These are the views from Zipaquirá, an hour's drive from Bogota. The difference from the city to the countryside could not be more striking. From Bogota, a huge, sprawling city of buildings and concrete we made our way alongside the mountain range to the outskirts of the city and eventually to this lush open space.
These photos were taken by the lake that was scared to the indigenous. The lake stands today as it did then, still as a circle and at the bottom of the lake, still sits gold offerings. The Spanish conquistadors tried to carve through the mountain to drain the lake and reach the gold, but the cost of doing so would have been more than the gold in the lake so they stopped.
'But why don't you take the gold from the lake?' I asked our guide 'and put it in a museum?'
He explained that it was sacred to the Indigenous so why offend them further. It is part of history. These were their offerings so why change that? He had a point. 'And also' he added 'maybe people may stop coming to see the lake if we took it away from the lake'.
'I would still come' I said.
'Really?' he asked.
'Yes. This place is beautiful'.
I love horse here. Such a beautiful brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment