Although Soto knew that there were more archeological villages in this coastal mountain range, efforts were directed to conserving the existing ones as well as the cultures of the Sierra and their unique environment.
Many of the former treasure hunters who collaborated with the restoration Ciudad Perdida organized themselves and became official tour guides for hiking expeditions up the Sierra. Before ending his mission in the mountain, Soto made sure that Ciudad Perdida’s future was secure as the crown jewel of the state’s National Parks office, of which he was appointed Director-General.
Soto and his team had to clear years worth of jungle growth from the terraces of the Ciudad Perdida in order to reveal the site’s complex architecture.
Alvaro Soto has held some of the most important posts in this country when it comes to protecting parklands and the environment. His passion however, continues to be cultural anthropology and archeology, looking at how cultures interact, forge identities and migrate. He is a disciple of his own philosophy: “you can’t protect what you don’t know.”
His knowledge and investigation of the Tayronas resulted in numerous trips to Asia and Africa, where he teamed up with researchers in the field. As Executive Secretary for the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Change, he published the book, For Earth’s Sake, which became a benchmark for understanding the human dimension of the planet’s issues ahead of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Alvaro began to see himself increasingly as an “archeologist of the mind.” He educated generations of Colombians with limited means of travel and access to heritage sites. Through his radio program “Espacio Verde” (Green Space) and directing 100 episodes of the television program “Descubriendo” (Discovering), he expanded the imagination of millions and drove another message home: “you cannot love what you don’t know.”
Alvaro Soto-Holguin is currently back in Asia, where he is visiting archeological sites in India for the first time. Having passed through Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, he is trying to connect the dots in a maze of global migrations and connectivity.
Convinced that displacement is key to preserving culture and identity, and that mankind has only survived by being on the move, Soto-Holguin recently entered Myanmar to see what he could find in terms of ancient human settlements. If early man had left Africa to populate Central Asia and reach the Bering Strait, he most likely had to pass through these hard-to-visit countries.
While walking near Lake Inle in northern Myanmar, Álvaro Soto-Holguin kicked a grey rock that crossed his path. Upon careful examination, the archeologist believed it to be an ancient tool. He spent the day collecting “rocks” and handed the boxes over to the country’s institute of patrimony. Tests were conducted and the results conclusive. Early man had inhabited the lake 70,000 years ago and not 10,000 years ago, as was believed by the government. Soto-Holguin had just breathed new life into the study of Burmese pre-history and how the ancient Bayaan tribes were moving away from Africa, towards the Americas.
The man behind one of the most important discoveries of Colombian anthropology is generous with his thoughts and ideas. After several conversations overlooking the National Park while organizing his trip to Asia, we covered a lot of ground: Why his greatest discovery, Ciudad Perdida, should be seen on film and not from its sunlit terraces. How, in this age of information, technology and power, we really still don’t know who rules the world, and that the true art of archaeology is “removing the layers of ignorance before levels of earth.”
