36. San Augustin, Columbia

36.

San Augustin, Columbia:

This is a tiny village situated in the tropical high Andes of Southern Columbia. The unpaved road in to the village is a hair-raising bit of highway technology, which is often closed by avalanches since these mountains are never as still as mountains should be.

I am here because I have heard there is a “Parke Archaeologico” here where tombs, monumental heads and animals carved in stone by unknown ancient artists are preserved.

On one of the park’s lovely footpaths I meet a local boy with a white dog. He guides me to the “Pre-Hispanic Fountain” which is a group of carved faces and animals hidden deep in a valley streambed. He points at the central colossal face of the group and exclaims “El Rey! El Rey!” I flash on the similarity of the sound, “El Rey”, which means, “The King” in Spanish, to the name of the Hawk-god of ancient Egypt, “Ra”, pronounced similarly. (Ra: Horus Hawkhead.) I enjoy pondering these coincidences and, standing here in this dripping jungle garden, it doesn’t take a huge mental leap for me to imagine the old people of the pyramid making it over here somehow to check things out maybe 120 human generations ago. I realize that my Spanish/Egyptian/South and North American fantasy is too imaginative to be true, but sometimes I like to let my thoughts run wild and this is a marvelous place and time to do it!

And anyway it seems to be a very difficult thing to communicate with future generations since almost everything is forgotten and civilizations-- even ours--come and go. (Mostly go, as they say.)

...