Tuesday is known in the small town of Silvia as market day and lest you under estimate it the market in this town of 34,000 is known across the country.
We first arrived at La Bonanza in mid April so Layne has Visited the Tuesday market four times I think, in between our various sorties around Central Colombia but we always end up back here. Besides Rusty loves La Bonanza, wandering the garden and sunbathing in the thick grass. Layne and I though recovered are still coughing and spluttering and having difficulty sleeping as a consequence so a few days of rest will do us good.
Thus we have fixed our departure day for Sunday with our planned arrival at the border with Ecuador Tuesday morning. Monday we hope to be in Pasto getting Rusty’s health certificate even though rumor has it the Ecuadoreans don’t care about dog papers. I like to face borders prepared for every eventuality and I don’t want to put Rusty at risk by not having the legally required papers.
So when the market opens next Tuesday in the nearby town of Silvia we hope to be doing the immigration dance on the bridge into Ecuador.
The market draws people in from all around the city and offers them everything they could need or want, fruit, flowers, meat, bread, hardware, clothing and shoes as well as agricultural products like seeds and fertilizers. The place is vast as you can see. Layne and I got separated when I put Rusty in the van and we had to meet up by coordinating over the phone. Rusty took one look down the street when I was walking him and turned right back to the privacy and comfort of his bed aboard GANNET2. He was having none of the crowds.
Men and women wear the same outfit which I find confusing because I’m simple minded. I’d hate to be asking someone in a skirt out on a date and get it wrong.
Outside the market they sell stuff as well and though it was overcast the rain held off.
Apparently even wooden hand carts need licence plates in this bureaucratically obsessed country.
I retreated to the main square where a chorus was giving some kind of concert so I stood for the rather jaunty Colombian national anthem. I listen to the anthems on YouTube before we arrive in a new country in an effort to avoid making an ass of myself at public gatherings, so I recognized the tune and stood respectfully, then I sat down as they played a bunch of hymns and choruses to the tune of freedom for all and so forth.
I wasn’t the only one burnt out by mass commercialization either. On the other hand I got a potato ball fried with meat inside and Layne got us some locally made rum “Black Soul” for her and “Jaguar” for panther-like me.
When the Guandiamo women deem conditions appropriate they swap out their trim bowlers for natty folding straw hats which they carry around on their backs hanging on chin straps, like pancakes when not in use.
Here is a woman with her straw hat in carry mode:
And when your shopping is done you hire a mototaxi to take you home, sidesaddle of course, dignity intact.
And back at La Bonanza the French German and Dutch travelers got ready to leave as they only stayed this long to see the market.
By Wednesday lunch we would be alone in the lot. For how long? Who knows…
