The day after Beth took us all out to dinner, she and another long time teacher drove a group of us out to a lake called Guatavita. Some of you may recognize the name as the site of the Legend of El Dorado. It is about 1+ hour drive north of Bogota, up in the mountains.
We left around 10 am after having to have the tire changed, van gassed up, etc. The drive was beautiful. I was trying to think of how to describe the scenery. It is very hilly and green with clumps of forest. The ground is very rocky so you don’t see the smooth green fields like in Germany. A lot of the road are dirt, or almost dirt again; they are narrow when you go off the “highway†and very windy. We got stopped for 10 minutes because a huge truck was parked across the road and they were trying to load some cows on it. The cows were not cooperating! We got to Guatavita at about 11:30.
It had been awhile since Beth had been there and it had really changed. The government had built a tourist/info area and there are now guided tours. I am sure this is part of Uribe’s plans to encourage the populace to go out into the country and feel safe; pushing the FARC and narco-terrorists out of the area. His programs have been very successful and the area is very safe.
The hike up to the lake is fairly long so I didn’t go (because of my ankle) but Andrew and Kirsten did. I got the gyst of the story when they returned. It is really funny trying to get information out of Colombian officials. Someone from school had called ahead to see if there was an entrance fee. They said yes and told us it was 3mil (3000 pesos). When we got there they were trying to charge us 12 mil. After a very long discussion they decided that since we all had cedulas (Colombian Id’s) that we weren’t technically tourists so they would charge us 3 mil. Right before they were ready to go out on the hike we realized that the sign said there was a 1mil cost to get back to where we parked. Basically, the tour is a one-way tour and unless someone picks you up at the other end, you have to pay to take their bus back or walk the close to 5 miles by road (you are not allowed to do the park hike backwards) So I got to drive…my first time driving in Colombia. Drove Glen’s fairly old, some kind of big SUV. It was fun except trying to get it into reverse. I met them at the other end of the hike and had a really great conversation with a local woman who was selling things she had made. I was amazed that we understood each other! Overall it was quite an experience.
So here is what I got from Andrew and Kirsten about the legend…..The Indian culture groomed a boy to become the chief from the time he is little. He is raised separately from the rest of society. When he is to become chief they float him out on an incredible, gold raft out to the center of the lake. At the same time, all kinds of gold and gems are thrown into the lake as sacrifices to the gods. Apparently, the people thought that swimming in the lake was bad so almost no one knew how to swim. But this potential new chief, covered in gold dust, was supposed to jump off the raft and swim to shore. They did lose a lot of potential chiefs because of this. Here is the wikipedia story:
In 1636 Juan Rodriguez Freyle wrote this account, addressed to his friend Don Juan, the cacique or governor of Guatavita:
The ceremony took place on the appointment of a new ruler. Before taking office, he spent some time secluded in a cave, without women, forbidden to eat salt,or to go out during daylight. The first journey he had to make was to go to the great lagoon of Guatavita, to make offerings and sacrifices to the demon which they worshipped as their god and lord. During the ceremony which took place at the lagoon, they made a raft of rushes, embellishing and decorating it with the most attractive things they had. They put on it four lighted braziers in which they burned much moque, which is the incense of these natives, and also resin and many other perfumes. The lagoon was large and deep, so that a ship with high sides could sail on it, all loaded with an infinity of men and women dressed in fine plumes, golden plaques and crowns…. As soon as those on the raft began to burn incense, they also lit braziers on the shore, so that the smoke hid the light of day.
At this time they stripped the heir to his skin, and anointed him with a sticky earth on which they placed gold dust so that he was completely covered with this metal. They placed him on the raft … and at his feet they placed a great heap of gold and emeralds for him to offer to his god. In the raft with him went four principal subject chiefs, decked in plumes, crowns, bracelets, pendants and ear rings all of gold. They, too, were naked, and each one carried his offering …. when the raft reached the centre of the lagoon, they raised a banner as a signal for silence. The gilded Indian then … [threw] out all the pile of gold into the middle of the lake, and the chiefs who had accompanied him did the same on their own accounts. … After this they lowered the flag, which had remained up during the whole time of offering, and, as the raft moved towards the shore, the shouting began again, with pipes, flutes, and large teams of singers and dancers. With this ceremony the new ruler was received, and was recognized as lord and king.
