FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Támesis

Volcanic rocks in Támesis with petroglyphs

It was time for another road trip, this time south of Medellín. Our destination today was Támesis. It was known as one of the places with the greatest density of indigenous pre-Hispanic petroglyphs in Colombia. Today's education session on the van was on agriculture in the Colombian Andes! Pablo went through the various types of crops and trees that grew at different elevations explaining why scenery could change so quickly throughout the drive.

When we arrived at Támesis, we met up with Rodrigo, our local guide and petroglyph expert. He took us to a local restaurant for lunch before leading us through a tour of the surroundings of Támesis to visit the archaeological sites in the region. The petroglyphs have been dated between 400BC to 400 AD, with a few outliers which were dated earlier. The civilisation that made them, along with many other indigenous tribes in the region all disappeared around the same time around 400AD. No one really knew what happened. Interestingly, the petroglyphs could only be seen with certain light conditions and Rodrigo demonstrated these with the setting sun. The others he pointed out with his torch. Being the silly inattentive people that we were, we didn't remember Pablo telling us to wear longs pants today...the grass was long and itchy!!! The best part of the tour was that it didn't really feel like a "tour". The rickety jeep that we jumped on was one drive by a local youth who micromanaged his music all the way down. Despite the steep descents (it was like 30 minutes of isotonic ab workout!), turns and bumps, there were no seatbelts. Everything felt authentic. We finished sitting down together in the town square for drinks which was lovely.

Lara's graffiti T-shirt we bought from Casa Kolacho

Steep, small, windy roads means slow progress

Hurray for Pablo providing snacks!

A short pit stop for coffee

The clouds were rolling in and out

All trying to time lapse the clouds moving...

View of the cafe

The coffee. I'm not a great fan of tinto coffee but this one was decent

Umm...trying to capture Elliot camouflaged against the matching wall

Crossing the Cauca River

The cultural centre of Tamesis

Rodrigo taking us into one of the local coffee producers

Bags and bags of coffee!

Going through the process of how they sort coffee

Can you tell the difference?

Walking through town

Lunch time!

Love the flora here

I also love the bean soup and accompaniments!

Tomato tree juice. A little like diluted papaya with tomato aftertaste

Ready to tour! Pablo looks like a Colombian version of Steve Carrell and Fix-it Felix

petroglyph

As you do, dry your coffee on the sidewalk

We picked up 2 tag-alongs, the real Edna Mode and her son Daniel, who now lives in France and speaks English with a french accent

Tomatino, the red version of Bananito. If were Colombians, there would be 20 on the jeep

Going under the electrical fence. Sure why not!

Beautiful view but itchy itchy long grass and I could see bugs everywhere!!

Explaining how petroglyphs work

Now you can't see them

Now you can!

Hey there's Olaf

Rodrigo showing us a whole heap of different ones

Kids super excited to ride at the back on the way back up to town

Beautiful Tamesis

Drinks with locals at the town square

Quick pastries for dinner on account of the big lunch

Our hotel for the night was Casa Jacaranda, close to but not quite at Jericó. What a beautiful place it was! There were only 7 rooms and only 4 were occupied tonight. Can't wait to see what it looked like in the morning!