06.27.03
Hare Krishna Vallenato
Friday June 27, 2003 – Santa Marta
The morning was spent relaxing on the beach with a good book[1]. It takes a couple of days for the stress of life to leak out on a vacation. Today I could feel myself starting to relax. We have hired a local woman, Carmen, to cook for us and keep the apartment. For breakfast this morning she made some delicious Arepas de huevo[2].
In the afternoon Sara and I headed into the city of Santa Marta (about a ten minute taxi ride from the house we are staying at) for some additional supplies. The ride across the hill that separates Santa Marta from El Rodadero can best be described as harrowing. Everyone passes any car that is moving slower; regardless of safety considerations. The taxi we were in was passing trucks, buses and other taxis up a winding two-lane road with rock face on one side and a cliff on the other. Sara chose to at times close her eyes; I opted for the free thrill ride.
Most of the afternoon was spent on a set of 4 consecutive streets full of little stores and street sellers called San Andresito[3]. You can find almost anything that is imported in San Andresito from electronics to shoes to Cuban Rum. We bought some sandals for Nicolas, a new hammock as well as sunglasses and recordable CDs (all for about a quarter of what we would have paid in the US).
We needed some rope to hang the hammocks and asked at the store were we bought it where we could find a hardware store. They directed us to a street about two blocks away where we found no such store. Asking at that corner we were directed another three blocks in another direction. Three blocks later Sara and I started to realize that the costeños[4] were more embarrassed to say they did not know where a hardware store was than to give us bogus directions. Sara asked at this corner for a hardware store and insisted that they give us precise directions, including the names of the streets and the name of the store. Amazingly enough we were once again given bogus information and gave up.
Coming back to the bay a fellow hanging out on a building front called out to Sara and I ‘Thank you for Believing in Colombia’ in heavily accented English. I turned and replied ‘pero nosotros tambien somos Colombianos’[5] ['But we are also Colombians'] to which he quickly replied ‘pero con algo importado’ ['But imported']. The exchange was quite funny and showed the chispa[6] of the Colombian Costeño.
Back on the waterfront I was thirsty and wanted to buy a coke. Soda is locally sold in heavy glass bottles, which are pressure washed and reused by the bottling companies. Because of this you can either pay extra for the bottle, exchange it for an empty one from a previous visit or stay in the store as you drink your soda. Since we did not want to do any of the above the storekeeper did something that I have never seen before but am told is standard practice around here, she emptied each soda into a plastic bag, tied them shut and handed us straws to poke through and drink our soda with. I was quite amused drinking a Coca Cola[7] on the beachfront out of a plastic bag.
On our way out of town we both saw a scene so odd that it impressed us both deeply. We could hear a vallenato[8] being played and sung very where from what seemed to be a parade float. As we got closer we would see the musicians playing the guitar, accordion and maracas that are omnipresent in vallenatos but instead of some tropical scene the float had three hindu gods being shaded and fanned by men with shaved heads and in orange suits. A bit of attention to the letter of the music quickly revealed that we were listening to Hare Krishna tropical son. We stuck around incredulous as the thick coastal beat went on and the lead singer spoke of the ever lasting love of the Hindu god with a chorus of ‘Hare hare hare, hare hare Krishna’.
1 = Currently reading ‘The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay’ by Michael Chabon.
2 = Arepas are a flat bread that looks like a pita but is soft and made from corn.
Arepas Con Huevo are filled with eggs and quickly fried making them delicious and crunchy.
3 = So named because most of the wares being sold have been imported thought the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia.
4 = Coastal people are called Costeños, they refer to inlanders as Cachacos. People from the capital city (where I grew up) are called Rolos.
5 = Sara was born in the US but grew up in Colombia and knows the language and customs as well as any local.
6 = Wit
7 = In the USA the Coca Cola bottling company started using cheaper corn syrup over better tasing sugar to save money years ago. Most people do not remember how delicious Coca Cola with sugar is until they travel to South America where the original formula reigns true.
8 = Tropical music that monopolizes the coast of Colombia. Sara calls it the soundtrack for coastal Colombia. It plays in every restaurant, bar, store, taxi, bus and building you enter making it impossible to be in any populated area without hearing vallenatos.