I hadn’t really heard about San Agustin, but when I did it sounded like it was old and had some cool statues so I thought I should check it out. It was 268kms from Cali and a six and a half hour ride. Sort of in the right direction. The road south to Popayan was pretty good and then google got me a little lost in the city and forgot I was on a motor bike and did not need to be rerouted because I could just backtrack on the road verge of the footpath to be right again. It was still another 3 hours and a bit to the east and apparently, the middle part of the ride could be a bit rough. There was no apparently. After an hour it looked like it was going to rain.

I stopped under the shelter of an abandoned petrol station and got out my wet weather gear. I may have mentioned it before, but my expensive riding gear looks waterproof but is actually designed to let air flow through and so the rain just sneaks in there as well. It comes with a waterproof jacket that fits on the top and I had an expensive pair of waterproof pants that I had taken to Antarctica and never worn and they fitted over my bike pants which was great. A local guy also pulled in to do the same and warned me about the next 35kms of unsealed road.

We chatted a bit and then took off and he then disappeared into the distance. I stopped to take a photo of what I would assume to be a hydro system. I’m sure there are heaps of them around Colombia. When I arrived at the gravel section of road, I also discovered it was in terrible condition and heading up into the mountains. The mist became light rain and the visibility disappeared. All I could do was watch for potholes and hope that anything coming the other way had it’s lights on. It was a slow scary ride, with tight bends, small bridges (probably over the Magdalena), and washouts. And lots of loose rocks. I stopped early and took a couple of pics but after that I was too focused on surviving the road and avoiding the traffic which was obviously a lot more used to the road and its condition.

About 5kms before the end of the gravel I spotted a nice running shoe on the road. And then a little bit further a couple of other items. I just road around them. And then I saw the guy I’d met earlier at the abandoned petrol station riding towards me. He had got to the bitumen and discovered the locked box on the back of his bike had popped open and it was his stuff I’d seen on the road and he was going back along the road retrieving his stuff. I also checked mine. Again. And it seemed great. I’m very happy with my Mosko Moto luggage system.

I’d prebooked a room in the Hotel La Gaitana Heroina Indigena ($20AUD) in San Agustin because it was an easy name to say when people asked me where I was staying. Not. I’d been on the bike for about seven hours and was ready to get off it. The place was nice. Small room. Good parking. Nice people. It looked just like the photo which helped find it. I had a late lunch around the corner at a little restaurant and turns out the owners son was studying in Brisbane and so I had a long spanish lesson with my lunch. I had a look around town which had the usual, town square with a church and a town sign but I also discovered another church with a bit of a weird statue out the front. I’m not sure if the big guy would have given approval for that one. I also climbed a hill to say hi to Mary.

Next morning I was up early and headed off without my gear or bike clothing for a short 5km ride to the San Agustin Archaeological Park with no great expectations. A quick wander around and back out again. Wrong. It was actually pretty good. Sometimes my method of not researching something beforehand pays off. The park is nicely set out and I was the first one there. You start by wandering through some buildings with informative signs and glass cases full of old stuff and some nice old looking statues. We’ve all heard about the Inca’s and the Aztecs and the Mayans but the stuff here is thousands of years before those guys. More like about the same time as the construction boom in Egypt.

There are about 300 archaeological sites spread over about 3000 square metres. Nothing is really known about the civilizations that created the statues although there is a lot of speculation about the symbolisation. I did try and research it a bit because I thought it was cool but after the bit that said the lithic monumental representation and characteristic symbolical style of naturalism and mythical zoomorphic and anthropomorphic…..just look at the pictures yourself.

After you left the museum part you wandered through a section of jungle following a nice path through the Forrest of Statues. It was a 20 minute walk with different statues along the way. They were housed under protective shelters and had a little sign in spanish and english telling you about the statue. It was nicely done. As you ambled around you could only hear the sounds of the jungle and the Sthill leaf blower. It was just me and the maintenance guy. The joys of being early I guess. Actually it wasn’t too bad as the thick bush soaked up the noise quickly after I passed.  I thought I’d got my money’s worth but there was more.

