Viaje al Interior de la Tierra

Now, going further south of Colombia there are sites that embody the socio-political past of the country. Indegenous people governed these regions and left vestiges for us to wonder what happend to them; centuries later, this southern area of Colombia turned into one of the most influencial areas of the colony. Popayan, "the white city," was the main city in the state of Cauca and of the southern area of the Virreinato de la Nueva Granada and today it is easy to find houses, churches and smells from the XVI century.
Popayan not only reminds us of the colonial times but of its legacy: the mestizaje and cultural mix.

Viaje al Interior de la Tierra II

In the state of Cauca one can find the largest amount of indegenous communities of the country, which spread their villages along the green and fertile land of this southern area. A few miles from the colonial world of Popayan, there is the town of Silvia that once a week turns into the market place of the Guambianos who bring their produce and hand crafts from higher lands.

Viaje al Interior de la Tierra III

Tierradentro...The culture and the area known as Tirradentro are still two misteries for modern archeologists and others. Nobody knows for sure how the pre-Culumbian civilization built "hipogeos", underground tombs, without electricity or other light source besides fire, wich could have absorved all the oxygen of inside the caves and the builders would have died. Below 8 meters from the surface, geometric figures, faces and animals bring back the voices of people who lived centuries before Colombia turned into a big absurd.

Viaje al Interior de la Tierra IV

This is one of the amazing landscapes that surround the land of Tierradentro.

Viaje al Interior de la Tierra V

After passing through a small portion of the "Macizo Colombiano" (the mountainous knot where the Andes divedes into three mountain chains inside Colombia), one arrives to the state of Hiula to the imposing monoliths of San Agustin.