The first story involves the famous video game frogs of this region of Colombia. These little creatures emit sounds that we had heard about (think gameboy tennis), but up until staying at Cabina Darius in Capurgana, I had not come accross them.
Returning from a perilous walk back from "downtown" Capurgana during one of the region's regular evening electrical blackouts, having guided oursleves along the seasonal, rock sea wall, deposited thusly by the sea in her strange way, only to be taken away weeks after we left by the same mysterious watery hand, we arrived at Las Cabinas to a seemingly electronic serenade, an aryithmic, harmoniousless and erratic soundtrack to the worlds most surreal jungle video game. Recognizing this for what it had to be, could only possibley be, the "Techno" Frogs, as described in our guide book. We had heard of these existing only in the jungles between Tayrona and the majestic peaks of the Sierra Nevada, north of Cartagena, but obviously we were mis-informed. Urging Matty to be quiet, I tried to record a sample of the frogs in the background of this video...
As you can kind of hear, these bastards are trippy. Coming at you from every angle, they bombard the senses in a way only a contemporary human could understand, the anciencts must have had different ways to describe this "music" of nature, this mysterious sound, but for us there was no doubt. They were Gameboy frogs. For those of you who don't remember, or were yet twinkles in your parents eyes, the Gameboy is/was one of the original portable gaming systems available in the US in the late 1980's.
Our host, Enrique (heard at the end of the clip giving us evening salutations), informed us that not only were we correct in our conclusion that these were indeed amphibious froggy friends, but that he could show them to us. Like giddy children we were off after our indeed childish but mature beyond his years guide into the creek seperating the Cabanas and the main house of the family. Here he quickly scooped one up, indicating its bulgin throat as the sounds were muffled by his hands, and indeed we found the whole routine to be an elaborate, after the rain, courtship between the two sexes, conducted, right there, before our very eyes.
At this point Marie, his mother interjected, telling us a story about how they had hosted a group of Chinese who had gone through the same initiatrion ritual of meeting the frogs, but, as she told it, rather than wishing they had their cameras, they instead proceeded to gather up all the specimins they could find, and much to the families suprise, rather than inspecting or studiously caring for them, proceeded to pop them into their mouths and eat them, one by one, until the sounds had ceased for the evening. The very tone of this story belied some undercurrent of judgement, not only for destroying such a unique feature of this precious jungle, but also of a culture that would, without asking, consume an entire population of rare frogs without even asking...
The other story regarded Chinese advancing the idea of building a canal in Colombia to rival the Panama canal. this canal would advance from the headwaters of the Rio Quindo to the Pacific Ocean. This said with a scoff and smirk, along side a more subtle admiration of the vision and investment which would result...
A few examples of the complicated relationship the Latinos have with their Eastern investors.
