Month: Jun 2016

Cachapas and Schwartzwälder Kirschtorte

We headed west out of Caracas on the Autopista Francisco Fajardo.  On the outskirts of the city I turned right onto a much smaller road that immediately started to wind and ascend.  We had not gone very far when my Venezuelan friend asked me to pull over at a roadside stand.  That was my introduction to cachapas, a thick pancake made of corn dough, lumpy from the corn kernels, and wrapped around queso de mano, a hand-made cheese, similar to mozzarella.  I found them to be delicious, but very filling.

Once more on the winding road, we soon encountered mist and then quite thick fog.  There was little traffic, but I drove very conservatively.  After about 45 minutes we arrived in Colonia Tovar.

And what a contrast in the temperature. We had left Caracas in a typical balmy spring-like morning, to find ourselves in a quite cold, damp and overcast midday.  We set off briskly to walk around the small town, but soon retreated to a warm and welcoming coffee shop.

30CEAA3300000578-3428233-image-a-57_1454422003198

Colonia Tovar is about 65 km west of Caracas and at an altitude of 2200m, some 1300m higher than Caracas.  It currently has a population of about 20,000.

The town was first settled in 1843 by a group of immigrants, mainly from Endingen in the Grand Duchy of Baden, in the south-western corner of what today is Germany.  The colonizing company consisted of 240 men and 151 women and included scientists, naturalists, writers and painters.

They sailed down the Rhine and eventually from Le Havre to La Guaira in Venezuela.  They had some cases of smallpox on board and were forced to quarantine at Choroní.

Eventually they were permitted to travel overland to Maracay and on to La Victoria, where they were welcomed by the president Carlos Soublette.  From there they made their way up to the present site of Colonia Tovar, travelling by rarely travelled paths.

For more almost 120 years Colonia Tovar was in almost total isolation, the first access road not being built until 1963.  Today the area is one of the most prosperous in Venezuela, producing a wide variety of vegetables and fruits and catering to the steady inflow of tourists.

Although the official language today is castellano, most of the inhabitants still speak alemanisch, a variant of German.  The houses, buildings, shops and the church are based on the architecture of Baden.  And the traditional dress and the foods are everywhere to be seen.

In the coffee shop I was sorely tempted by one of their traditional German sausages and a Tovar beer, but reluctantly settled for a schwartzwälder kirschtorte and a coffee.  I did have to drive back down through the thick cloud.

colonia_tovar_web_lcc

I went back to Colonia Tovar a second time, a year later, but the climate was even less inviting on that occasion, rain, rain and more rain.  I did not even stop for a  schwartzwälder kirschtorte,   but headed to the north on another winding road passing through the villages Petaquire and Catayaca to the welcoming heat of Catia La Mar on the Caribbean and eventually back up to Caracas.

One Tooth

Several years ago I first saw Jöte from my study window.  He used to pass before seven-thirty in the morning and return a couple of hours later.  His routine has been the same every day, even in the depths of the Swedish winter and he always wore a jacket.  I have often wondered where he went at that time of the morning.  Perhaps there is a communal breakfast for single retirees or he goes to the home of a relative or lover.  I noticed that he dragged his right leg and his arm seemed to hang.  I wondered if he had had a stroke, similar to mine.

Jöte has only one tooth.  Now that is quite rare in Sweden.  Swedes seem to have excellent teeth and if not, they have had cosmetic dental work done.  It is strange to see somebody, who is not a drunk or a recent immigrant, have only one tooth.

Jöte has a plot at the nearby communal gardens.  He only grows potatoes and occasionally red beans.  When one has only one tooth, they are easy to chew.

Jöte is a retired fireman.  I guess that he is well into his eighties.  He loves fires.  Every year at the springtime clean-up at the plots, he is responsible for burning the mountain of waste that has accumulated from the previous year.  But despite his fire department permit, he can encounter unforeseen problems.  One year a local woman was very angry with him and gave him a lot of abuse because she could smell the smoke in her apartment.  Another year he was attacked by a vicious hedgehog, prematurely woken up from its winter sleep.  And this year a passing dog startled a hare, which cowered behind Jöte, until the owner took the dog away.

Jöte is a gentleman.  If one of the older ladies has a problem with her plot, Jöte is at her service.  He digs, he cuts, he carries, he gives advice.  On a warm day he can often be seen sitting at the big table in the shade, being served a coffee with a slice of cake by a grateful lady.  With only one tooth, the ladies know that Jöte prefers crumbly cake to a hard biscuit.

I saw Jöte again early this morning.  It was just after seven.  He now has a little walking frame that he pushes along.  It is like a Zimmer frame on wheels, with a seat. He walks more slowly now and his limp is much more pronounced. He still wears the same jacket and usually returns by nine-thirty.

The Nagual

It was on a late Friday afternoon at the end of May 2014, when we arrived in Viana.  We had been walking for seven days since we left Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France.  The weather in that time had been quite ‘interesting’: torrential rain, sleet, snow, gale-force winds, flooded streams to cross, but then after Pamplona, perfect spring.

