Post by buenopues on May 11, 2016 18:28:30 GMT -5
I had occasion to spend some time in Quibdó which is the capitol of Chocó department during a long layover the last time I went to Nuquí. When we arrived at the airport (which by the way is almost brand spanking new having been built just a few years ago, reportedly paid for by the Chinese) I decided to go find a cop and ask him where the tourist area was. That was sort of a joke because Quibdó is by no means a tourist destination except maybe for some Euro backpackers. Well he went outside to a few waiting taxis and had a sort of long conversation with one of the drivers. I couldn't hear it but I'm pretty sure the jist of it was "I'm going to send this gringo with you and you make God damned sure they get back here in a few hours".
The only thing that would qualify as a tourist attraction is the Catedral San Francisco de Asis and the malecón along the Rio Atrato next to it. Just two blocks away the El Centro part of town begins and we spent time wandering around there. The city, smack dab in the middle of the jungle is something out of a Joseph Conrad novel and I wouldn't be surprised if he visited at some point and based his novel Nostradamus on it. The population, at least what we saw of it seemed to be about ninety percent Black and ten percent Indian. There were just a few mestizo looking people on the street and absolutely nobody as white as me. Despite that no one seemed to notice us especially and those who did were smiling and friendly. After a few hours it was time to return to the airport and our taxi driver who had waited by the cathedral for us the whole time with no charge for the wait took us back. While waiting for our flight on to Nuquí a tall Black man started talking to a guy in front of us. It was a first for me. Not only did he have big gold earrings and gold chains, all of his teeth top and bottom were capped with gold and even his fingernails on both hands were covered in I'm sure, real gold! I would have loved to take his picture but he had the look of a very bad hombre so I kept my own council.
Rio Atrato
The only thing that would qualify as a tourist attraction is the Catedral San Francisco de Asis and the malecón along the Rio Atrato next to it. Just two blocks away the El Centro part of town begins and we spent time wandering around there. The city, smack dab in the middle of the jungle is something out of a Joseph Conrad novel and I wouldn't be surprised if he visited at some point and based his novel Nostradamus on it. The population, at least what we saw of it seemed to be about ninety percent Black and ten percent Indian. There were just a few mestizo looking people on the street and absolutely nobody as white as me. Despite that no one seemed to notice us especially and those who did were smiling and friendly. After a few hours it was time to return to the airport and our taxi driver who had waited by the cathedral for us the whole time with no charge for the wait took us back. While waiting for our flight on to Nuquí a tall Black man started talking to a guy in front of us. It was a first for me. Not only did he have big gold earrings and gold chains, all of his teeth top and bottom were capped with gold and even his fingernails on both hands were covered in I'm sure, real gold! I would have loved to take his picture but he had the look of a very bad hombre so I kept my own council.
Rio Atrato