An old house, with a welcoming facade and a provocative name reminiscent of bossa nova nightclubs: there I was, on a Saturday in March, at La Cueva, in the city of Barranquilla, in the Colombian Caribbean. In the company of photos of the group of intellectuals that filled their faces and minds in that place between the 1950s and 1960s, the best known of whom would win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014).
On my first visit, I was lucky enough to be accompanied by the president of the García Márquez Foundation, Jaime Abello, at the end of the tour where he commented on various details of the writer’s life, with whom he was a friend.
During the day, I visited the photos and objects on display at La Cueva. In the evening, the intention was to have dinner. I just didn’t count on the deafening music, which prevented any conversation – the high-pitched voices of the singers, the piercing timbre of the brass, the mesmerizing rhythm of salsa and cumbia imperatively monopolized our attention. And even though there was no dance floor, they urged customers to get up and dance beside their chairs.
Music is always in the air — so much so that Barranquilla is home to a colorful carnival, declared a cultural heritage by UNESCO and populated by folkloric and fantastic characters. But there is also an interesting sense of diversity in the air.
Fourth largest city in the country, it is an important sea port and also flanks the imposing Magdalena River, on whose bank the malecón (breakwater) extends, which hosts leisure and cultural activities in the city.
In spite of its strategic location, it was not formally founded during the Spanish colonization, thus not bearing the weight of historical commitments with which cities such as Bogotá or its neighbor Cartagena were formed.
Officially it became a village in 1813, and a center of confluence for migrants from outside and inside Colombia. And today, bohemian regions like Barrio Abajo, and elegant neighborhoods like El Prado, which is home to the elegant hotel of the same name from the 1930s, coexist.
This diversity —which even appears at the table (kibbeh is almost as popular as arepa, a flat bread made from corn)— must have contributed to the cultural effervescence that had its best moment when that group of intellectuals that marked point at La Cueva, between 1954 and 1968. It included, in addition to García Márquez, the writer Álvaro Cepeda Samudio and the plastic artists Alejandro Obregón and Cecilia Porras.
The restaurant was closed for decades, but it was reborn as a foundation that preserves the cultural memory of those times, in addition to serving dishes by chef Charlie Otero and the powerful music of the house band.
In terms of cuisine with a local flavor, which mixes traditions especially from the Andes and the Caribbean, there are several types of options. With modern cuisine and a sophisticated atmosphere, there is the Manuel restaurant, which on March 5th held a dinner joining the host Manuel Mendoza with Brazilians Luis Filipe Souza (from Evvai, São Paulo) and Manu Buffara (from Manu, from Curitiba). Also more modern, but more relaxed, there’s the fun Los Hijos de Sancho, by chef José Barbosa, which serves brandy and gins made in-house.
Barranquilla roots, with its arepas, manioc dumplings, all kinds of bananas, stews, coconut rice, beans — is at La Casa de Dóris, with its colorful decoration and touching simplicity, and at Narcobollo, which has become a hammock but keeps the native flavors.
I also visited a small production rum factory, and I was very impressed by the aromatic richness and silky texture of the samples tasted; So here’s the warning — if you come across a bottle of La Hechicera rum, don’t let it slip away intact.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of ProColombia and the city of Barranquilla