In my enthusiasm I was careless in the rock-strewn descent from El Alto del Perdón before Puente de la Reina, and ended the day with three nails on my numb foot bleeding and torn from the flesh and obviously going to be eventually shed.  So having a rest day in Viana seemed like a great idea.

We did not wander far from the hotel until the next afternoon, when we explored the narrow little town, built in solid stone along the crest of a hill.  There were a handfull of little bars and restaurants, all crowded.  The streets were deserted and the shops closed for the afternoon break.

IMG-20140531-00889

 

On a narrow street, parallel to the main street, and close to the cathedral we came across the bar Nagual.  There was no sign. If it were not for the hint of a bright and verdant interior, one could be excused for having passed by unaware. But once enticed inside, the oak tree, the vine encircling the bar, the ceiling-high scene of a forest path and the bar laden with a wide selection of succulent tapas, alluded to a designer of excellence.

IMG-20140531-00886

 

The owner was equally interesting with his black outfit, neatly trimmed black beard and his long salt and pepper hair tightly drawn back in a ponytail. When not serving customers he spoke to us of the interior design of his bar, of vegetarian food and of El Camino, which he had once completed. He showed us a shell tattoo on his wrist.

Later he told us of a bar in Logroño called La Taverna de Baco which had loads of Camino statistics on a wall. He was about to explain the significance of the name Nagual, when the bar filled and he was fully occupied. We left shortly after.

Two days later, when wandering around the narrow streets of the old district of Logroño, we were spoiled for choice for somewhere to have a glass of wine and some tapas; there were several streets of wall-to-wall bars and restaurants, most filled to capacity.  In the end I chose one that was not so busy, but looked very inviting.  It was not until we had sat down at a table and ordered that I noticed on the wall beside us a chart with a multitude of statistics of El Camino from 2009. And on the menu was the name of the bar – La Taverna de Baco.  It was the very bar that we had been told of two days previously.

We probably stayed there for a couple of hours, snacking on various tapas and sipping on Rioja; Logroño is the capital of the Rioja region.  Eventually I paid the bill and we were on our way to the door, when in walked the guy from the bar Nagual in Viana, together with an attractive woman and a young child.  Although he obviously recognized us, he appeared to be not in the least surprised to see us there.  We spoke for a short time and left.

It was not until after that the coincidences became apparent to me.  We had walked into the bar without being aware that it was the one we had been told of.  We had sat down at the only table that was next to the chart of Camino statistics, without initially noticing them.  And to cap it all, as we were leaving, in walked the guy from Viana.

Coincidence?  Perhaps, until recently, when I recalled the name of the bar in Viana, and did a search on the word ‘nagual’:

Nagual:  a human being who has the power to transform spiritually or physically into an animal form.  It originated in Mesoamerican cultures.

Was there something rather mysterious about the guy from Viana or have I just read too many of Paulo Coehlo’s mystic novels?

 

Consumer Prison

Situated on a hill overlooking the river, one block from the Montevideo golf course, and connected to the 26-storey Sheraton hotel, one can find Punta Carretas Shopping with its 180 shops, food hall and multi-cinema complex.  It is the most up-market of Montevideo’s shopping centres.  Once inside the austere external walls, there is little to differentiate this centre from any other American-style centre; the shops display most of the same global brands that one can find anywhere.  But the language is a South American giveaway: almost exclusively Spanish with a smattering of Portuguese from Brazilian tourists, or occasionally English from Sheraton guests or cruise passengers in port for a few hours.

But this building has not always been a shopping centre.  It was originally the notorious Carretas prison, built in 1910, when the area was well outside of the nucleus of Montevideo.  In the era of the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, many of the captured members of the Tupamaros, the urban-guerrilla movement, were imprisoned there.  In that same era, an estimated 14% of the Uruguayan population were forced into exile abroad.

In the years 1931, 1971 and 1972, there were three major escapes from the prison, using tunnels.  In 1971, 106 prisoners escaped through a tunnel that ended in the living room of a neighbour’s house.  One of those prisoners was José Mujica, who eventually ended up as President of Uruguay in 2010-2015.  He was shot six times, captured four times and eventually released in 1985.  With his austere lifestyle, refusing to live in the presidential palace, driving his own old battered Volkswagen and donation of 90% of his salary to charity, he became known as ‘the world’s humblest president’.  In the photos one can see Mujica as he was the day he was released and today.  Only the nose is recognizable.

After the end of the period of dictatorship in 1985, the prison was closed.  Following a competition, the building and site were eventually sold to a developer, and in 1994 the shopping centre was opened.  With its luxurious multi-storey apartments, desirable single family homes and restaurants, today the Punta Carretas area is one of the most sought-after addresses of Montevideo.  Apart from the external walls of the shopping centre, there is nothing to reveal the area’s undesirable past.

Many of the ex-prisoners are still alive today and at least one of them escorts curious tourists around the building and explains how the prison used to be.  For those ex-prisoners it must seem ironic that every day hordes of people, of their own will, enter the place from which they once struggled to escape.

