we visit El Cano (entrance fee not included) El Cano was discovered by accident in the 1970 is when the tractors and bulldozers of a sugar cane milling company unearthed a number of pre-Hispanic artefacts. After almost a decade of excavations and studies, archaeologists discovered a large number of mounds surrounded by a circular row of huge stones. The mounds turned out to be Native American tombs of "middle-class" individuals, buried there between 500 and 1550 A.D. Unlike the Maya to the north and the Inca to the south, though, these cultures left no monumental stone architecture. Most of their material culture was biodegradable—houses of wood and wattle, roofs of thatch, baskets, mats, animal skins, feathers. But in this place, at least, people worked gold with great skill, and its shimmer endures as a testament to their centuries of prosperity and accomplishment.
