By the shores of the Caribbean, a mountain. Around its base — Colombia — torn apart by the cocaine trade and civil conflict. At its summit, the descendents of a once great American civilization. They say that for centuries they have kept watch over the earth. They lived on a mountain rising almost 6,000m from the northern plains of Colombia. They called themselves the Elder Brother and claimed to be the last representatives of an ancient South American civilization — the Tairona.
加勒比海海岸旁有座山，山腳下是因古柯鹼交易與內戰分崩離析的哥倫比亞。山頂上住著昔日偉大美洲文明的後代，他們說自己已守護地球數世紀。居住的山高度近六千公尺，地點在哥倫比亞的北部平原，他們自稱為「兄長」，並宣稱是古南美文明「泰羅納」的最後傳人。
Santa Marta is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It’s cheerful, loud and full of life. Today, it’s a modern port city — but it was first settled by the Spanish nearly 500 years ago. Its beautiful old colonial center hides a dark secret. In the 16th century, these streets witnessed the birth of one of the first and most violent campaigns in the long bloody conquest of South America. It’s really incredible to think that in 1501, just eight or nine years after Columbus discovered the Americas, the Spanish were here on this very beach in Santa Marta. The Tairona were truly one of the great indigenous civilizations of the ancient New World. The remains of the cities and roads they built over a thousand years ago are still scattered all along the Colombian coastline. Is it really possible that such an ancient pre-Colombian culture could still be alive in the 21st century?
位於加勒比海岸的哥倫比亞市鎮聖馬塔，充滿歡樂、聲響與活力。如今它是摩登港都，但近五百年前西班牙人率先定居於此，美麗的舊殖民中心藏著黑暗祕密。十六世紀時，這裡的街道目睹早期極度殘暴運動的誕生，那是漫長血腥的南美征服的一環。不可思議的是在一五０一年，即哥倫布發現美洲八、九年後，西班牙人就來到聖馬塔的這片海灘。泰羅納著實是古老新世界偉大的原住民文明，千年前建造的城市、道路遺跡，仍散落在哥倫比亞海岸線。如此古老的前哥倫比亞文化能否留存於二十一世紀？
They live on the imposing mountain massif whose foothills rise behind the city — the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Towering over the shores of northern Colombia, it’s the tallest coastal mountain anywhere in the world. From foothills washed by warm Caribbean waters to the Sierras snow-capped peaks, this spectacular mountain is a microcosm of South America. All of the continent’s ecosystems are here — all of its problems as well. For decades, its remote valleys have sheltered an array of armed and violent groups from right-wing paramilitaries to cocaine traffickers and the infamous communist guerrillas of the FARC. In recent years, the Sierra has been bathed in blood as these outlaw groups and the Colombian army battle it out. It’s a dangerous place. But just now there is a lull in the fighting.
他們住在宏偉的山上，山麓從城市後方升起，形成聖馬塔內華達山脈，它矗立在哥倫比亞北部海岸，是世界上最高的海岸山脈。從受加勒比海溫暖海水拍打的山麓到冰雪皚皚的山峰，這座壯觀山脈是南美的縮影，南美的生態系統這裡都有，就連問題也是。數十年來，此地偏遠山谷躲藏著各種武裝暴力團體，從右翼準軍事部隊到古柯鹼販子及惡名昭彰的共黨游擊隊「哥倫比亞革命軍」。近年來山脈被鮮血浸透，這些亡命之徒持續與哥倫比亞軍隊作戰，這是危險之地，但如今戰事稍歇。
After the massacre of the Tairona in 1599, the people of the Sierra seem to tumble into oblivion. The history books fall silent about the Sierra for almost 200 years. When travelers started to explore the mountains in the 19th century, they reported mysterious tribes dressed in white, ruled by their priests. The largest group called themselves the Arhuaco. And here they still are.
一五九九年泰羅納大屠殺後，內華達山脈的子民似乎銷聲匿跡。史書中有近兩百年的時間未提及此山。旅行者自十九世紀展開探索，他們說有神祕部落身著白衣並受祭司統治。最大的團體自稱阿爾瓦科，他們至今仍在這裡。
Everyone here wears the traditional snow-white clothes and woven bags of the Arhuaco. The men greet each other by exchanging coca leaves — the sacred plant of all highland South America. Among themselves they speak their own language, closely related to that of the Tairona. Assimilation is clearly not the way the Arhuaco are going. There are about 20,000 Arhuacos, and most of their lives are spent moving between villages and family farms above Nabusimake. In the warm lands lower down the mountain, the Arhuacos grow plantains, peppers and the tropical root crop, manioc. Higher up they grow cold weather crops — potatoes, onions and grains. Wherever they can, they grow the plant, which is the source of so much violence and so much beauty in their world: Coca.
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