We left Guatavita around 2 pm and stopped to eat lunch at a “yacht club†about 10 minutes away. Basically, a beautiful building on the shore of another incredible lake where you can put your sail boat in, a dock, a playground for the kids, a few cabins, and a restaurant with a large bank of glass windows that overlook the lake. Even though it rained off and on, the sun always comes out between the showers. The lake is a mountain lake with hills coming steeply down to the water. It was a place and experience that you would pay hundreds of dollars to experience in the states. It was beautiful.
While we were waiting for our lunches I was thinking and comparing to the US. If you just plucked the little area of the club out of Colombia, you could plop it down anywhere in the US and it would seem completely normal. There were little sailboats and a few windsurfers out on the lake as well as a water skier, even though it was only about 70 degrees. There were very few people considering it was a Saturday. But the area was well groomed, the playground was very spread out and well kept and it was so peaceful. But then I realized that if this place was in the states you would look out and see all types of houses and buildings built on the other hills on the other sides of the lake. There were none. There was not one single structure visible anywhere around the lake. Nothing! Absolutely no one, not one house, cabin, anything. Completely isolated and remote. And we were only 1 ½ hours outside of the city! It was so quiet and pretty and peaceful. Not to mention that Andrew and I had veal dinners with two large pieces of veal each with salad, drink and dessert for just 6$ each. The filet mignon was 5$ and it was apparently really good. It was an experience that I don’t think could even find in the US, and if you did, would never be able to afford!
This past weekend I wanted to keep the kids busy so we decided to go to the Museo del Oro downtown (the Gold museum). Kaleb went with us, he loves to go do this stuff as he really hasn’t had much opportunity to. His mom is a single parent missionary and I imagine is pretty busy. We took a taxi downtown to the museum and were able to each get one of the electronic….oh I don’t know what you would call them…..you enter the number of the exhibit and it plays a recording for you in your language. We spent over 2 hours going through the 2 floors of exhibits.
A good number of items were related to the El Dorado legend so the kids were able to make some connections to the artifacts from the story they heard about in Guatavita. Apparently, the religion of the Indians involved Shamans. They would eat the coca leaves and go into these trance like states. Many of the objects involved combinations of human and bat features. Bats were seen as very powerful in the culture with their ability to fly, to see in the dark, etc. Other animals you often see are jaguars and snakes. There were many examples of decorative, religious and everyday household objects.
We were all amazed at the gold fish hooks and lures. Can you imagine fishing with gold hooks and lures? The nose rings are amazing as always. Some of them are so huge, well I don’t want to think about what their noses looked like. There were many objects that appeared to be “massed produced†Turns out they used a lost wax process and did essentially mass produce them. A lot of the items had a reddish tint from the small bit of copper that was mixed in.
When I was there 25 years ago there were a few exhibits but the most impressive collection was inside a locked vault. There are now many more exhibits outside the enclosed area, but they still do a 3 minute presentation in an enclosed area. You enter a circular room and lights go out. They slowly come on in sequence around the room with some local music. The display is incredible. At one point a light shines in the center of the room and you can look down on various gold objects with mirrors below so you can see all sides. The music had a latin sound but also that eerie sound you associate with ancient Indian cultures. While the total amount of gold was not Fr. Knox, the workmanship was incredible. It was fine, intricate work that is amazing for a 2000 year old culture.
After the museum we went across the brick walkway and had a snack and coffee in a local tienda. The waitress got Andrew to try one of her empanadas and he was hooked, ate 2 or 3 of them. There was a fairly large area of local shops nextdoor that I wanted to check out. I was really surprised at the prices. In the states, if you go to any type of gift shops that are really close to a large museum you know you are going to pay way more. Well, I thought these prices were really good and on Monday found out from another teacher that yes, this set of shops across from Museo del Oro are the best prices in town. I bought Kirsten a silver ring with 4 little emeralds (not the greatest quality…very light green) for about 45$. We all decided that we have to back and buy each of us our own hammock before we leave! We spent about an hour there and then walked across a park area to get a taxi.
