that built the monoliths,
though the surreal imagery of sex-crazed
monkeys, serpent-headed humans and
other disturbing zoomorphic glyphs
suggests that the hallucinogenic San Isidro
mushroom may have been working its
magic when the statues were first created.
What is known is that the priestly culture
disappeared before the Spanish arrived,
probably at the hands of the Inca, whose
empire stretched into southern Colombia.
The statues weren't discovered until the
middle of the eighteenth century.
To see San Agustín and its surroundings
properly, you ideally need three days: one
for the archeological park, one for a
day-long jeep tour of the outlying sights,
such as the Alto de los Idolos, and one for
a horseback tour of El Tablón, La
Chaquira, El Purutal and La Pelota.

have been used for ritual ablutions.
Further along, and up, is the furthest
point of the park, Alto de Lavapatas , the
oldest of the sites, with statues sitting
forlornly on a hilltop, their brooding gaze
sweeping over the countryside.
There's also a Museo Arqueológico
(8am-5pm) featuring pottery, jewellery,
smaller statues and background
information on the San Agustín culture;
visit it before hitting the statue sites
if possible.

5

El Tablón, La Chaquira, La Pelota
and El Purutal
Hundreds more statues are littered across
the colourful hillside on either side of the
Río Magdalena. Some of the most popular
destinations are El Tablón , La Chaquira ,
La Pelota and El Purutal , which most
visitors see as part of a four-hour
horseriding tour. While the four sites are
also doable as part of a day-long hike from
town, riding through spectacular scenery is
one of the highlights of San Agustín, and
knowledgeable guides, booked through
your accommodation, can shed some light
on what you are seeing. Of the four sites,
La Chaquira is the most impressive, with
deities carved into the sheer rock above the
beautiful Río Magdalena gorge.

Alto de los Ídolos, Alto de las Piedras
and around
Alto de los Ídolos (daily 8am-4pm;
COP$10,000 or combination ticket with
Parque Arqueológico COP$16,000) is
the area's second most important site after
the Parque Arqueológico, and its two hills
lined with tombs are home to the region's
tallest statue, 7m high. Four kilometres
southwest of the village of San José de
Isnos (26km northeast of San Agustín), it
can be reached by joining a day-long jeep
tour (around COP$35,000 per person),
which is easily arranged through your
accommodation. Jeep tours also take in
the Alto de las Piedras , another important
archeological site, its highlight being Doble
Yo , a statue that is half-man, half-beast. If
you look closely, you'll see that there are
four figures carved on that rock. Other
stops include Colombia's tallest waterfall
and a smaller waterfall viewpoint.

Parque Arqueológico
Unmissable for its wealth of statues, the
Parque Arqueológico , which was declared
a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995
(daily 8am-6pm; COP$15,000), sits
2.5km west of San Agustín. The park
contains over a hundred stone creations,
the largest concentration of statues in the
area. Many of them are left as they were
found, linked by trails A, B and C, while
others, like the ones in the wooded sector
known as the Bosque de las Estatuas , are
rearranged and linked by an interpretative
trail. The statues are beguiling - their
fanged faces, the animal-human hybrids,
the stylized animal carvings - and they are
all very much intact, though their purpose
remains a mystery. Don't miss the Fuente
de Lavapatas , a maze of terraced pools,
covered with clearly visible images of
reptiles and human figures, thought to