El Dorado is in Colombia!

El Dorado is a legend place sought unsuccessfully by Spaniard and English explorers for centuries. Many of them died in the attempt. It was suposed to be a place with gold-paved streets with huge reserves of the precious metal, located somewhere in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil. DreamWorks produced an animated movie about El Dorado (The Road to El Dorado) but it was located erroneously in Mexico.

There are several version of the legend in different places but the most accepted is the one in Colombia where in a lagoon nearby Bogota (39 miles) the chief of Muisca indians used to be covered in gold dust on a rift, in a rite in which he and other indians paid tributo to the Mother Earth by throwing gold and emerald pieces into the lagoon.

After many years of wanting to go to get to know the Muisca sacred lagoon, and despite the close it is to my hometown, yesterday I went with my family and got surprised of the much I learned about my ancestors. The first stop is the town of Guatavita which shares its name with the lagoon. This town was rebuilt in last century 60's due to the old town was inundated in order to create the Tomine reservoir. Old Guatavita lies under the waters. The new Guatavita owns a museum on the town, the lagoon and the Muiscas.

The second stop is the lagoon itself. It is a circular lake in the mountains in what appears to be a meteor crater without bottom. One of its walls was broken by Spaniards explorers trying to take the water out in order to get the suposed treasure. One side of the mountain has a V-shaped side. At the beginning of the 20th Century English engineers drained part of the lagoon, finding some gold pieces. Today the Guatavita lagoon area is a national park.

There are more much I saw and learned that I will not write about. Instead, I invited you to go there and get to know. If you have the chance of coming to Colombia go to Guatavita lagoon. It is pretty close to Bogota and you will learn a lot about Colombian and Southamerican history. Besides, you will learn, in a first hand way, about one of the most famous and fascinating legends.

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