Just as we got the road Andrew did what I kept telling him not to, he got himself caught up in an attempt at conversation with a pretty poor street person. She gave him a little card written in Spanish, he took it and then we could not get away, she kept following us. So what does Kaleb do? The Colombian who is supposed to be the one who knows what is going on? He stops to listen to her!!!!! Well, when she found out we were trying to get a taxi, she made it her personal mission to find us a taxi. She ran 2 and 3 blocks ahead of us, kept trying to flag one down. But as you’d probably figure, what taxi was going to stop for an obvious street person. She finally cornered one stopped at a stop light and somehow convinced him to wait for us to get there. We gave her 3 mil for her help. Then in the taxi the driver didn’t realize that I spoke Spanish and he starts lecturing Kaleb on how he needs to tell us not to talk to the poor people or give them money because it just encourages them to not leave you alone and how they will take advantage of foreigners. I sure hope Kaleb listened to him!!!!
We decided to check out the mall that was near the restaurant Beth had taken us to, called Santa Ana. It is a much more upscale place than I thought and pretty busy, although not busy like a US mall on Sat. afternoon. We ate lunch at Spoleta’s, Italian place, and then I had to go grocery shopping. There is a Carrefor there, kind of like a Kmart super store, so decided to get what I needed. Kaleb wasn’t into grocery shopping so he left to go home.
Now, I said this was like a Kmart super store, but it was 2 floors with groceries on the first floor. So I am wondering, you get your groceries and then what do you do if you want something from the second floor? Do you leave your cart somewhere? That was when I found out that escalators don’t have to be in the form of stairs, they can also be ramps! Yes, you get on the escalator ramp with your grocery cart and make sure your feet are solidly planted because you go up on about a 25 degree angle and if your cart is heavy, well, watch out! It really was pretty cool. Makes it a lot easier for the kids to go up the down way! It was certainly a different way to do things!
Sunday after church I took the kids to check out another local mall, Unicentro. It took us almost an hour to go from Calle 53 to 100 because of the ciclovias. A whole bunch of roads that are normally 2+ lanes each way with a median in the center are blocked off and reserved for bicyclists. It creates horrific traffic problems which probably would encourage a lot of people to just not drive on Sundays. We finally got there and the place was mobbed, even mobbed for a US mall; sort of like Macy’s at Christmas time in NYC. We walked around and bit and decided it was too crazy and got a taxi home.
It was about 3:30 by the time we got home so we had the taxi drop us off in front of the chicken place down the street. We hadn’t eaten there yet, but Maria Jose had said it was really good. And it was. I am still not sure exactly what all the things on the menu are but basically you order your chicken in ¼. ½ or whole chicken. It comes with a few little boiled potatoes rolled in salt and a small arepa. Fries, salads, etc. you order separate. We got a whole chicken that had been roasted and cut into about 8 pieces. It was all served family style. I had a salad and the kids had fries. It was just about the best chicken I ever ate. But of course, there had to be an amusing little difference that we never expected…….
Before the waitress brought the chicken she brought out this little metal platter with some silverware and three things that looked like 3 thin plastic bags tied in a knot. As we looked around we realized that everyone who was eating chicken had on clear plastic gloves!!!! Yep, you eat the chicken with plastic gloves on your hands to conserve the paper napkins! It was weird at first, but after you get used to it, it was a pretty good idea! Except when you try to pour your coke out of the glass coke bottle…..that takes a little care when you have greasy gloves on!
When we were almost completely stuffed, the waitress asked if we’d like some fruit salad. I am always up for fruit so said yes. Well, she asked if we wanted ice cream with it. Why not? It was a good thing we only got 1! She brought this 5 in. diameter bowl piled with fresh fruit in a cream sauce (apple, mango, pineapple, strawberries, peaches, papaya, bananas). There were long slices of fruit stuck upright around the edge of the bowl with a huge scoop of cookies and cream ice cream in the center. It was topped with (sprinkled with) shredded mozzarella cheese. The kids weren’t too big on the cheese but it really went well with the fruit. They eat apples and cheese all the time, so I don’t know what the problem was. Personally, I really like the ice cream here because they don’t make it with such a high fat content so it doesn’t make me sick (gastric bypass surgery has made me really sensitive to high fat foods). So that was our 2$ dessert! As we walked out of the restaurant I realized that the dessert had come from the shop next door. Until then I hadn’t understood why a shop would advertise as a fruit and ice cream shop. Now I understand!
Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got home, but as usual, my kids had homework to complete. I was asleep way before they even thought about bed time! 5 am came way to quick on Monday morning!
Cristal, I love reading all of your blog entries! I just returned from Germany and England — I had a great time, esp. on the island of Texel (off the Dutch coast) Scrumptious food, bike riding galore, beach walking, shopping in the little villages. Now it’s time for me to find a job, though, so I had to come back to Spokane.