El Cocuy: the last guardians of the mountains.
The profound contradiction of a people who, despite living surrounded by the imposing Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, the largest snow-covered cordillera in Colombia with around 30 square kilometres of glacial surface and 15 peaks above 5000 metres above sea level, have never climbed any of these mountains. ‘Cocuyanos’ call themselves the inhabitants of El Cocuy: the last remaining generation, the last guardians of the mountains. A small ‘pueblo’ located in the department of Boyaca, at almost 2800 metres above sea level, with an estimated population of just over 2000 inhabitants. Between the unique vegetation, expanses dotted with yellow Frailejones flowers and the fresh air, there is a palpable melancholy. The pueblo of El Cocuy appears as if suspended between the majesty of its mountains and an increasingly uncertain future. Here, amidst colonial architecture dating back to the 1500s and walls painted in pastel shades, faces marked by time and expert hands that still weave ‘ruanas’, the traditional ponchos worn by the inhabitants, hovers the silent farewell of a people that fades away year after year. There are no more young people who dream of staying, no one to pick up the baton of these trades or to preserve the memory of the history that inhabits this land. The only visible future is linked to the fast pace of the hikers, who arrive to contemplate the peaks of the El Cocuy National Natural Park, enjoy the wonders of the glaciers for a few days, and then vanish, leaving behind a pueblo that for them is only a backdrop. Indifferent to the slow and fragile life of El Cocuy, its people and the stories that, in silence, fade away with their last echo.
