Wrap-up: Colombia (or, cool non-bird things)

Usually when I blog about a trip I try to offer some observations or insights that I've had about my travel or my destination, rather than just recounting where I went or what I did -- mostly because I don't generally feel inspired to document my trips that way.

Which is probably why it took me so long to get around to the 'Birds of Colombia' post, and why I'm struggling to think of what I could write here, in a wrap-up.  Maybe I don't feel that I have any particular observations or insights because the pace of the trip (lots of 14+ hour days) meant we had lots of experiences, but not a lot of time for reflection?

Nevertheless, just for the record, I'd like to share a few of the coolest (non-bird) things we saw.  

In no particular order.....archeology/history.

We visited the Gold Museum in Bogota on our first day in-country.  Bogota has the world's largest collection of pre-Colombian gold, not because pre-contact Colombia was the richest part of the Americas, but because pre-contact Colombians tended to bury their honoured dead with gold artefacts, and many parts of the Andes remained very very remote until the 19th Century.  By the time the graves were discovered, folks were at least sometimes interested in the history and aesthetics, not just the metal.

Here are a few photos:

The locals practised metallurgy. Some of the pieces were hammered out of gold nuggets, but many were made of gold alloyed with other metals (and cast using the lost wax process).

The other really amazing archeological site that we visited was Cerro Azul, one of a series of cliff faces containing rock paintings that date back about 12,000 years. (For context, the First Kingdom in Egypt was founded about 5,000 years ago, which is approximately when StoneHenge was built.  The Lascaux cave paintings are 15-20,000 years old.  The last ice age ended about 11,700 years ago.)  

No one really understands how these paintings have survived so long. 

The view from a high point on the cliff face. The jungle stretches out from here to the Atlantic.

Yes I look hot.  We had to climb 170m in 31C to reach the painted section of the cliff face.

The top was probably painted using scaffolding.  Amongst the many images are drawings that look like people climbing towers.

Many of the detailed drawings are kind of puzzling. Our local guide believed the square patches were skirts. Some of the animals appear to be pre-ice age megafauna. 

And now for some photos of additional non-bird fauna, and some landscape shots to give you an idea of the kinds of countryside we travelled through. 

The hills above Bogota

An oncima -- a wild cat the size of large domestic cat.  When the farmers at this 'eco-finca' first discovered the oncima it was eating one of their domestic chickens and looking very ill. It also appears to be partially blind.  The farmers decided that feeding the cat would be better both for the cat and for their livestock. Now it's often at the farm (although it sometimes vanishes for up to a month at a time).

Capybaras!

A giant anteater, which we saw in the extreme distance. Apparently a very rare sighting, even by those who make a point of searching out this animal.  Photo by (c) Adam Wang

Adam, the photographer.

Walking a road, looking for tanagers. (These brightly coloured birds tend to travel in the treetops in scattered mixed flocks, which is quite tantalizing!)

But it wasn't always sunny, and the roads were not always good.

The countryside as we were transiting between locations. The fields with big blobs are growing avocados. The little blobs are coffee plants. You can grow coffee for 7 years, and then you need to replant the field, which is what is happening in the brown field.

Grounds of the fancy rural hotel where we stayed for our last nights. We were the only guests!

And a fe more photos of Colombia itself:

As in rural areas of Mexico, moto-taxis are the public transport of choice for 'last mile' trips.

The main highways through the Andes are full of long tunnels. This one was about 4km long.

We were supposedly visiting in the dry season, but it rained a lot during our two weeks in Colombia.

Colombia is a major supplier of cut flowers, grown in greenhouses.

And finally, there was an election on while we were in Colombia, and I was initially confused by the election signs.  It seemed to me that the majority had been defaced by someone who didn't like the candidate. Here's a closeup example:

But signs like this were everywhere....

Eventually I figured out that they were simply showing you how to mark your ballot. :-)  Apparently in Colombia you place an "X" on either the party name or the candidate number to vote for someone. 

This concludes my blogging about our trip. It was amazing, if a little tiring. We're not sure if we'll ever return to Colombia, or if we'll do a dedicated birding trip again, but we had a wonderful time.