It has been the soul of Augustinian ancestors, or perhaps the flow of the Magdalena channeled in less than two meters; or perhaps the magic of clouds amazed by the green of the mountains, which brought me and my family last weekend to let our steps follow the footprints of the millions of people who for decades have walked on the friendly soil. of Saint Augustine. Yes, this tourist destination that long ago stopped being a simple town to become a territory that belongs to all the men and women who live on earth; a San Agustín Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in whose geography the ancestors, with elevated and exceptional rites, planted their dead who live eternally in one of the largest necropolises in the world.
In the tourist’s travel decision, accommodation is one of their priorities and therefore, receiving the warm attention of Olga Lucía Medina and Emiliano Pastrana, we arrived at their hotel, the renowned Hotel Yuma, whose permanently green meadows attract the gaze of the visitor while inviting him to rest in the cabins with generous and sheltered space. A hotel that has a landscape of three hundred and sixty degrees, outlined by trees like silent sentinels, of always pregnant clouds that pour their fresh spirit on all creatures. In this place, we were able to enjoy a library that seduces the reading tourist to discover stories, novels, poetry, science and even disquisitions by renowned statesmen and jurists, while at times, the reading eye is happy with the multiplicity of flowers whose color replicates the blue of the eyes of Olga Lucía, devotee of Summers, Boyfriends and Anthuriums. Additionally, there are many other experiences that are good for the tourist’s taste, such as: the gastronomy, the interior trails and not to mention, the friendly and efficient attention of his staff. The peace that reigns in its surroundings builds within the guest sensitivity towards self-observation, towards communion with the perennial rhythm of their own particularity.
Now, when it comes to accommodation, our stay in the archaeological heart of Colombia would happily and inexorably lead us to visit the San Agustín Internacional Hotel, where each building leads to an international experience thanks to the architectural designs of Scandinavian and Greek styles. , American, Mediterranean or Colombian, which is the case of the imposing Colombian four-story house, so immersed in the universe of coffee farms in the green and red or yellow and blue landscapes of our country. While we followed the walk of Ricardo, our affectionate friend and businessman, along the Las Gallinas Felices path, inside the hotel, we found ourselves traveling to the time of the scientific discovery of San Agustín when, in 1914, Konrad Theodor Preuss packed carefully at least thirty sculptures and took them to Germany to tell the scientific world that Saint Augustine existed. Ricardo’s story flowed emotionally at each station of the path that he and his beloved wife, Alma, designed with replicas of the sculptures brought by Preuss to the old continent. The truth being at the forefront of each sculptural work allows you to feel the music of the pre-Columbian artist, it takes you once again to the unimaginable confines of the poetic myth meaning that our ancestral people had to be inspired and bequeath to humanity their inscrutable truths, same that allow all class of cosmic or ethnographic interpretations where academics and holders of the oral tradition, as well as, for some decades, esotericists, write and preach their own discernment of such an exceptional people, ancestrally called Ullumbe. This is a hotel that is loved for the singing of birds, of squirrels that give an account of the wild fruits that grow there. It is pleasant for the organic coffee that is produced next to the buildings that welcome the sleeping and dreaming tourist. You have to take the time to contemplate the endemic flowers that Alma, the distinguished businesswoman, with the sensitivity of a virtuous architect, plants every day while dreaming of her grandchildren and everyone’s children, as well as adults in general, filling their hearts with color, of nectar, of the flight of toches and bluebirds that land in this countryside, a park in which you live, while you dream.
Whoever visits the Hotel Yuma and the Hotel San Agustín Internacional cannot leave there without their being being touched by a feeling of peace and harmony. And there is something that has amazed me about these two places, it is something that those of us who know their managers: Olga Lucía and Emiliano, Alma and Ricardo, can perceive; It is the testimony of the tenacity, the perseverance of two couples capable of writing their dreams, drawing them on a model and then launching them into the practical world of magnificent constructions where new dreams of travelers also take shape, lavishing a renewed experience, that beyond Being tourism, it is a vital experience.
This San Agustín for tourism that its entrepreneurs build and promote daily, has a very special characteristic and that is the neutrality that assists it when variables such as the agitation of public order seem to threaten the industry without chimneys in the country. Here the tourist is respected from all aspects of his integrity. Like the imperial Vienna – Austria that, while others went to war, arranged weddings and concerts, San Agustín stages the work of nature and culture all year round, where its residents and tourists feel good.
To the four of them, my deepest admiration and respect for what they are as beautiful human beings and exemplary businessmen, as unmatchable guardians and promoters of Augustinian culture. They have been ideal to overcome all the crises that sometimes hurt the Huila destination, as well as all of Colombia, and they play their part to maintain and grow quality tourism offers for the national and international market.