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San Zenón

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    • Colombie
      Day 19

      Mompox et ses 38°

      March 3, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C

      Il fait chaud à Mompox, très chaud.
      On fait traîner un peu le réveil, et la transition entre notre chambre avec la clim (qu'on a réglé à 27) et l'extérieur fait bizarre.
      Mompox est une ancienne ville fluviale coloniale qui a perdu sa prestance à cause d'une ancienne loi qui a modifié le trafic fluvial délaissant mompox.
      Elle s'étend donc le long du fleuve, et on en fait assez vite le tour. La religion occupe une place très importante, et on voit des affiches qui annoncent un évènement très important pour la semaine sainte (3 au 8 Avril).
      Mompox a eu un rôle très important dans l'indépendance de la "Grande Colombie" (Colombie, Venezuela, Équateur...) quand elle était encore sous le joug espagnol. Les références à Simon Bolivar, el Libertador, qui a grandement contribué à cette indépendance sont nombreuses ici.

      La ville est restée très proche de la nature sans trop l'impacter (mis à part les déchets ...encore une fois de partout). On tombe donc plusieurs fois sur des iguanes, des basiliscs (aussi appelés lézard Jésus Christ, pour leur capacité à courir sur l'eau, c'est très étonnant à voir) et des pléthores d'oiseaux de toutes tailles. On aperçoit d'ailleurs un iguane se dorer la pilule à côté de 2 grands oiseaux qui ressemblent à des vautours, dans un arbre.
      De très nombreux geckos asiatiques courent sur les murs.
      Vu le nombre de reptiles dans les environs, on va pas essayer de se baigner dans le fleuve hein.

      Une seule des églises a ses portes ouvertes, et on y entre pour admirer cette vieille bâtisse, sa toiture en bois et un char de parade en préparation probable pour la semaine sainte.

      La chaleur écrasante finit par nous faire rentrer pour l'aprèm, et on ressort au "frais" pour le soir. On teste le restaurant le mieux noté du coin, qui s'avère être une sorte de fast-food où l'on goûte d'autre spécialités du coin. Pas de friture ici ! Mais par contre peu de légumes, et des sauces fromagères très bonne et donc sûrement trèèès mauvaise.

      Sur le chemin, nous trouvons une équipe de football en plein entraînement et accessoirement, en plein milieu de la rue !

      ---------------------------
      [Petit rajout:]
      En rentrant, on tombe sur une messe en extérieur, avec un bon millier de personnes, alors qu'on n'avait vu que peu de gens jusque là.
      La rue était bondée.
      Vous excuserez la qualité du cadrage, mais on allait clairement passer pour des touristes irrespectueux si on filmait ouvertement donc on s'est contenté d'une photo. Il s'avère, après avoir interrogé 2 garçons, que nous venons d'assister à une répétition en vu de la semaine sainte (avec le char aperçu plus tôt dans la journée).      Read more

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    • TravelerSouth America
      111
      Day 13

      Mompox

      January 27, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      En route to Mompox, we stopped at Aracataca, the birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He was Colombia’s most famous author. He won a Nobel prize for literature, specifically for popularising the use of magical realism in his writing. He was my mum’s favourite author, he also wrote ‘100 years of solitude’.

      Magical realism is when there is a novel that is very realistic but with a magical element to it, like Holes (Louis Sacher), with the curses.

      Mompox is a town almost ‘Frozen in time’ (not really) as it hasn’t changed since the 1900s, except the supermarkets and restaurants. It is a UNESCO - world heritage site.

