410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



no womenfolk in evidence. The sector is obviously being "mined" of 

 its resources with no plan of permanent settlement, yet the area should 

 be colonized for strategic if for no other reasons. The road should by 

 all means be improved if settlers are to be attracted. As things now 

 stand an oil strike south of the Arauca River would probably mean that 

 that whole area would to a large extent be invaded by Venezuelans 

 looking for work, rather than by Colombians. 



Guanapalo and Pauto were thriving economic and cultural centers 

 during colonial times, the epoch of greatest missionary activity. Be- 

 cause of their wealth and the number of their inhabitants they played 

 an important role in the wars which have made Colombian history. 

 This was a zone of great ranches and thriving towns when the rest of 

 the llanos was still virgin territory. 11 Pore was the most important of 

 these towns and, for colonial society, its influence was greater than that 

 of any of the modern capitals. It is said that at one time Pore, ex- 

 tremely rich in cattle, had a larger population than Santa Fe, capital 

 of the vice royalty. 



After the wars of independence, missionary activity declined in the 

 mountain-front sector for a hundred miles or more south of the largely 

 unoccupied Colombia- Venezuela frontier zone, but whether it was the 

 cause or the effect of lack of development it is difficult to determine. 

 At present Colombian nationalism is demanding that this unoccupied 

 area between the mountain heartland and the international boundary 

 be filled in, in somewhat the same manner that a boy with a suit sev- 

 eral sizes too large for him wants to grow up fast and fill out his 

 clothes. But all growth requires time. Meanwhile the boundary be- 

 tween Colombia and Venezuela remains to a high degree an artificial 

 line on a map, a broad buffer zone with little significance in reality. 



PASTO-MOCOA 



The road eastward from Pasto, the economic and administrative 

 capital of highland Narino, can take care of vehicles of 3 tons or less ; 

 the first 10 miles it climbs steeply through an intensively cultivated 

 area of minifundio to the pass known as El Tabano (the horse fly), 

 the continental divide, or divorcio aquarum; the road descends even 

 more abruptly to the tiny village of El Encano on the shore of the 

 picturesque Laguna de la Cocha — very probably of glacial origin; 

 at present a rendezvous for hardy trout fisherman. Between El 

 Encano and Santiago another extremely steep mountain must be 

 crossed, on both slopes of which the felling of trees for timber, but 

 particularly for the making of charcoal, is going on at a dizzy pace, 



11 Cf. Piatt, Raye R., Opportunities for agricultural colonization in the eastern 

 border valleys of the Andes, in Pioneer Settlement, Amer. Geogr. Soc. Spec. Publ. 

 No. 14, pp. 87-92, New York, 1932. 



