Pachacuti - Panama Hats and Fair Trade Clothing

Surprisingly I have never been to the famous gold museums in either Lima or Bogota, but whilst in Cartagena I found time for a brief visit to their small Museo de Oro, the Gold Museum.  The museum might have been small, but the exhibits were very well displayed with informative text, which is not the case in many Latin American museums.

Pre-colombian gold jewellery and ornaments from the Zenu culture, as well as the Taironas and Muiscas have been found in Colombia dating back over 2000 years.  Walking through a heavy bank vault style security door, I first came to a display of Sinú gold, including a delightful gold jaguar, together with anklets, bracelets and coverings for more intimate parts of the body.   Other body adornments on display were ceramic rollers which would have been painted with natural pigments and rolled onto the skin to create body art.

The gold from the Zenú culture focussed on fish and marine birds and animals as the culture was based around a series of canals which they built around 500BC which supported the civilisation with fish and fertile sediment for agriculture.  Amongst my favourite exhibits on display was the collection of gold fishing hooks and the line of spoonbills.

From around 7000BC, the Puerto Hormiga culture was found on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and consecutive cultures included the Karibs, Malibus, Arawaks and Kalamari peoples. Around 1000AD the Tairona culture thrived in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Their descendants, the Kogi, were featured in an incredible book and film 'From the Heart of the World' where they, the Elder Brother, sent a warning to us, the Younger Brother, about how our actions are causing an ecological imbalance on their sacred mountain.

Cartagena de las Indias is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a city I had always wanted to visit due to its well-preserved colonial architecture painted in warm ochre hues, with beautiful wooden balconies.  The city certainly did not disappoint and I think in this case pictures are better than words.  We stopped for a cup of coconut lemonade under the relative coolness of the courtyard arches in the Sofitel hotel, housed in a former monastery with toucans hopping from chair to chair.  Cartagena is definitely a city I want to revisit and would make an ideal location for a Pachacuti photoshoot!