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@almac68
It’s early evening, we are heading across town passing numerous salsa bars strategically located at busy road junctions. These are large open terraced venues which will be full in a couple of hours blaring out the Reggaeton until dawn. We arrive at La Ceuva, formally a hunters bar was made famous in the 1950’s by a local group of writers, poets, artists and journalists.
But I had wondered why here, not Medellín or Bogotá. The last couple of days I have come to realise that there is more to Barranquilla. In the food stores there is a greater variety of food, from Morocco, Jewish, Lebanese, Turkish, Arabic. Each bringing there trading and business skills to colombia. Take coffee for instance, not a native crop yet grown extensively and Colombia has a vast coffee region. The arepas and food associated with this country were introduced and adapted using locally grown grain corn being the one that the early settlers survived on.
Barranquilla also appears to be much more outward facing. They care less about what others think about them as a people and are not hung up with divided opinions or self importance. I can only compare this with the people of Dublin, Liverpool and Hamburg. It is because each of this places have a connection with the sea and a world beyond their shores? I’d like to think that Barranquilla also shares its similarities with the ancient ports across the Mediterranean and North Africa.
For the writers, poets and artists I believe that their freedom to express themselves was there driving ambition.
La Cueva today is a bar and grill that does poetry nights, book launches and a foundation of Colombian literature. But last night was all about Cuban, Puerto Rican and the Latin music from a 10 piece band belting our Classic songs from the 50s / 60s. The crowd was a great mixture of young and old regulars. Even a couple of sailors in shore leave uniforms dancing with their girlfriends. The waiters were added percussion accompaniment with ice buckets and spoons between kitchen and tables while the bar staff added a touch of rumba when mixing cocktails. What beautiful madness with an impromptu song from a Venezuelan lady from audience in her 60s bringing more joy to the crowd.
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