Uncompressed 25.8 MB - Disaster Pages of Dr George, PC

47
The Boyaca District in Colombia
Since I still had a week's of vacation time, I did not need much more information or
encouragement before plunging in this new quest. So, I flew to the Eldorado airport if
Bogota, then I took a bus to a small village near the Chivor emerald mine about 90 miles
northeast, in the Boyaca district in the Eastern Cordillera. I wanted to see for myself the
llanas of the Orinoko.
While exploring the mountainous areas around Chivor, I was approached by some
Boyaca Indians who showed me a few cut and uncut emeralds. I bought some of the stones
without yet knowing much about them and, in fact, I even traded my watch and camera as
part of the payment. What I did not know yet was that this initial purchase of emeralds was
the beginning of a new long passion of "Romancing the Stone" - long before the movie with
Michael Douglas was made. As I discovered much later, my trip to Chivor and subsequently
to the Cosquez, Muzo and Sogamozo emerald mines had certain similarities. After this trip, I
had a new fascination to replace that of the Angelskin coral - the lure of emeralds. And a lure
it was because of what happened subsequently. I engaged on new ventures, the "House of
Emeralds" and the "International Emerald Corporation". But this is too long of a story and
out of context with the account on the angelskin coral - so I will skip it. I think the
photographs below, at least give part of the story of what happened next.