I think I will try to break this into sections and then kind of bring it around. Through discussing the various pieces you may get an understanding of what I have seen and been doing the last few days.
The Exception to the Rule
I have now traveled through several different departments (like states) as well as a few of the different geographic regions. Colombia is known for its biodiversity and I have seen a great deal of birds, bugs and plants that I have never seen before. But because I am a history and geography teacher I'd like to speak for a few minutes about the human-land interaction.
In researching this trip I read a great deal about how the South American peoples had developed a system of human land interaction that was different from everywhere else in the world. In many ways this has worked against them in the history books because people didn't know how to talk about the exception to the rule. "The rule" is that major population centers always develop on large sources of water... usually a navigable river. Mesopotamian cultures have the Tirgis and Euphrates. In India it was the Indus and later the Ganges. In Egypt and Kush the Nile or course. In China the Yellow River and the Yangtzi. Other cultures and civilizations operated directly on the ocean: Greek and Phoenician ships traded and colonized. Still others uses small rivers and large lakes or underground water supplies... the Maya and the triple alliance. If you consider all of the biggest cities in the world they are usully on a river or a natural harbor in the ocean...
Colombia's biggest city is Bogota with a population of 8-10 million. It is on a high plateau that is a valley between the mountains on the east and west. There is a river, but it is small, and the moutain springs do provide trickles of water, but i do mean trickles (at this point in the season). The water is treated and drinkable (unlike much of South America), but it is astonishing to have a city this big without a major river. This is the exception to the rule, and South America is full of cities like this.
I've been talking to people about this though no one seems to notice until I bring it up. How does a city with 9 million people deal with waste? Get enough fresh water not only for drinking and sanitation, but for industrial use? for agricuture?
On my journey north, I stopped in two small mountain towns that were also not directly on rivers.
Colonial Towns
Villa de Leyva was founded in 1572 (that is before there were English Colonies in the Americas). It is a small beautiful town in the mountains. The streets are made of stones that have their flattest side up (but it still very uneven), the gaps are filled in by sand, cement and dog/horse manure. It has an extremely large public square in the traditional Spanish style with a church on one side and bars, shops, restaurants on the other sides. The people gather in the square at night and talk, or listen to music, or eat icecream or watch the dogs be dogs.
The town has some museums, but they are hardly worth seeing, the thing to see and experience is the town itself. To sit and watch the clouds hover over the mountains that surround the town. Or to take hikes in the parks near by.
It is now a thriving tourist destination but historically it was always a retreat for the well to do. A place of beauty for spanish lords to relax or politick.
Barichara is another Colonial town in a different region, made with different color bricks and perhaps not as posh. Its a small town that is on the rise, but still beholden to the smalltown realities. I stayed at a hostel that looked like a beautiful villa on the outside but was rather rustic on the interior. The unfinished bathroom allowed for views of the surrounding hills as did the balconies and though a bit like camping in the city.. the views were surely worth it. Barichara has less tourist amenities, they are still working on getting wifi, but there are plenty of Internet cafes. The town has few restaurants but has a tremendous amount of artist shops with beautiful products. and like Villa de Leyva if you stop by at the right time you can see the artists or craftspeople making the products... it has a real authentic feel.
One of the issues with heading off to a small town is that you tend to not have access to other travelers. So in the case of these small towns, I got to see these beautiful sites, but had very few people to share the experience with.
Spanish
My Spanish is abysmal, its worse than it has been in the past and because I am trying to balance learning about a lot of different things, it has been difficult to put in a concerted effort to learn... and I am trying, I am trying to learn and to speak more. I've spent a lot of time listening to conversations and the radio, and reading signs, but it is still very difficult to communicate. I am thinking I better buy some spanish books or something to help the process along, because the tools I have with me all require internet which I don't have on long bus rides or in small towns or when I am out and about...
Bus Travel
I basically spent the majority of the last two days on buses. The trip to Villa de Leyva was beautiful but cramped and required several hours on winding roads through the forested and grassy hills.
To get to Barichara I had to backtrack to a town called Tunja then go to a town called San Gil (pronounced San Hil) then on to Barichara.Yesterday to get to Santa Marta I woke up early took 5 am bus that stopped at San Gil, then went to Bucaramanga (3.5 hours) then took a 9:30 bus that was supposed to take 9-11 hours (the book says 9, I was estimating 11) but actually got in at 10:30, and besides the normal delays of traffic, construction and random stops to let people on and off... we dealt with a protest about 45 minutes from Santa Marta which took the form of some locals barricading themselves and the road in order to negotiate for access to electricity. This delayed us for about 1.5 hours or so.
The Land
I wish I could describe the land in a better way. In Bogota I was struck by the idea that the local mountains were still forested. I don't know if this is due to protections for the local envrionment or because the wood isnt good for building but its strange to have such prominent vegitation so close to a major city.
