Lucas Takes us on a Horse Ride

The reasons we were heading to San Augustine were for it supposed beauty and to visit an Archeological site. A great part of the site is close to the town and is spread over 75 acres and also houses a museum. It is well done and definately worth a visit. But as well, in the area of San Augustine are a number of other sites that are exactly where they were placed by these ancient people long ago and the only way to get to these sites is by horse. I had been kidding Nancy for a long time that if we wanted to see all the things that were important, we would have to go on horseback. She just laughed and said "no way". That was until we met Lucas, the guide who had helped us find the place to stay that we wrote about yesterday.

Lucas does many things and one thing he does is to guide people on horses to these out of the way Archeological sites and he convinced Nancy that it was easy, not dangerous and she could do it, and to my astonishment she said "yes." So we signed up for a four hour horse ride for the following day.



And the journey begins. It was hard to take pictures on the horses as both of us were hanging on so tight so the only ones you will see are on level and non muddy terrain. Lucas is in the background.
Nancy was amazed that she got on the horse. This was maybe 20 minutes into the journey and we were already wondering when it was going to be over. Only 3.5 hours left to go. And very little of it was on flat level ground. Most of it was galloping up hills or picking and sliding down very wet hills. It had rained hard the night before our trip and the trails were washed with gullies that occassionally the horses had to jump across. It was really not an adventure meant for two 65 year olds, one who had not ridden a horse for over 50 years and the other for over 30 years.
This was the first site we visited and one of the burial statues that are spread around this part of Colombia. And always present, our handsome cowboy Lucas.
This statue was as far as the horses could go and then many steps down and up the hill. Little is know about the people who populated this land and they dissappeared or dispersed several centuries before the Europeans arrived on the scene. And yet they left behind at least 500 statues.
The prettiest statue. They think that there was color in many of them but most have faded over the years.

The sign of a true cowboy. Can he open the gate without getting off the horse? He opened many and never once got off his horse to do it.
Lucas' beginnings were that he was raised by a mother and father who ran pack trains. He also was a wealth of other information. He told us, from Lucas' point of view, much about Colombia and himself. We learned about the rebel group FARC and the paramilitaries who were hired by the rich families of Colombia to get rid of the FARC and all the very ugly things that happened during this war. At one time, it was a war of ideology, but now it is just a war of who controls the drug trade. He had no solutions but seemed to come out on the side of FARC.

Other things about him were most interesting. He more than likely had about a grade 8 education but he spoke quite fluently in 4 languages, English, German, French and Spanish, all learned from tourists. He was a most accomplished horseman and not only did small 4 hour trips but 6 day trips to Popayan and 6 week trips to Ecuador. He always smelled a bit like alcohol, talked often about various women in his life and any money he had, he spent. He certainly was the persona that Tom T Hall had in mind when he wrote one of his more famous songs "Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey, More Money." We so did enjoy him and would recommend him for a guide for anyone.

Just a vista that I was able to take when I wasn't hanging on so tight.
The River Magdalena, like the Mississippi in the US, runs from the south of Colombia and enters into the Caribbean at Barranquilla in the north of Colombia. Here it is near its beginning and the valley that houses it. In Barranquilla it is many km wide and we have crossed it many times during our times in Colombia.
Just to show how steep some of the mountains are that are farmed. The soil is rich and there is lots of rain.

This trip happened 3 days ago and Nancy and I are just barely able to move now. We both had blisters, Nancy on the palm of her hand from hanging on so tight to the saddle horn and I on my tail bone as I didn't have enough padding in that spot. Maybe in another 50 years we will give it a try but we kind of doubt it. It was a hard day but we still have lots of laughs over it.