"San Agustin" a San Agustín Travel Page by morgr

The town of San Agustinis the best base from which to visit the surrounding archeological sites, and the other natural attractions in the area. The town itself, which was founded in 1790, is fairly small and quiet, outside of the principal street of calle 3, where most restaurants, accomodation and bars are. This is where all the tourists congregate. It is also along this street that you will find the tourist office (at the corner with carrera 12) and a tour company or two, whom can arange jeep or horse tours to some of the sites. Ther is one archeological site that is easy to walk to from town, or take a bus for cheap. However fro the other sites, some form of transport would be wise, as they are further fom town.

Not much is known of the people who created the statues of San Agustin. They appear not to have had any form of written language and they were no longer around by the time that the Spanish colonizers arrived on the scene. They estimate that the people that created the statues had disappeared by the 12th century AD.

Whatever else is not known, there are around 500 statues of different shapes, types and sizes. First re-discovered in 1940, buried. It wasn't until the 1970's that they started excavating them. Ranging from some more realistic figures, to monster types to various animals. The statues were used to guard / decorate the tombs of their dead.

In 1995 it was made into a Unesco World Heritage Site.