Sesquilé

Tourism

• Laguna del cacique Guatavita, a beautiful, ecologically pristine mountaintop lake well inside paramo altitude, it is one of the places contesting being the location for the legend of El Dorado. It is believed that its bottom is covered in large quantities of gold, due to the story of a ceremony performed on and in its waters. It is said that each cacique, at the beginning of his reign, was covered in gold dust and ritually rafted to the middle of the lake, where he swam to bathe the heavy gold off, then made offerings of riches in gold works. Though tentative evidence exists for such ceremony, in the form of the pre-Columbian gold sculpture of the raft with a cacique and priests astride it, currently kept at the Gold Museum, Bogota, it is very likely the only evidence, so that the ceremony itself remains the stuff of legend. At least one search with SCUBA gear has been attempted, with unsuccessful results due to the murkiness, great depth and dangerously low temperature of the water. Swimming in the lake is not advisable, for ecological as well as the obvious medical reasons. Hiking trails are available and camping is possible, but it is best to check with the local police to make sure it is safe at the time and so that the authorities are advised as to where hikers are going in case they have trouble returning, for whatever reason.
• Arts and crafts: woolen clothing
• Caminos Reales: ancient trails of the Muiscas, now rehabilitated for hiking
• Cañón de Las Águilas
• Capilla de Los Dolores: beautiful chapel of colonial architecture which has been well preserved and keeps its original masonry and ornamentation intact
• Cerro de Covadonga
• Cerro de Las Tres Viejas : the three summits where known by the pre-Columbian natives as Chía, Vitaca and Quemuenchatocha, it is one of the places in the region most imbued in history and legend
• Cerro Pan de Azúcar
• Club Náutico La Marina de Guatavita
• Tominé Dam & Lake, it stocks around 600 million cubic meters of water for consumption mainly in Bogotá. The lake is apt for windsurfing and sailing.

  Trivia

• Under construction in Sesquilé is a factory of Heineken, projected to be finished in 2017

  Gallery