I believe that I promised some extended captions for the pictures I posted a while back...well it's time for me to pay up. I think I'll start with my first weekend trip to Guatavita.
The town itself is adorable. Paula told us it was modeled after a city somewhere in Europe, but she wasn't quite sure where. It's definitely Mediterranean with its white buildings and clay tiled roofs. Apparently the town itself is only about 40 years old. It was built in the late 60s after the original town was flooded by water from the Embalse de Tominé hydro-electric reservoir. If you walk down to the newly formed lake, Lago de Tominé, you can take boat tours over to the site of the old town. There they have diving tours that take you into to the water to the original town, which is now submerged underwater.
The town is rather empty, with actual for sale signs in some of the windows--a bit odd considering the town itself is a bit remote. I did some research and apparently the original town's people don't care for their new, modern town, and would rather live outside of its limits as opposed to inside the new, well kept, modern houses. Paula thinks they're adorable and said she'd love to live in one of them. Of course, we encouraged her to call one of the numbers on the "Se Vende" signs, but at the same time, we all imagined it to be way out of our budget.
We didn't spend much time in the small town. We wandered around a bit, headed down to the lake, and then stopped back in town for some chicha from a local woman. Chicha is an extremely traditional alcoholic drink in Colombia, made from fermented corn. In all honesty, it's not that good. It has a particularly sour taste, almost like bad fruit--which makes sense, given it's fermented through a "homemade" approach. I enjoyed the experience of trying it, but one small glass was plenty for me.
That same local "bar" (I use that term in the loosest possible way) was where I first tried Quatro as well. Quatro is a widely popular soft drink that is actually pretty good--a huge step up from the chicha. They always serve it in glass bottles (much like every other pop you order from a restaurant) and it tastes like it could fit right in with the Faygo family--fruity, carbonated, and sugary.
The most popular "attraction" in Guativita is the Laguna de Guatavita.
The Lake is the birth place of the legend of El Dorado. The legend itself was formed based on the rituals of the Muisca people. They believed that the lagoon had astral origins and that after it's formation, a golden god lived in the bottom of the lake. In actuality, it's believed that the lake was formed from a giant meteor some 2000 years ago, but the locals have a wide variety of speculations, including volcanoes and even a few involving aliens or some form of extra-terrestrial life.
Whatever its origins, the lake became a central location for the Muisca. Every leader went through a ritual requiring that they spend a number of years - 7 if memory serves me - starting at their 14th birthday, locked away in a cave. They weren't allowed to see daylight or a woman and they weren't allowed to eat anything seasoned with salt, sugar, or spice for the entire 7 years. They then performed rituals in a ceremonial hut, something involving women and a fire in the center of the floor (it got a bit lost in translation..sorry). The future leader was then covered in a sticky substance (some say honey, some resin) and then head to toe in gold dust. He entered the lake on a raft, dove into the center, and waited for the sun to rise.
The spaniards heard of the rituals of the Muisca and believed there to be a great deal of gold sitting at the bottom of the lake, and of course, wanted it. in the 1560s, Antonio de Sepúlveda attempted to drain the lake, in search of the gold and emeralds at its bottom. He succeeded in carving a path through the surrounding mountainside, but died before finding his riches. Several other explorers attempted to do the same, lowering the water level of the lake, but never finding their riches.
We took a guided tour up to a look out point above the lake. At the top, we took part in a tradition of offering our thoughts and hopes to the lake. We were instructed to hold our thoughts in our left hand -the hand of your heart- close our eyes, and after our guide recited three particular words, we were to blow our thoughts to the lake as an offering, and for safe keeping.
I think that's about all I've got in me for today. I'm actually enjoying going back and researching things now that I have a better idea of the country and where to look. Next time, I'll share Zipaquirá and the undground, salt cathedral.
