Sanctuary of the most important architectural culture in America.
News Colombia.
Located at the northeastern end of the department of Boyacá, the Cocuy is much more than a picturesque municipality anchored between mountains. It is a land full of history, identity and natural wealth. Founded in 1541, this town retains a colonial architecture that is intertwined with the ancestral stories of the original peoples, making it one of the most unique cultural destinations of the Colombian highlands. Empedradas streets, Houses of Tapia and red tile roofs accompany visitors in their journey through a place that seems suspended over time.
See: Curious municipality where its inhabitants are doubly Colombian: near is a natural wonder of the country
Beyond its colonial history, the Cocuy is sacred to the Uhuá indigenous community, a direct descendant of the Muisca family. This town, whose name resonates with the vibration of night insects, has been called by the fonders “those who fly, dance and light at night”, alluding to their spiritual connection with nature and lunar cycles. The Uhuá have guarded the sacred mountains, the rituals of the moor and the memory of the ancient chiefs, protecting a legacy that resists oblivion.
The Uhuá presence in Cocuy is not just a memory of the past; It is a living reality that is expressed in dance, music, traditional medicine and offerings to the snowy. For them, the territory is not only geography, but a living being to which respect is owed. The Cocuy, then, is not only a municipality, but a ceremonial territory, a space where the world of humans, spirits and natural elements are connected.
The majesty of the Natural Park El Cocuy complements this spiritual dimension. With its glaciers, lagoons, friagons and more than 25 snowy peaks, it is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the country. The highest mountain, the White Ritacuba, stands as an ancestral watchman that silently observes the transit of walkers and pilgrims. In their skirts different thermal floors coexist, from warm valleys to cold moors that turn white to dawn, and that are sacred for indigenous peoples.
Tourism has reached this paradise strongly in recent decades, which has generated tensions between environmental conservation, respect for original cultures and economic development. While some inhabitants promote ecotourism as a way of sustaining the municipality, Uhuá leaders insist on the need for conscious tourism, which understands the mountain not as a trophy, but as a being that feels and communicates. Getting up to the snowy, for them, is an act of reverence, not conquest.
Today, Cocuy remains a territory of deep contradictions and hopes. Among the modernity that touches the doors and roots that cling to the ground, this corner of Boyacá resists dignity, keeping in each stone and in each song of the Uhuá the secret of a Colombia that still vibrates with the voice of its ancestors. Here, where they turn, dance and light the spirits, the story is not forgotten: it is lived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxqw_xpnvwo
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