Guns, drugs and gambling

  La sierra nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
Sunday, February 4, 2007

Did that get your attention you low-lifes? Youll probably be disappointed to know then that this entry bears no relation at all to me popping off shots, taking drugs illegal or otherwise OR risking sums of money on games of chance, although, as with most of what I write, there is a grain of truth buried in there somewhere.




In 1525 the Spanish landed at what is now the city of Santa Marta, their first landing in what is now Colombia. They encountered indigenous people - the Tayrona - whom they noted had a lot of gold artifacts. So many in fact that they soon came back subjected them to Spanish rule. The Tayrona were cunning however: unlike the Aztecs they did not take the Spaniards for returning gods and show them directly to their major cities. Instead they allowed the conquerors to believe that their major populations were on the coast, all the while hiding away in their actual strongholds buried deep in the densely forested and imposingly lofty sierra nevada. Having just trekked in them I can assure you that these mountains amount to a fairly effective barrier to any would be conquerors, but obviously not even knowing of their existence is an even better one. Unfortunately the mountains offered no protection against the epidemic diseases which killed two thirds of the indigenous population of the Americas after the Europeans' arrival, and so the Tayrona were wiped out. Their capital, Teyuna, lay undiscovered until it was stumbled upon in 1975 by gold prospectors. In fact the local tribes, who are all descended from the Tayrona people, knew the location all the while and it was 'lost' simply because they didnt want anyone to know about it. Likewise they claim to know the locations of various other abandoned Tayrona settlements - in fact there is a rock in Teyuna which is supposedly a map of the sierra nevada showing all the ancient Tayrona sites, but the local peoples refuse to decipher it.


The area has a decidedly violent flavour to it. Our bus dropped us off in a town called Machete Pelao, which translates loosely as 'machetes out', where until 15 years ago it was so lawless that bar fights (of which there were many) were often settled with machetes. Still the entire male population of both the town and the surroudning countryside walks around with a machete in an elaborately decorated sheath at their belt. 'To kill any snakes you might come accross' was the reason I was given for this when I asked. And then theres the paramilitaries. You get used to the sight of assault rifles in Colombia, what with the fact that even traffic police carry them sometimes. However seeing people who are not state employees carrying them, especially when said people are large bored-looking groups of poor men, is decidedly freaky. In fact appearences are deceptive in this case: the paramilitary commanders apply stiff penalties to those who harm tourists in this route, and as they operate outside the law 'stiff penalties' probably means death so there was no actual danger. Our guide told us a great deal about the paramilitaries in the area and how they protect the peasants from extortion by both the guerillas and the army, as well as about the deal they have with the army under which, to comply with demands made by the US government in return for its funding under Plan Colombia, every month or so the paramilitaries melt away for a couple of days with them hiding all their weapons and laboratory equipment while the army arrives for a couple of days. They declare the area 'clear' and leave... at which point the guns come out and the labs start up again. The military looks like its doing its job and the paramilitaries and peasants get left in peace to produce....

Drugs. If theres one thing this area has more of than guns, its drugs. When our guide Isidrio first came here in 1982 the craze for growing mariajuana was in full swing. Bus that got boring in about 1985, coincidentally at about the time that a guy from Medellín bought a load of land in the area and moved in. For those who dont know about Pablo Escobar, you should find out because it is a fascinating story. Suffice it to say that he was the first drug lord in Colombia and the founder of the Medellín Cartel, which was booming by 1985. So in moves Medellín man and persuades the local peasants to plant the far more profitable coca plant instead of mariajuana. This quickly becomes so profitable that the guerillas start trying to get 'taxes' from the locals, so in 1987 Medellín guy forms the local paramilitaries to defend themselves and their coca plantations. He gave himself up to the Colombian government as part of the paramilitaries' peacetalks with the government last year; in doing so he avoided extradition to the USA on trafficking charges and is now in prison in Medellín... from where he still runs his newly re-formed troops. Anyway, coca production is deeply entrenched in the area to the extent that virually all the local peasants grow it as a major crop and there are several laboratories which use an assortment of nasty chemicals (caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, petrol) to convert coca leaves into cocaine paste. And to sell it? They take it down to Machete Pelao in army held territory and sell it there. Subtle.

The reason that I saw this side to Colombia is that to reach Teyuna you have to hike 3 days there and 3 days back through the heavily forested mountains of the sierra nevada. Only you dont really. You could in fact probably do it in a total of 4 days, as 4 of the 6 days we only walked for half the day. There is a lot of potential for spending irritating amounts of time with people you dont like in that sort of situation, so I was fortunate to be blessed with a really good group. We spent a lot of time playing dice and a LOT of time playing cards. And I suppose we did kind of gamble, but the stakes were more humilitaion and getting wet than money - fair play to Víctor and Ben for taking their punsihment like men and wearing their pants in stupid places for a whole day and props to me for only having to drink 2 cups of cold tea for losing at the same game!

Lastly I should mention poor Maarten, who is possibly the unluckiest man alive. Not only did he contrive to lose pretty much every game he played (except on memorable game of dice in which he seemed to get a lifetimes worth of luck), but he tore some ligaments in his ankle at the start of the 3rd and hardest day and so, despite a manful attempt at gold in the hobble olympics, totally missed the lost city as well as the trek he was planning to do 3 days after. Gutted.