Lejanías is a town and municipality in the Meta Department, Colombia. Founded in 1983 by Mateo Villanueva, Lejanías became a cultural hub for rural Colombia. It became a bustling city housing over 200,000 people when in 2002 its citizens mysteriously vanished. Historians are unsure what caused the disappearance. Some theories include mass kidnappings, migration, starvation, and boredom. One popular theory is that a small man with a piccolo lured the townspeople away with his enchanting music. In 2008, people began to move back into town for the abundance of dogs. Prior to the founding of Lejanías there had been a mass shortage of dogs. They were disappearing for no apparent reason. It was only in Lejanías where the dogs were reproducing once more around 2003, after the humans left.