THE GOLD MUSEUM
Becca had told us that in Bogata we must see the Gold Museum. Today we went and were certainly impressed. My over 60 ticket was free, Susie‘s under 60 ticket was $1.50. We only saw one floor of the four floors of the Gold Museum before we got hungry and decided to take a break from the crowded museum and eat in the very luxurious museum cafe.
We had a great meal with an appetizer of several types of crisp dried vegetables with a delicious dipping sauce. But suddenly we found ourselves almost the last people in the cafe and discovered that the museum was suddenly emptied and closed. We needed help in even getting out through security. There was a truck strike we were told which made no sense to us. But we couldn‘t see more of the museum and had no idea what was going on. So we walked back to our apartment.
But the floor we did see was marvelous. There was an extended history of metallurgy throughout the world through a movie that told the story of the development of the uses of metal.
But most of the galleries showed examples of the different kinds of gold work developed in different parts of Colombia and South America. The examples of the pounded out flat gold in sheets from which ceremonial gold pieces were cut out as well as a bees wax method of pouring gold into a shaped wax mold.
There were also explanations of the ceremonial uses of these gold pieces. But it was not so much the history of the uses of gold in South America that impressed me as two other things. The first was the extremely high quality of the exhibits and the lighting. The museum itself was stunning, dispelling again my total ignorance of the quality of life in Colombia and presumably the rest of South America. If the museum were in Asheville it would be the center of any tourists visit, but we have nothing like it. The second thing that struck me was the richness and sophistication of the cultures of South America before the Spanish conquistadores arrived. Somehow the mistaken impression created by white supremacy and colonialism that Europe was bringing civilization to South (and North) America was dispelled. The people of Colombia, who are a mixture of many cultures, have a long history to be proud of before the Spanish arrived with the Spanish language and Catholic religion.
The third thing that struck Susie about the exhibit was that there were a number of examples in gold of the round container with a thin needle like rod that fit into the center that were very much like round wooden ball and thing wooden rod, that the guy from Colombia that she met and became attached to in the Asheville and Miami airports, with which he was continually doing some kind of ritual.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 