Stuart McCloskey

One of the rising stars of Irish rugby, Stuart McCloskey plays in the centre for Ulster, and at the age of 23, has already been selected for Ireland this year, when Jared Payne was injured.

I have seen him play many times and have often wondered if he and I were related.  My mother’s mother was a McCloskey from near Coleraine.

Stuart was included in the training camp for the 2016 South African tour, but was not included in the final selection.  But I have no doubt that his turn will come.

Over the past few months I have been focussing on my Irish ancestry, with the invaluable help of a fellow amateur genealogist, Norman Calvin, from Coleraine.  Norman has discovered that I am indeed related to Stuart McCloskey.  We are 3rd cousins 1x removed.  Our common ancestor was James McCloskey (1808-1890), my 2nd great grandfather, and the line of descent is as follows:

James McCloskey (1808-1890)

->William McCloskey (1861-1927)

-> William McCloskey (1891-1957)

-> William McCloskey (c1920-)

-> Wilson Moore McCloskey

-> Stuart Matthew McCloskey (1992-)

So now I know… 🙂

The Pilgrim Sailor

Belorado is a small village that lies between Logrõno and Burgos in northern Spain, on the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostela. The location has apparently been inhabited since before Roman times.

On the way into Belorado we came across a sign stating that four hundred casualties of a local battle between local volunteers and the occupying army of Napoleon were buried beneath the ground on which we were standing.

Quite a sobering thought.

IMG-20120405-00052
Plaque outside Belorado commemorating the 1810 battle

A little further on we came across the Albergue A Santiago and I took a room for the night.

Later, having a beer outside in the warmth of the evening sun, we chatted with two Frenchmen.  They were of early retirement age and were on their fourth pilgrimage to Santiago.  Walking from village to village for days and weeks on end can be quite addictive.

They told us of a sailor that they had recently met who had been involved in a shipwreck off Iceland many years previously. The sailor had sworn to the Virgin Mary that if he survived he would spend the rest of his life walking to Santiago de Compostela. He was subsequently saved and to date he had completed 25 pilgrimages, including one from Saint Petersburg in Russia.

It was not until later that I recalled having taken a photo in Logroño of a huge wall painting of an old man with body tattoos of the stamps of various Camino villages.

Was he the old sailor that the Frenchmen were describing?

Guard Dogs and Tadpoles

One of our regular valley floor walks follows the river Aveyron to the north-east of Chamonix, as far as the furthest bridge and back along the other bank.  The rapids are fed by the melting ice from Mer de Glace, the largest European glacier. 

At regular intervals along the river are warnings to the public not to venture near the river bed, as the water level can rapidly change when water is released from the dam further upstream.  When that happens the current through the rapids is so powerful that small rocks the size of a fist are spat into the air.  Despite the warnings of the danger being in French, German, English and Italian, many people wandering on the riverbed or sunbathing on the rocks appear to believe that they are immortal. 

Or perhaps just plain stupid.

At the upper end of the valley is a small subsistence farm, with herd of goats and their accompanying guard dogs.   Their enclosure fencing is moved most days and it meanders up and down the valley, the goats consuming anything that is edible.

Initially the huge guard dogs used to growl and snarl if we got too close, but now they ignore us.  Apparently they have got accustomed to both our smell and voices and no longer view us as a threat to their charges.

 Near the farm is a small pool beside the road, host to a multitude of tiny tadpoles. They must have ‘hatched’ out in the last few days.  It will be interesting to follow their life cycle.

 And guarding the farm is a sleepy old Basset hound that has seen better days.

Old Man Watton

Old man Watton was a very old man, at least as I remember him when I was young.  He was grizzled and grey and said very little.  But he was so strong.  In his hands the heavy hammers and pliers of his blacksmith’s trade were like a child’s toys.

When I close my eyes I can still recall the sound of the hammer striking iron, the huge black bellows that he operated with his foot, the intense heat from the coals and the fierce hissing when he dipped the red-hot metal in the water.  I went to the forge may times as a child, usually delivering eggs to old Mrs Watton, sometimes taking a piece of metal thatmy father needed reshaped for the farm.

A typical country smithy
 The forge was on the way from my parent’s farm towards Portrush, past the headmaster’s house and Carnalridge Primary School and just after the honeysuckle bush that my mother loved so much.  When I was young she used to take me there of a warm summer evening to experience that heavenly scent.  When the air was still, one could smell it from quite far away.

A honeysucle bush in full bloom

The smithy was at the end of a narrow lane.  It overlooked the town and was not far, probably no more than ten minutes walk from our farm.  On the right of the entrance was the tiny cottage of the Dallas family with their beautiful vegetable garden and opposite there was a spring, with a metal cup hanging from a hook.  That water was so pure, so cold and refreshing.  And at the end of the lane was the smithy.

But progress and modernization have marched on.  The spring had been covered over and the lane turned into an asphalt road.  The old Irish cottage of the Dallas family has been replaced by a tasteless modern bungalow and the vegetable garden is now a car park.  The smithy has disappeared and the honeysuckle bush has long gone.

These days I know more people in the graveyard than in the street.

And sometimes I feel that it would be better never to return again, just to remember it as it was.