Kenyan runner James Kipkemboi couldn’t stifle his laugh: “My record time in a half marathon is 1.02.46 and you are aiming for a time less than 2 hours and 20 minutes?”

Sometimes you reach a place so beautiful and breathtaking that once you leave, such as returning to the city, you’ll find yourself as if sleep-walking, transported back to that unforgettable location.”- Toribio of the Huitoto tribe.

Below us, the island came into view encircled by a brittle and protective ring of coral reefs made distinguishable by the white water ripping at the edges and creating a turquoise iris effect skirting the white sandy edges of the Caribbean island of Providencia. Our Russian-built aircraft bobbled in the turbulence kicked up by thermals and updrafts resulting from the gnarled volcanic peaks to our left.

Here in the districts of Saladaoblanco, Isnos and San Agustin, the topography is uneven; valleys, hill plateaus and mountainous clusters come together to form its exotic and varied landscape. It is in this geographically contradictory territory to the south of Huila that in 5300BC an advanced culture evolved existed and disappeared in this strategically important natural passage from the foothills of the Colombian Massif to the Amazon.