good talk

Still Mooching?  You bad people.  I went to see the Laguna de Guatavita, 35 mi. from Bogata.  The first bus broke down, I took a taxi back to the bus station.  The 2nd bus dropped me off 6 miles from Sesquile, from where I had hoped to get transpo to the lagoon.  I saw nothing going towards the town and stood on the side of the road for awhile.  Ah, but some guy had his car parked and was going towards it, I asked would you take me into town?  He said he would for 10,000 Pesos, 5 U.S., I said sounds good to me (I often travel by the seat of my pants, often not knowing where I'll be going next or how I'll get there).  Once in town I offered my new friend 60,000 Pesos to take me to the Laguna and wait for me, he said yes.  It was a rocky, dusty 12 miles.  Once there, I caught the last tour of the day, 13,200 Pesos, you have to take the tour, and they tell you the background in Spanish and then you hike way up and I could barely do it at their fast pace, and we reached the Laguna de Guatavita.  It's not all that big.  The new Muisca King would go out on the Sacred Lake along with the Shamans, Priests, and Nobles and they would apply sticky substance to him and then coat him with gold dust (El Dorado, the Gilded One) and he'd jump in the lake washing the gold dust off, then everybody would dump copious amounts of gold and jewels into the lake.  The Spanish, always eager for gold, tried to drain the lagoon in 1545 and lowered the water level somewhat and found much gold, but were unsuccessful in draining the Sacred Water.  There were after many attempts by various people to drain the lagoon, and all failed.  Finally, in 1900 any further attempts to drain the lake were forbidden, and no doubt there's much wealth on the bottom today.  My friend, the driver, went on the tour himself, he had done this in his youth but not since, and they didn't charge him.  All in all, the tour was 2 hours, there was an English-Speaking tour guide but I just stuck with the Spanish.  There was an American couple on the tour, I asked where you from? And the woman said, Florida, afraid that if I learned the City that maybe I could use the information against them (?).  My driver drove me back to Sesquile from where I got a bus back to Bogata, I gave him 70 thou for a grand total of 80 thou on the day, 40 U.S., and he seemed very happy, I liked the guy.  To see the Lagoon that was the source of the Legend of El Dorado made me happy beyond expression.