Valledupar, Home To Vallenato Music

The four hour bus ride from Santa Marta through the Sierra Nevada mountain to the valley town of Valledupar was lovely. We passed through many dusty, humble small towns and farms of all types from tall palms to various fruit trees planted in straight rows. It was dairy cow country as well, our bus passed many milk trucks and any other vehicle it could with a total disregard for double yellow no passing zone lines. 'Gracias a Dios' we arrived safely in Valledupar before the sun set, with plenty of time to get groceries and settle in to the Providencia Hostel.



Miguel and Cristina take great care of their guests in their small hostel. Many walls are brightly painted with murals including a giant map of the city itself with many points of interest and another tempting brave drivers to test the waters of the big river nearby.


Tuesday morning we borrowed a couple of bikes and rode to the riverside where we watched large schools of fish darken the waters and fishermen with poles and bare hands try to catch their lunch. Several young men were diving off boulders into the deep waters, we just let the fish tickle our bare feet. We spent a long while watching birds dive for fish before we walked the riverbank before sitting down to chat with CD peddlers.

Cristina suggested we visit the Sede De SAYCO, the organization for preservation of the native music form, Vallenato. Here we treated to a tour of the small museum by the director, Alberto "Beto" Murgas, himself a well-known composer & Vallenato artist. He explained the origins of the music, a 500 year-old cultural mix of Indigenous, Spanish & African influences. The accordion is the main instrument involved, young children in this area begin to learn to play at an early age.

Valledupar is home to a five day Vallenato Music Festival. The following video is a sample of this event.

As we finished the tour, the sky opened up the dark threatening clouds that Keith was worried about as we walked the short way to the museum. In less that fifteen minutes all the roads had turned to mini-rivers and we were lucky to find a taxi that doubled as a boat to take us back to the hostel where we waited out the storm talking with Cristina about the change of her hometown of Medellin in the past 15 years.

Cristina explained that every person there had lost loved ones due to the violence that ruled the city for many years. She lost four people in her family during her teenaged years when she was practically held prisoner in her home because one never knew when or where a shooting or bombing would take place. Valledupar was nearly as bad in those times, but now it is very safe and tourism is starting, though it still isn't mentioned in the travel guides. We found it comfortable there but had to leave a day earlier than hoped because the plane fares were so much better.
It's almost as cheap to fly nationally as take a bus, so if the route isn't beautiful that's our plan.
Today we flew to Bogota midday. We immediately left the huge, polluted city via several buses for a very nice small town in the mountains about 30 minutes north, Zipaquira. Keith fell in love with town right away. We had our best Menu del Dia to date along with a nice talk with the restaurant owner who sent us home with maps to study and plan from this evening.




One last word for today... This trip could not be done without a good working knowledge of Spanish! At least I wouldn't want to even try using English only, it's a challenge speaking the language though we are doing quite well!

To leave you a little modern taste of Vallenato, here's Carlos Vives!