San Agustín

[visited in April 2022]

Based in the town of San Agustín, it is quite easy to reach the three sites indicated as WHS. A two-day ticket for the entire archaeological area is on sale and can be purchased at the Museum located at the entrance to the San Agustin Archaeological Park, which can be reached on foot from the town along an asphalted road.
This is undoubtedly the largest and most interesting site of the three and worth a day's visit.

The next morning I visited the other two sites: Alto De Las Piedras and Alto de los Ídolos, they are in Isnos and a ride by car is required to reach them. Less extensive than the main park of the previous day, especially the first, but in my opinion they are both worth a visit and you can do it in half a day.

In the afternoon I visited other sites around the town of San Agustín which, although excluded from UNESCO heritage sites, absolutely deserve attention: in particular La Chaquira, La Pelota and the nearby El Purutal (the last two for a fee because not included in the official ticket ). Very pleasant visit, I recommend to do it on horseback, it is an itinerary of 4/5 hours in total.

The level of care and maintenance of the entire archaeological area is truly commendable: really excellent!

San Agustín isn’t as hard to reach as Tierradentro, but the 135km between Popayan and San Agustin still took the public bus that I was on 5 hours. About 3.5 of them were spent on an unpaved road right across Puracé National Park, which at least offered great views in return. The bus will drop you at the turn-off to San Agustín, from where it is 8km or so into town and another 3 to the Archaeological Park. This add-on was nicely taken care of by the bus company (Cootranshuila), as they paid for my ‘taxi’ into San Agustín (on the back of a motorbike).

As the site closes at 4 p.m. and it was already 1, I continued straight on to the park. At the ticket office, they were kind enough to store my backpack behind the counter, so I did not have to haul it around the extensive grounds. A minor complaint though is that they have succumbed to the practice of ‘foreigner pricing’. I can understand it in certain circumstances, but there are a lot of middle-class Colombians and the price difference between 35,000 what they have to pay and 50,000 pesos for foreigners isn’t that much (charge all 40,000 and you will get the same revenue, as the domestic tourists by far outnumber those from abroad). But in the end, I was happy to pay the equivalent of 12,50 EUR for a truly unique site on a global scale and two days’ worth of entrance …

Some points which might be of use to someone planning a visit to San Agustin and deciding how to visit its 3 locations (Based on a visit in Nov 2019)
a. Alto de los Idolos is closed for renovations until (at least?) Aug 2020. Worth double checking I guess if you arrive before this!
b. San Agustin is the main park and, with its museum, could take a full morning or longer.
c. It consists of 5 authentic “in situ” elements (3 “Mesitas”, 1 “Fuente” and 1 “Alto”) all situated within a fenced and “ticketed” area. There are paths (mainly paved) between them. Only the final “Alto” requires a short climb
d. There are 3 “Mesitas” (“A”, “B” and “C”). These are areas levelled by the builders of the San Agustin tombs to provide flat areas for the location of several groups of tombs. The tombs consist of “dolmen” which would have been covered by earth and have had guarding statues at their entrances.
e. We visited in the sequence B, C, A. I felt that there was a benefit on reaching B as soon as possible in the morning. All the tombs and stones are covered by modern protective structures and, as the sun climbs, these cast dark shadows across the stones making photography difficult (the worst is when the shadows cross half way up a statue!) The Triangle and the Eagle were fully clear when we reached them (on the other hand we had to postpone the …

We were happy to reach San Agustin at the end of our bumpy 5 hr ride from Popayan. The town of San Agustin itself is nothing to get too excited about but the surrounding area is beautiful so I'd recommend staying just outside of town at one of the nicer and quieter resorts or above town to enjoy the views during your down time. 

The WHS consists of 3 sites which we saw over 2 days. Our first visit was to the main archaeological park 3km out of town. The entry fee is a bit much at 50,000 pesos but is valid for 2 days and all 3 sites. There is a nice museum on site and overall the sites are well maintained and presented though English signage is limited so read up ahead of time or hire a guide at the entrance.

Not a lot is known about the San Agustin culture but they were clearly very skilled artisans. The main attractions are the numerous statues on display, each one unique and displaying various human and animalistic features and symbols, the meaning of which archaeologists are still debating. I enjoyed them more than I'd expected but found the sites a little hard to grasp and connect with since they consist of scattered burial chambers all carefully fenced off and covered for protection with manicured lawn between them. There is little sign of any connecting life, villages, buildings or "ruins" suggesting a community or culture other than a …

In 1996 I got to San Agustin by bus from Popoyan, a distance of about 140kms. The journey took 8 hours through splendid mountain scenery including at the highest altitudes, a long stretch of wild cloud forest protected by a National Park. There were military road blocks along the way and we were subject to a long delay while the soldiers looked for, and found, a large stash of drugs, hidden in the bottom of a large blue plastic bucket covered by round white cheeses. The carrier of this cargo was, understandably, not keen to identify himself to the soldiers so all adult males on the bus were required to stand in a line in the pouring rain until the corporal in charge satisfied himself, one by one, that the bucket was not ours. The owner, when eventually found, was detained by the army

I often say "getting there is half the fun".

The inscribed site is in 3 parts. I visited the two most important, the Archaeological Park and the Alto de los Idolos.

I found the whole visit extremely enjoyable. San Agustin is an attractive laid-back little town with friendly helpful people. The lush green mountain scenery is gorgeous. I stayed at Residencias Menezu and would recommend it highly.

I learned something of the way of life (and death) of a civilisation of which I had previously known nothing. Some of the works which were undertaken, like slicing the top off 2 small hills and filling in the …