      Today when we were walking around the town of Mompox, we visited some Filigree workshops! Filigree is silver with lots of intricate designs. While we were walking through the town centre we saw an iguana! It was 1 metre long!!      Read more

    • TravelerCosta Rica
      Day 42

      Day 43 Mompox

      May 28, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

      Oooh I love this place! Woke up to church bells followed by coffee and croissant by the river. Had a great walking tour with a local guy Manuel -
      Slowly pottered around the streets and visited the 7 churches in the town, local wine tasting spots (Tamarind wine 👌). The town is also known for Filigriana (traditional very delicate silver jewellery making technique). Visited a cemetery, and ended chatting with a Filigriana selling jewellery outside called Gabriel. Sat with him and some other old boys with beers and some sketchy spanish! Then a gorgeous boat ride through the rivers surrounding the town - huge iguanas, beautiful birds, and yellow snake spotted. Sunset drink an the old market building by the river, then a lovely evening just pottering and sitting in squares. In the evenings everyone drags out wooden rocking chai nors into the streets and square and just chat - the town feels like one big cosy living room!Read more

    • TravelerCosta Rica
      Day 41

      Day 42 Minca to Mompox

      May 27, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

      A mission this morning to get the broken phone resolved! An incredibly kind Moto taxi driver took me Santa Marta, got a new phone and a snack en route, then to get the bus to Mompox. Not enough people for a bus, so me and a teeanger went in a pick up filled with broken motorbikes and all sorts of packages to drop of en route! After a lot of stops, a breakdown in the middle of nowhere, a mini ferry across the river and a police inspection - i arrived 8 hrs later in the most beautiful old town 😍 had a walk along the main street by the river which is lit by fairy lights, and residents sitting outside their houses on wooden rocking chairs. Already love this place!Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 140

      Mompox Cemetery

      February 16, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

      The Mompox cemetery was an interesting one. Here the dead are not only buried below the ground as done normally, but also in small chambers along the walls. We had seen a similar cemetery in Barcelona earlier. It was extremely hot in the sun so after spending some time in the cemetery, we were back in the shadows of the tree outside the cemetery. We bough some ice creams in one of the shops to cool us down and got artificial vampire jaws along with it ;)Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 139

      Ciénaga de Pijiño

      February 15, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      The Ciénaga de Pijiño is an area of the swamplands north of Mompox. It’s a beautiful place teeming with wildlife, especially cranes, eagles, iguanas, howler monkeys, vultures and kingfishers. One can also see the local fishing villages and fishermen on the way.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 139

      Off to Lake Pijino

      February 15, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

      Since we were getting late, the tour operator had provided an auto-rickshaw for us. We got on in it and were whisked off towards the port on the Magdalena river nearby. There, the motorized canoe we were supposed to take, had gone a bit away to stand in the shade while they waited for us. It was too hot to stand in the sun for even 5-10 min. As soon as we reached the quay, the canoe came over and we started our journey 30 min late at 3:30 pm.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 140

      Iglesia de San Francisco, Mompox

      February 16, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Iglesia de San Francisco was another beautiful building in Mompox. A unique thing about the church was the the clock in the church's clock tower built in 1890. The clock functions anti-clockwise. The 12 is still at the top but the 1 is to its left and not right. Its an interesting thing that we always presume the clock should go clockwise, while if you think about it, its equally valid to construct a clock the goes anti-clockwise and still tell the time. No one questions the status quo and we continue living in a world that is around us without giving a second thought to the things.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 139

      Sunset over Magdalena

      February 15, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      The sun was setting as we reached back to the branch of river Magdalena that flows near Mompox. We managed to get some beautiful pictures of the fiery sun setting down in a mellow display of colors as it disappeared from this part of the world.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 139

      Into the side channels

      February 15, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

      From the main branch of the river, our canoe traversed into the narrow side channels going towards the Lake Pijino. An interesting sight on the river, was that of many fish jumping out of the water trying to escape the predator fish in the channels. There was a lot of wildlife along the channels including Kingfishers, Iguanas, Aguilas (eagles), loads of Cormorants on trees, Garza Blanca (Great Egret). Unfortunately, it was had to get good pictures with the phone camera. There was a lot of local flora as well like the huge Ceiba trees and Totumo trees with its big round green fruit. Some places the locals had cleared up the forests and were growing cash crops like Plátano (type of banana) and Papaya trees.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    San Zenón, San Zenon

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