A quote from "on the gringo trail"

...the gringo trail extends across South America along the spine of the Andes mountains. Starting from the city of Cartagena, on the Colombian coast, it runs past Silvia to Otovalo, Equador. From there it winds south and upward to Machu Pichu-passes through bolivia, and finally ends near Iguaza Falls on the border of Brazil,Paraguay and Argentina..........

......Cartagena was a much cooler town before Spring '74, when a gringo left a kilo of coke behind when he checked out. The town police have since been forced to take a more active role and are now watching the infamous Hotel Bellavista closely......

.....silvia..."After it stops raining and the sun shines-you have to wait a bit--go down behind the graveyard. There's a field where they grow in a few hours. Don't eat too many,you might turn blue.....

....the gringo trail is not for the timid, the inexperienced or the 14-year-old runaway. It is a sudden transition into regions untouched by industrial civilization, into cultures all but incomprehensible to the Northern mind, into pestilential hostels, prisons and jungles. But the trail is marked by strange and wild beauties; it teaches gringos silence, exile and cunning.

Post new comment

By oldbongo on Feb 3, 2006, 11:25 in Friendly Talkzone.

untreated says on Feb 3, 2006, 11:54:

Otavalo, Macchu Picchu I was there in 1973 and 1974. OI flew MIA-BAQ, then to Santa Marta by bus (and ferry), and by train to Bogotá, then by bus to Cali, Popoyan, Pasto, Ipiales, Otavalo and on and on by bus and train. I went around Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, to Mar del Plata, Argentina. I returned flying from Asunción, Paraguay to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and back to Cali where I flew back to New York. In 1976 I moved to Santa Marta for good.

I would like to read more, have you published it?

0 funny, 0 helpful.

oldbongo says on Feb 3, 2006, 12:15:

the oldgringo remembers that ferry... try arriving in BAQ in feb '72 the first nite of carnaval
and absorbing all of corronchissmo on the drunken ferry across
la cienega on the way to santa marta goldland.

unfortunately, the gringo trail has since been paved over largely, and gringos no longer learn silence and cunning.

there is more to read, it is published, but the oldgringo waits for someone to recognize the source of the quotations....the oldgringo is not the original author, although he knows of what he speaks.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

elmodefoque says on Feb 3, 2006, 13:41:

oldgringo, we gotta sit and talk about old times but first we send the too damn young comandantes shopping. i love to hear about la costa in the early 70's, i was having too much of a good time in NYC but i did go in 78.

over 5 million colombianos in USA and only 27 barranquilleros, i'm one.Curramba, el mejor vividero del mundo!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

oldbongo says on Feb 3, 2006, 14:36:

con mucho gusto...kemo sabe.. the problem is,...maybe you're too young!!

in the very early 70's we were FREEEE!!! in colombia.
free to blaze..
there was NO coke,...that, you had to bring from peru,or bolivia.

anyway,...if mi commandante goes out shopping with tu commandante,
the oldgringo is finished,...
she will learn all of those cachaca methods of extracting gold and diamonds outa my ass....and i'm in enough pain as it is.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

GringoinBucaramanga says on Feb 3, 2006, 14:36:

o the good old days I was sucking on my moms 36D that year

jj_jp@msn.com

0 funny, 0 helpful.

oldbongo says on Feb 3, 2006, 14:51:

mmmmmmm... and look how you turned out!!

mi commandante wasn't even a far-off gleam in her daddies eye back then,wouldn't be for years, but somehow, the oldgringo returned to the pueblo many times in his travels,and by the time he reached old age, la commandante had come of age, and like all of those descriptions by gabriel marquez and henry miller,it just came to pass, that what happened to walk in, was a pair of 36s attached to a bundle of energy that won't quit.
go figure...

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Miguel says on Feb 3, 2006, 17:24:

Old gringo Have you read Gabo's "Memorias de mis putas tristes"? I read the Spanish version, and although my command of the more subtle tenses of Spanish is still rudimentary, it was damn good. Have the comandante read it to you at bedtime...and I hope to meet you in person when elmodofoque and I hit Cartagena.

0 funny, 0 helpful.