Alta Vista
On February 4th, we hopped in a car with
our friends Hans and Denise from Vamanos to drive to the petroglyphs at Alta
Vista. We had been there last year with
a guide, but Denise’s brother was in town, so we thought we would try to find
it on our own. We found the turnoff from
the main road on the first try, so things were looking good. We even remembered where the trail started.
Along the way there were a lot of wildflowers
starting to bloom, as well as a few cattle that were happy to eat them. The area we were hiking to is sacred to the
local Indians, so there is a caretaker at the entrance to keep out anyone he
doesn’t like the looks of. It’s about an
hour hike to the spot know as the Pool of Kings.
This is the area where sacrifices were/are
performed. There used to be human
sacrifice here, but it has now changed to animal sacrifice due to those pesky
laws and things. We had the whole area
to ourselves, and there is definitely a strange spiritual feeling you have when
you sit quietly and listen to the water burble through the rocks. There are long vines hanging down from the
jungle above the cliffs.
The rocks look
as though they are placed by man, but we were told it is a natural
formation. You can sense the history,
and the reason that they chose this spot as something very special. The area is surrounded by hundreds of
petroglyphs (carvings on the rocks).
They date from 500 years to 2000+ years old. No one has yet studied the site to get
accurate dating on the artifacts as they are in continual use today, and the
Indians will not allow it.
On the way back we stopped for lunch at the small
beach town of Chacala. Nothing like a
beer with a view to finish off the day!
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