Colombian Special Hammocks

Colombia: the country of the artisan hammock par excellence.

The 100% handmade hammocks are woven and various regions of Colombia, the most famous are those that are woven in San Jacinto, a town in the department of Bolivar and those made by the Wayuu indians in La Guajira .

In the Authentic world of hammocks we give you the opportunity to try several models: the San Jacinto hammocks and the Wayuu hammocks, both modalities made on a vertical loom with cotton thread and even natural dyes.

Long before the conquerors and chroniclers arrived, the indigenous people of Colombia already had their own imagery about the hammock well established.

The Wayuu of La Guajira say that it was the spider named Waleker that taught them to weave their aerial beds. A consecrated artisan, she always had her fabrics ready at dawn and she was also the one who showed them the abstract designs with which they usually adorn them.

The Wayuu people have developed a rich culture over the centuries, in which weavings have acquired a singular importance and are undoubtedly a distinctive element of it. For the Wayuu, knowing how to weave is a symbol of judgment, creativity, intelligence.

For their part, the Zenú of the savannas of Cesar, and part of Sucre and Bolívar, used to have the groom send the bride a cotton hammock as a symbol of marriage. They also used hammocks in funeral rites as the resting place of the embalmed dead before burial, and as the deposit in which they offered gold to their gods.

The Zenú was a warrior town in which women could rule, exercise religious authority and even fight alongside men. They were exterminated for their tenacious resistance, but it was that same tenacity, especially that of women,  that did not let the weaving tradition die.