No story about Latin America is as potent as that of the place of untold riches; a place that generations of fortune-hunters have searched for in vain. Colombia has its own version. The Muisca people who occupied the eastern range of the Andes at the time of the Spaniards' arrival were farmers, who lived in constant fear of drought. To them, all lakes were sacred, all water spirits to be propitiated. Reports of their harvest ceremonies consistently say that a leader was covered in gold dust, and that gold and precious stones were thrown into the water.