Donna and I took a relatively short bike trip to Tucurinca. I've had several reasons to make this trip, but one significant barrier. Initially I wanted to explore the boundaries of Aractaca, and Tucurinca is the first small town that is not in Aracataca, but rather part of the municipality called Zona Bananera or Banana Plantation Zone. This "municipality" has no strong center, but rather is comprise of many small towns bounded to the South by Aracataca, the north by the City of Cienega, the east by the Sierra and the west by the Cienega Estuary. Tucurinca is the southern most town and quite small. Unlike Aractaca, the Zona Bananera still produces significant number of bananas, many of which are sold through Chiquita Brands, which was once the United Fruit Company. While there remains a real sense of betrayal from the United Fruit Company inspired banana masacre of workers in December, 1928, there is also a widely held desire to bring back more banana cultivation since it provides employment. Bananas require about 2 workers per hectare in the field. Oil palm requires 1 worker for 10 or more hectares. Conversion of 1,000 hectares from palm to bananas would create roughly 1,900 jobs. From Aracataca there are two routes to the town of Tucurinca, because here are only two bridges over Rio Tucurinca. The more common route is the Ruta del Sol, a two land high volume highway connecting Santa Marta and Bogota. Big trucks and buses compete for space with cars, motorcycles, bicycles and donkry cars. It has four foot paved shoulders most of the time and functions well when outside the built-up areas.

The alternate route takes a series of bumpy, rocky roads that zig-zag to the other bridge, built strictly for rail use. The roads turn to a narrow path along the tracks for the final 100 yards. We arrived at this point in time to see a cattle drive crossing the tracks. I got to hold the gate for them. You never know who you will meet on the trail.

People wanting to cross must wade across the river. Due to extended drought, we opted to take this route to Tucurinca. It turned out that the river was only about 1 foot deep and warm, though it has the potential of being more than 12 feet deep after heavy rain. There would be a lot of water in the river, but farmers take all they can to keep crops and animals going without rain.

We waded through, carrying the bicycles. The only mishap was my stepping on a thorn-laden vine. It took a while to get all the thorns out of my feet. We stopped a minute to chat with the rail workers that keep people off of the bridge. The only trains that use these tracks are hauling coal from a large mine south of Aracataca to the port in Santa Marta. The train is considered a nuisance in Aracataca, but it does provide employment for crossing guards.

Donna with the Railroad Crossing Guards

The town is just a little past the river. It was a nice scale of town for us, quite small with some of the basics like a unique little church, town park, library (a surprise), soccer field, school, and small shops. The big surprise was a really small circus had come to town. I wish I could have stayed to see the performance. It's the first circus troup that I've seen in Colombia. Unfortunately they were not active when we arrived.

Click to englarge (a little)	Iglesia
Library and Playground	Circus

Donna was drawn to a pop-up shop selling kids toys and some hand-made bracelets. I was on a mission to find a local drum-maker I was told did excellent quality work. The two came together as a young man hanging out next to the shop was nephew to the drum-maker. After Donna loaded up on bracelets we pedaled a few blocks to the drum-makers home. Unfortunately for us he was working in the local palm oil processing factory when we arrived, but his wife and kids brought out several drums from complete to under construction. A juego or set of drums includes two larger drums

Drumming Demonstration by a Neighbor

I was please with the quality of the drums, though the price is higher than what we saw in San Jacinto last week. I like the idea of buying local. It's mostly a question of how to get a full set of drums back to the US.

I need to contact the drum-maker again sometime to decide what to do. A very good drummer in Aracataca has offered to teach me a bit, but he too is working long hous, so coordination has been an issue. I've never been much good with drums though and this is a good opportunity to learn a little.

We made one more stop in Tucurinca for a snack. Snack food is always at hand. We had yogurt and bread from a local bakery. I'll miss the local, fresh baked bread at bargain prices. We road back along the highway which is a little unsettling with the big buses and trucks whizzing by, but it was a lot quicker and smoother.

The following day we made a more routine trip on bikes to Fundacion. It wasn't noteworthy except that we bought a new bicycle for me ($157.000 pesos - or about $50.00). I'm hoping it will hold up for six months. Donna will use my (better) yellow bike. Bike repair is a way of life for me. I popped another tire on the way home. It's amazing how many times I have had to patch bike tires here, at least one per week. The mix of rough roads, glass, nails, thorns and cheap tires is a challenge. On the other hand, we could be locked into hours of driving every day. It's nice to be rid of cars for a while.