After you leave the Forrest of Statues there were paths leading to Mesitas A, B and C. They were areas spaced about 5 minutes apart where the statues were still in place. They used to dig holes and make sort of rock shelters where they would put the bodies of the person who died. They would then cover them over with dirt to make it harder for archaeologists and tomb raiders to find them centuries later. Apparently only a small portion of the stuff has been discovered which I thought was quite nice.  There is also the Fuente de Lavapatas which is like a section of a flat waterfall with lots of carvings and a nice viewing spot. A few centuries of water flowing over it has worn the rock carvings, but you can still see some quite clearly. They now have a little river diversion to the side so that the water flow is more gentle and the carvings more protected.

And the last area is the Alto de Lavapatas which was up a lot of steps but was a lovely view out of the mountains and valleys below. On the way up the steps there were a couple of little houses and a small restaurant. On the way down I dropped into the house that was selling freshly squeezed orange juice for a dollar. It was just someone’s house and the guy was so lovely. He squeezed a heap of oranges which ended up being two glasses worth. It was delicious. But even better than that he was a very patient man and we had a great chat in spanish about all sorts of things. He was very keen to tell me about how corrupt politicians were responsible for the bad section of road I had travelled over the day before. I gave him an extra dollar for the second glass and the spanish lesson.

My quick zip around had turned into a two and a half hour walk and I’d clocked up my 10,000 steps before 10:30. I needed to get back to my hotel to pack my gear and move out. On my way back to the carpark my solitude was broken by all the tourists who had arrived and heading my way. I had a contented smile until I got to my bike in the carpark which had been empty when I parked my bike. The bike section was still pretty empty but someone had parked their bike leaning onto mine. I had to laugh though when I read the licence plate.

It was a short ride back and kinda nice riding an unladen bike and not wearing all my gear as it had started to warm up. I still had one more thing to visit before I left town so I packed up and left all the stuff in the hotel office and headed off to the Estrecho del Magdalena. I really hope I get a trivia question one day about the most famous river in Colombia. The first 8kms of the road was nice bitumen but the last 2 kms was steep downhill on slippery fine gravel. I was regretting my decision not to follow the ATGATT rule. All the gear. All the time. I also still haven’t worked out if I can turn off my ABS braking and so using the brakes was pretty scary. I made it down safely and promised myself not to do that again. For the second time.

Estrecho in spanish means narrow of course. And so it was a very narrow part of the upper section of the Magdalena. Hopefully you will also get the same trivia question. It was pretty cool. I had a burning desire to jump across it. It was only about 2 metres. I could do it. I mean I did swim across the Nile 40 years ago. Across would have been easy but jumping back a bit more difficult. It was really pumping through there. You’d probably drown. It was also one of the rare occasions that you see a sign in Colombia telling you not to do something. So, I didn’t. Riding back up the slippery section was actually quite easy and was over quickly because it was all uphill and I didn’t need to use my brakes. It was a quick trip back to the hotel where I loaded my bike and put on my bike gear and headed off to Mocoa.

It was only a short 150km ride but 3.5 hours on a windy road. I could have written windy or windy but I think it’s fair to say that while I am in South America you can assume I mean either or both. I’d pre booked the Huaca Huaca Casa Boutique which turned out to be a brand new place, with a really flash room and garage parking for the bike. Not just a cool name. The lady was lovely and the price was $25AUD. I visited the town square and the church and found a nice street stall selling homemade chorizo which was not only yummy but only a couple of bucks.  Both these places need to put their prices up. I stopped off at a bakery that I’d passed earlier an opted for a piece of chocolate cake. It was a disappointment, and they need to drop their price. It was then back for an early night to enjoy my luxurious room and get a good nights sleep because the next day I was going to travel on El Trampolin de la Muerte or the Trampolin del Diablo or in english, The Death Road of Colombia.