Red Roses White Town
16 September 2005 (Friday) – Popayan, Colombia
I woke up and found the guy next to me gone. Uh-oh… have we passed Popayan? It was more than 2 hours after Cali. I peered outside and spotted a sign with the word ‘Popayan’ and quickly put on my boots. Within 5 minutes, the bus stopped at the terminal. Phew! And I was the only one to get off at this lonely spot. Gulp… I quickly grabbed a cab to a hotel and slept the rest of the morning.
Popayan is a town with a huge colonial flavour. Actually, through the decades as Colombia modernised, Popayan was pretty much left alone. Ironically, it was terribly destroyed in an earthquake. Over the next few decades, the authorities slowly restored the town back, meaning to preserve its colonial charm. Popayan is slightly distinct from most of the other colonial towns I had seen in that nearly all of the buildings are painted white.
Colombia celebrates ‘Dia de Amor y Amistad’ (Day of Love and Friendship), much like, St. Valentine’s Day, I supposed, on 17 September. That’s tomorrow. So, all over Popayan today, vendors were selling red roses to couples and friends. Really HUGE red roses. Aww… how lovely. NOT that anyone would buy me these roses, sigh…
I meandered and wandered all over the town the whole day. I happened upon a cinema which would be screening ‘Rosario Tijeras‘ tonight. I remembered Felipe talking about this Colombian film. We were in a library in Bogotá and there was a photo exhibition of this film, and I made a mental note to try and catch it if I can. Now, here it was. I bought the ticket. However, unfortunately, this cinema was pretty rotten, the sound system totally stank, even the images were not sharp and at some points, the screen kept turning black as if someone was standing in front of the reels. For me to understand Spanish in a movie, I need crystal-clear enunciation and with this rotten setup, plus the paisa accent and street gang slang, forget it. Anyway, I simply watched the film which is about a woman caught in the life of drugs, sex and murders in 1989 Medellin. It was quite a good movie, depicting a crucial part of Colombia’s drug-war history. Nice to see Medellin again… and recognize the slum-areas and even the San Pedro cemetery!
Tags: 06) Colombia Connection, Popayan
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