Full Circle
Day 217: Boyaca Valley

Further down, away from the mouth of the stream, where the pickings are less good but conditions less manic, I see a woman and her son working through the silt. She moves heavy stones out of the stream and squats to peer at what might be beneath them. Her son, who can't be more than five or six stares around. Behind them a dog laps at the black water.
From the bank above, where the guaceros have built makeshift shops and cafés, the scene around the gushing water-hole has an unnerving resemblance to images of disaster - a plane crash or a landslide. The unreality is compounded when I look a little further up the hill, where the steep slope that the mine-workings have not yet touched is covered with green grass, trees and flowers.
Choose another day from Full Circle
PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Full Circle
- Day: 217
- Country/sea: Colombia
- Place: Cosquez
- Book page no: 280
Bookmarks will keep your place in one or more series. But you'll need to register and/or log in.