The land near Villa de Leyva was similar, but extraordinarily beautiful in the patchwork of colors of the grasses, brush and trees. It wasn't tropical looking but rather like a very green version of Black hills or Wyoming. The valleys were full of little farms that people worked collectively on, potato farms cut into the hills, they were also growing onions and corn and what seemed like root veggies. The cows looked fat, there were sometimes sheep and horses.
On the way to Barichara I noticed the landscape changing, the humidty rising the tropical plants, the palms etc. The soil looked red and orange rather than dark or dusty as it had before.
The people were growing fruit, tons of corn, plants that looked lush and green... then we headed into the hills and mountains (Barichara is higher up) but everything still looked vibrant and green. The people used the red clay to make fantastic red pottery and bricks for their houses.
As we came down from the mountains into the plains, the wetlands, the plains, the wetlands... I sort of felt a feeling of dismissal for the towns in the hot low country. I imagine the Spanish did too, and the tropical plants, though vibrant probably gave them the same sense of danger that they do for me.
The wetlands are being restored (My seatmate on the bus was helping recreate the natural biodiversity), but it was clear the fields had been drained to create pastures for cows. The cows looked thinner (more like african cows with the humps). The small towns had no reference points, 1 story high buildings in a grid pattern with trees that had been planted for shade from the brutal heat. Each street looked exactly alike and it made me uneasy just to look at them.
The pastures of course dried up in some places so it looks like a desert, not inviting, hot, humid and yet dusty.
The Economy and Class
When I was staying in Bogota I was told to not go to the south part of town where it is poorer and more dangerous for travelers and wealthy locals. The areas I saw looked prosperous, people looked healthy, educated, fond of consumerism. While traveling out of town I saw lots of new construction projects ( a sign of a growing economy), I saw new construction equipment, new buses and cars. Later I saw greenhouses and farm equipment and irrigation. There were many homeless people but in a city that big I'd expect that.
As I was heading towards the colonial cities I started seeing more communal farming which makes sense in the hills with tough labor intensive crops. But in Villa de Leyva I saw a lot of high end products, the buildings all looked kept up, there were newer areas of the town that looked fancy and beautful.
Leading into Barichara I started seeing signs of economic issues, but not out of the ordinary. Farm buildings falling apart (as they do in Minnesota too), some unfinished buildings (perhaps just because of the heat).
The nightlife in Barichara was a little uncomfortable for me. Similar to Villa de Leyva the people came out to the public squares, the stoops on the streets etc... but there seemed to be a lot more drinking to the point of oblivion than casual drinking. Drinking like people were trying to forget their problems and it was much more ubiquitous. Perhaps the sign of a deeper despair? or maybe just something to do in a town with very little entertainment.
In the lowlands I saw a tremendous amount of what looked to me like rural poverty. I don't want to judge or assume and so I asked the guy on the bus I was talking to. I am not exactly sure my assumption is right but I will try to describe it.
On the side of the major highway (1 lane each way) there are buildings. They are approximately 10 feet by 10 feet, all 1-2 rooms. You can tell how many rooms because the buildings are not finished. Many of them have 3 walls or partial roofs. They have no glass in the windows. The roofs are made of corrugated metal, the walls are either made of cement blocks or that same metal. This is a common adaptation to hot climates so on this alone I wouldn't presume necessarily that the people are poor.
Next to many of these houses are piles of garbage, spare parts, etc. (not untypical in the US) But here is where I started to wonder... behind these houses are fields, pastures for cows and horses. The fences are immaculate and kept up. They have barbed wire in rows across the posts of wood or in some cases metal.
In my head I think of the spanish system of the encomienda.
An encomienda was similar to a fief, a granting of land to a lord. THe land came with the local resources including the people. They were not slaves, they were the peasants the serfs. They were under the jurisdiction of the lord in that area.
At the beginning of the industrial revoluton in England the peasants were kicked off the land because new farming techniques and technology had made them economically useless and dependent. THey were kicked off the land and fences were put up to keep them off. THey went to the city and found jobs in factories. Similarly in the Spanish colonial lands the peasants were kicked off the land, this lead to revolutions in many places but the class system was restablished and the landowners kept their lands, while the poor were sent to the city (8-9 million in Bogota). In my head I see the workers, the people who build the fences, look after the horses and cows... and then are asked to leave the property at the end of the day to go live in their shelters. Raise families without fresh water or plumbing, protest for electricity from the government occasionally shutting down highways or joing armed revolutionaries. They live on the side of the highway in view of everyone. But they don't own the cows or the horses or the land. They reside there, sometimes move what little they have, take jobs where they can. Hope their children have better options in the future.
There are many rules in place and I dont know them, but they separate and create distinctions between the people. I am accidentally falling into some, but my skin and foreigness give me an out. I am seen as smart even though I cant speak the language and people think its odd that I would take the bus...
These kinds of things make me wonder where I will feel comfortable teaching and make me question my values -consdering they sometimes conflict with my feeling of security. I feel like I am ruling places out like Bogota which is too big, and Santa Marta which is too hot, and the wetlands and Barichara which are "too underdeveloped" for me. Its strange to openly recognize your own class issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment