Sibundoy is a town and municipality located in the Putumayo Department

Putumayo Department

Putumayo is a department of Colombia. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa.The word putumayo comes from the Quechua language. The verb putuy means "to spring forth" or "to burst out", and mayo is a variant of mayu, meaning river...

, Republic of Colombia.

This town existed well before the Spanish came in 1534. The Incan under Huayna Cápac conquered the local people in 1492 and established a Quechua-speaking settlement. The descendants of these people are the modern Ingas

Inga people

The Inga People are an indigenous ethnic group from the Southwest region of Colombia.They speak a dialect of Quechua known as Inga Kichwa. Almost all Inga people are bi-lingual in Inga and Spanish, which has caused fear that the Inga language might be an endangered language.Many today live...

. The people here are mostly indigenous and wear long blue and violet ponchos known as Kapisaius and Baitas.

Sibundoy is known for its mask carving and other traditional crafts. Sibundoy’s parque principal has numerous fallen tree trunks carved with symbols from the mythology of the Inga and Kamsá nations.

One especially important event is the Carnival of the Return of the First People, which is both a fun event and key celebration of local mythology.