Dec 23, 2014
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.