“November 13, 1985, Armero, Colombia”: a place that has disappeared from the map.
The fact that we are certainly not the crowning glory of creation, that we do a lot of work on our earth to make it pleasing to us, but that we are by no means in control of nature, becomes clear to us again and again in natural events that we refer to as disasters: Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods… volcanic eruptions.
Nature is not interested in us. It just does what it does. And here, people happened to be in the way when a volcano erupted, the glacier on the volcano melted by 10% and that together swept away tons of rocks, trees and sand and buried this village. Other villages were also affected, but here it was extremely bad. 25,000 people died here alone or are missing. The place was declared a cemetery, it would have been impossible to recover all the bodies. And today you drive along this former avalanche of mud on the main road past houses where only the top floor is still visible. Like the San Lorenzo Hospital.
People were stuck in the mud for several days. Many could not be helped. Not even 13-year-old Omayra Sánchez. She was stuck in a mud hole for 72 hours before she finally died. Today she is a symbol of courage and dignity and her grave is a place of pilgrimage.
Further down the river, shouts of “Cadáver” could still be heard days after the disaster. Bodies washed down the river.
Nature is cruel and selfish
How transfigured and beautiful we often look at this merciless nature is fascinating and I only really became aware of it here.
Today, the most incredible plants grow on this wonderfully nutrient-rich soil and cover up this still visible history. It won’t be long before the village is no longer visible.
For many of the survivors, there is no such thing as forgetting. Late effects, such as trauma or adults today who, because they were adopted without this being documented, still do not know who their family was or whether any of them are still alive.
Armero has disappeared from the map.
The earth will outlive humanity.
We make a stop in Ambalema, Colombia, on our bicycle trip around the world and visit this “sad place”.
