| Sex and Birds and Cafetals | |||||||||||
What better way to spend a hot saturday than walking around town, taking in the sites. A member of the extended family whith whom I stay offered to walk around today and help explain the sites. These walks are very instructive. Much of what I have seen already took on meaning that I would not have guessed. It wasn't a long walk, but the heat and bright sun made it seem so. Aracataca, or Macondo in 100 Years of Solitude, may have been isolated at one time, but it isn't now. The town is bisected by two corridors, the Aracataca-Fundación Road and the frieght rail line. My goal Saturday was to transect the town along the Aracataca-Fundación road. On the southern end of Aracataca, the highway crosses a bridge over Rio Aracataca. The river is deep enough to swim, but not deep enough for navigation. The water moves at a good clip after heavy rain. Because Rio Aracataca decends from the snow capped peaks north-east of town, the water remains cool compared with the 90 degree, humid heat on the beach. The river bank next to the highway and rail bridge is popular on weekend. Families gather on the shore for picnics. Food, beer and toy vendors set up small stalls and blast music out of loudspeakers. African Palm Trees are also planted along the river. This is not a coconut kind of tree. Rather it produces large pods from which palm oil seeds are taken and the oil extracted.
Being the trunk road passing through Aracataca, there road has a number of transportation related businesses. These include gas stations, auto repair shops, small restaurants, bars, bus stands and prostitution. The latter is pretty low key with two places both near to the river. There is no outdoor advertising and while the prostitution is illegal here, there is some level of public health control with twice weekly health checks, or so I am informed. These businesses are known locally, and perhaps to truck and bus drivers. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are a challenge in Colombia as elsewhere, a problem exacerbated by the nexus of prostitution and long-distance transportation routes. We passed Aracata's only baseball stadium. I've yet to see anyone playing baseball or softball, but I hear that both are played here.
We also passed the new primary care hospital. It was Saturday and there didn't seem to be anyone around. But we poked around a bit and I took some pictures, like the waiting room.
Coffee Continuing north on the Fundacion Road we stopped at a small coffee cooperative facility that tests and then ships the coffee beans. Coffee is grown in plantations on the slopes of Cerro Santa Marta a short distance from Aracataca. The roads are not sufficiently wide for trucks, so growers harvest the coffee beans, pack them in large burlap sacks and pay men on motor cycles to carry two sacks down the mountain roads and into Aracataca (Pictured here). The grower and the cooperative operator agreed that the most important problem they are facing right now is transportation infrastructure. Shipping sacks of coffee by motorcycle is costly, though a lot men make a living doing this work. The harvest is carried two-sacks at a time to an export control business that tests the quality. A steel tube is inserted in each sack to remove a sample of the coffee beans. The samples from each sack are mixed and a smaller sample of 200 grams (about 1/2 lb) is taken at random from the sample. This is run through a husking machine, screened to remove very small beans, then cleaned further to remove damage coffee. In particular they looked for damage from a small weevil like insect. The grower, pictured below on the left, said that they grow it all "organically" to maintain a better price. They use traps to capture the weevils. The sample of acceptable coffee is then weighed again. If the net weight falls below 150 grams, or 3/4 of the original sample, then the farmer has to sell the coffee at a lower prices. In addition to the weevils, the cafetales have been adversely affected by the weather. Between 2010 and 2012, the weather pattern of la niña caused an excess of rain. Since 2012 the patten of el niño results in a shortage of rain. It's not a complete draught, but the lack of rain reduces production.
Continuing our walk north we passed more small businesses and homes. We heard a marching band, which is like a magnet for me, and walked into a neighborhood by one of three schools in Aracataca all named Escuela John F. Kennedy. In 100 Years of Solitude Márquez names all of the sons over six generations Jose Arcadio Buendia and Aureliano Buendia. It seems appropriate that in Macondo there would be a number of schools all named Escuela John F. Kennedy. The school band was practicing for a parade with no apparent adult supervision. The band consited of two drums, one glockespiel and I think one trumpet, though the notes weren't distinguishable. The Glockenspiel played really hammered out the melodies though. The band had a drill squad and others that marched in formation. It really doesn't get any better than this for me.
Businesses fade out as you walk further out of town. One that caught my attention was the Motel Capri. In much of latin America there are motels and hotels that rent by the hour. They are an escape to privacy for people seeking intimacy and sex. I'm not sure how much privacy one can expect in a small city, but these love-motels are very popular. I imagine they can also accomodate overnight stays.
After the Fundacion Road crosses the larger inter-departmental highway 45, it continues north-east, turning to dirt and heading up into the mountains. While we were admiring the view two motorcycles passed us carrying sacks of coffee, pictured above. I'm hoping I can ride a bicycle in that direction, thought I don't think there's time to get to the mountains. The walk back was even hotter and perhaps less remarkable. We passed two sports areas, or three if you count the cock-fight arena. The large public field is in poor repair and is only used occassionally. A much smaller private, astroturf arean is located nearby.
For years my mantra has been to build more parks. In Aracataca there are a lot of parks, perhaps more than they need and more than they can maintain. Another opportunity for an efficient start-up business. One last note: In the afternoon I visited the father of the mother in our household. In fact I seem to bump into him everywhere. He lives just a few blocks away with his wife and assorted others. His parrot is a big talker. I made a very short video of an impromptu duet. Singing Parrot |
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In most of Aracataca you cannot see the looming mountains. Nearing the northern end of the Fundacion Road the vista opens. This picture doesn't do it justice. We are 1 1/2 hours from the coast and stand at an elevation of 40 meters (130 feet) above sea level. That is to say it is very flat and low here. The mountains start abruptly out of the this flat landscape and reach a height of 5,700 m (18,700 ft), the highest coastal peak in the Carribean.
