Western Boyacá: Fura and Tena, Muzo and trapiche emeralds

The Muzo, the emerald people

According to Colombia's register of geographic names, "muzo" comes from a Carib-family language and means "person". The Muzo mined emeralds by hand and used them as ornaments and for barter between clans.

Luis Lanchero went against them in 1539 and failed. Diego de Martínez tried in 1544, Melchor de Valdés in 1550 and Pedro de Ursúa in 1551. On 20 February 1559 Lanchero finally founded the town of Santísima Trinidad de los Muzos, and even then he had not fully subdued them.

The legend of Fura and Tena

In the version recorded by Julio Roberto Garavito, Are, the creator god, shaped Fura, the woman, and Tena, the man, from a handful of earth and threw them into the Minero river. He gave them eternal youth on one condition: they were to love only each other.

Then came Zarbi, a stranger searching for a flower that could cure every ill. Fura went with him to look for it, and in the forest they fell in love. With the betrayal came old age. Tena drove his war club into his own heart, lying across Fura's knees.

Zarbi was turned to stone, and his blood into the river that keeps the two lovers apart forever, now two hills. Fura's cries became butterflies; her tears, emeralds. That, the story says, is why the water of the Minero washes the emeralds of Muzo.

Where are Fura and Tena?

Fura and Tena are two hills facing each other across the Minero river, between San Pablo de Borbur, Pauna and Muzo. Published heights are about 840 m for Tena and 500 m for Fura. For the Muzo they were the seat of their gods.

The morpho butterfly, electric blue and black, is part of the area's culture. In the legend, every one of Fura's cries bursts into a flock of butterflies.

What is a trapiche emerald?

Some western emeralds show six dark arms radiating from the center, like the spokes of a sugar-cane mill wheel, a trapiche. Émile Bertrand first described them in 1879.

They come almost only from Muzo, Coscuez and Peñas Blancas. Older texts also credited Chivor, but a 2015 review in Gems & Gemology now considers that origin unlikely. If someone offers you a trapiche "from Chivor", ask twice.

An emerald named after the legend

In 1999 a Muzo mine produced a rough crystal of about 11,000 carats, more than two kilos. It was named Fura. According to press reports from 2011, a smaller one found with it was named Tena.

From conflict to the 1990 peace

The recent history of the west runs through the so-called green wars, three periods of violence between emerald groups from 1965 to 1990. The first alone, up to 1975, left more than 1,200 dead according to figures cited by the press. In 1980 Muzo had some 35,000 guaqueros, informal diggers.

On 12 July 1990 a peace accord closed that cycle; Muzo marked its 30th anniversary in 2020. After 2013 there were new episodes of tension. We tell this because it is part of the region and its people, not as an attraction.

What traveling west is like

Muzo sits at about 815 m and averages 26 °C, nothing like Chivor's 2,000 m and cold nights. From Chiquinquirá you reach it on Route 60 towards Pauna and Maripí.

Coscuez is in our catalog but has no dates right now. The experience available today is Chivor, in the eastern belt.