Yet Another Paradise Found
Day 118
Up just before sunrise we were attempting to get to San Agustin in one day. San Agustin in the south of Colombia is known for the “Valley of Statues”. An area of hundreds of stone carvings of men, animals and gods dating from 3300 B.C. In addition to the statues the surrounding region offers horseback riding, rafting and hiking.
We caught a 7:30am bus, actually it was more of a van, from Bogota to Pitalito. From Pitalito we would have to find another way to San Agustin. The ride was long, hot and the scenery was ok. It wasn’t terrible but we have had more comfortable rides. The one advantage of being in a van was that we arrived just over an hour earlier than a bus.
Pitalito looked like a dusty town that mainly served as a transit point for travellers. The bus terminal was well organized and we easily found onward transport to San Agustin. Rather than a bus they have pickup trucks doing the 1 hour drive to San Agustin. “Looks like this must be a dusty road.” I observed as I looked at the very dusty bed of the truck which had been retrofitted with two rows of benches. Just as we were about to climb in the driver asked if we wanted to ride inside the truck for 500 pesos more, about .25 cents. We jumped inside the truck instead, we didn’t need a dusty adventure today.
Most of the drive was through flat farmland until we reached just outside of San Agustin. The road wound its way up a mountain side with a steep valley on our right. Below was a rushing river and on the far side of the valley we could see several waterfalls about 30 meters high tumbling into the valley. It was a beautiful sight and quite the introduction to the town.
In Salento we met an Irish woman who recommended “El Maco” as a place to stay in San Agustin. It was located just outside the town, about 2km. “Let’s just walk it!” I said as we climbed out of the pickup. Jordana was willing, really what’s 2km. Although the Irish girl did mention something about a steep hill. With a rough map we found our way out of the small town and onto the main road. We easily found the dirt road turn off that led up to El Maco. We climbed up a fairly steep hill that levelled out, we both thought this wasn’t so tough. Thing was we still didn’t see a sign for El Maco and the level road now turned steeply up again with no end in sight. As we sweated and struggled up with our packs we heard thunder in the distance. Finally, out of breath and dripping in sweat we found the entrance to El Maco.
It was beautiful here, so peaceful and with a great view of the countryside. Not only is El Maco a place to stay but its a working organic farm. We were showed to our chalet style room which was maybe the coolest place we have stayed yet. We had a hammock out front and inside we had second level loft with another bed and balcony with amazing views. We settled in then made our way for dinner, we had heard rumours about tasty curry. Thai curry for dinner was fantastic, the owner friendly and the conversation with other travellers was great. It looked like we may be here longer then anticipated.
Tags: Colombia, San Agustin, south america
Michael Coroneos
Thai curry in Colombia? Awesome.