Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Forgive me for saying this from the off, but I am particularly pleased with this show for you with Julia Symmes Cobb. It has the perfect balance between history, Colombia, journalism and quirky eccentricities of the past. So, get this, I met Julia - a freelancer in Colombia for Reuters and the Washington Post - through another journalist and over the months we have become friends, in fact her parents even came down and stayed in my hotel in Mompos...but this was all part of their research into a long deceased relative who travelled the Magdalena River exploring towns and tributories in this region on a search for gold. 

So, Julia's great grandfather was in this very area of Cartagena, Barranquilla, Magangue (all Caribbean areas of Colombia) and even further adrift back in 1900 and until 1902. The diary is a wonderfully embossed collection of letters about his travels and travails with a beautiful turn of phrase that you would expect from an educated individual of the era. We never really learn how the gold dredging business fared for this adventurer but what we are treated to is an unrivalled insight into Colombia during the initial phases of a conflict. References to Conservative forces and Liberal forces litter the text and there are even carefully drawn maps of the river and indeed of Barranquilla. 

Be sure to tune in to learn about a little known period of Colombian history all told through personal anecdotes placed in a treasured diary.

Direct download: Colombia_Calling-2014-12-22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:07am EDT

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