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Town is piece of Africa in Colombia

Thu Aug 7, 2008 9:10pm EDT PALENQUE, Colombia (Reuters) - The drumskin sings in the tropical sun as 12-year-old Pedro Joaquin beats out an ancient rhythm. His mother shells peas and nods approval as chickens peck in the dirt around her feet.

The sights and sounds could be those of an African village, but they come from Colombia's Palenque de San Basilio.

"Welcome to the first free town of the Americas," says Manuel Perez, head of the cultural council at Palenque, a town established in 1603 by a slave from nearby Cartagena, where slaves were sold by Portuguese traders and Spanish colonizers.

Now it is one of the few surviving such towns, jealously preserving a language and culture more African than Latin.

The name Palenque means "fortified escaped slave village" and many of these villages were built throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. But only this one, with 3,000 residents, survives with its distinct tradition intact.

Palenque's tourist infrastructure is extremely limited. Transport is difficult, with only a dirt road linking the town with a highway. Motorbike taxis ply a daily trade for local people.

There are no places to stay, there are few restaurants, and the visitor center is dilapidated and underfunded.

It is a curiosity, a town out of time and place. Continued......

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN3040886120080808?fee...

By billyb on Aug 8, 2008, 06:59 in Friendly Talkzone.

billyb says on Aug 8, 2008, 06:59:

bump

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papiChulo says on Aug 8, 2008, 07:59:

interesting post!

avoid the unhappy and the unlucky

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august says on Aug 8, 2008, 08:17:

Strange how every once in a while an international media source will write and article about that spot.

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billyb says on Aug 8, 2008, 12:32:

You are right, it's not like it's on many (if any) travel brochures. Maybe being added to UN World Heritage gives it some visibility it might otherwise not get.

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Sam Salmon says on Aug 8, 2008, 22:48:

Poverty is 'so' authentic-don't you think?

White people like to visit poverty stricken hellholes-if only for an hour or so.

' a la orden!'

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billyb says on Aug 8, 2008, 23:51:

yup, you might be right with first worlders, but colombians are too un-politically correct for that. Like the one guy said, at first he was ashamed of la Lengua because the "normal" folks said " you speak ugly", I think it would have sounded more like " ave maria mijito, usted si habla bien feo", but it's still a fascinating aspect of Colombia. i mean a whole culture composed of escaped slaves, who did not escape into the jungle for a solitary excistance, or joined native tribes who accepted them because of their shared misery at the hands of the europeans, but united and formed fortified communities and kept a semblance of their culture for almost two hundred years. I wouldn't call it a hell hole myself.

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papiChulo says on Aug 9, 2008, 02:45:

billyb... colombianos say I speak spanish "como inde"... then they laugh thier arse's off... should I be offended?

paz... ;)

avoid the unhappy and the unlucky

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Sam Salmon says on Aug 9, 2008, 09:26:

There are still a number of places like Palenque in Suriname and Guyana-all deep in the jungle.

' a la orden!'

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billyb says on Aug 10, 2008, 12:42:

Papi, como inde, o como indio?

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papiChulo says on Aug 10, 2008, 13:11:

I don't remember exactly... like an injun

avoid the unhappy and the unlucky

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billyb says on Aug 10, 2008, 13:19:

jaja, yes, indio. Unless you are in the middle of the jungle, being compared to an injun in Colombia is probably never meant as a compliment. Sorry PC police, that is just the way it is.

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Lisa Zee says on Aug 10, 2008, 22:31:

papiChulo, if you can have that fat arsh as an avatar, I think I will put a nicer arsh on mine.

Feliz Navidad!

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papiChulo says on Aug 10, 2008, 22:43:

she's very precious isn't she Lisa Zee? women love the other fotos I have of her too... jeje

avoid the unhappy and the unlucky

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dwmte7 says on Aug 11, 2008, 06:06:

nice read, billy, thank you.

it's nice to see a little light shed for the less infranchised...they need all they can get. there are many black/african colonys/pueblos on the pacific coast going up into the darien. the farthest i've been is buenaventura a couple of times. but the difficulties these folks address, just living, are hallmarks to their fortitude and hardiness.

again, thanks,
douglas

dwmte

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El Polo says on Aug 11, 2008, 06:30:

yup, Interesting read, heres a short clip I found on youtube

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dwmte7 says on Aug 11, 2008, 19:54:

very interesting...thanks all.

dwmte

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