Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

On our next day in San Agustin we planned to visit a few of the other sites in the immediate area.  Our guide gave us a price of 120,000 pesos (NZ$87) for 4 sites (divided amongst Erin, Ian and I) but before agreeing we did a little bit of research and then some bargaining and got him down to 100,000 pesos (NZ$73).

The first stop was a waterfall, the viewing platform was a rickety structure suspended over the edge of the cliff.  Erin and I weren´t too keen for all 3 of us to be out there at the same time but Ian seemed oblivious.

The waterfall was quite cool.

Destination number 2 was another burial site with statues and carvings.  A typical burial site.

Each site was typically topped by a large flat carving, anthropomorphic in design.

Another of the large flat carvings.

Two tombs side by side with closeups of the guardians.

   

We´re not sure exactly what this is, perhaps another coffin like structure.

A good side on view of a typical burial chamber.

A more intricate coffin like structure.

The burial tombs are usually pretty deep in the ground.  This view is from the rear of the tomb, not you can see the back of the guardian.

Third stop, another waterfall, first the view down the valley.  At first the entire place was clouded in.  The guide started whistling at the clouds and saying that it would help them clear.  Strangely they cleared in fairly short order... hmm.

Then the waterfall itself.  We had to walk down the side of a valley to see this one.

On the way I saw a spider web and decided to get "arty".

This seemed the perfect spot to pose for a photo.

The valley sides were quite steep.

Fourth stop, another site of tombs and carvings.  I snapped this one of Erin when she wasn´t ready.

I thought this statue looked kind of granny like, except it´s also pregnant.

After taking that photo of Erin she wouldn´t let me get away without taking one of me.

From there it was back to a small town (I forget the name) to have lunch and await the bus.  While we waited we had a look around and saw a man selling hats.

A lady making toffee.

Several interestingly loaded local busses (Chiva´s).

Our bus finally arrived at 2:30pm and we had to run to catch it, because it wasn´t stopping where we were told it would.  The trip was exciting, not only was it the bumpiest I have ever been on but we also had a flat tire at one point.

We stopped for a toilet and snack break and I managed to climb the dirt bank beside the road to get this photo of the nearby range.  I just missed out on the perfect photo, when the entire range was lit by the setting sun, oh well.

After a 6 hour ride we finally ended up back in Popayan, went to bed fairly early to catch a bus the next morning for the real ´worlds most dangerous road´ (more on that next post)