"BARRANQUILLA - HOME OF LA ARMADA Y... " a Barranquilla Travel Page by mtncorg

My time in Barranquilla was limited mostly to the naval base where the eye clinic in which I helped took place over a week’s time. We ate, slept and worked on the base - home to the non-commissioned officers school for the Colombian Navy (Escuela des Suboficiales des Armada de Colombia). The city is somewhat spread out on low hill to the west of the mouth of the Magdalena River. It is a working city as opposed to the touristy center found a little over an hour to the west at Cartagena. The history of the city only goes back to 1813 but being an important port city on the Caribbean coast, Barranquilla is presently the fourth largest city in Colombia - also home to the largest football stadium in the country. The city was also the longtime home of Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

During my week, I did manage to get over to the restaurant that was the haunt of the Grupo de Barranquilla, a group of Colombian writers that included Marquez. The food is good, but the history is as well. A short film in Spanish and English is presented at the restaurant which will give you a better appreciation for the history in which you eat.

The particular night I visited was one in which a thunderstorm rocked the city. A normal ten minute drive from the naval base on the north side of the city to the restaurant took us two hours. We drove through and around streets that were turned into literal class 3-4 rapids. Waves churned as high as two meters above the street surfaces. The amounts of water roaring down the streets were simply mind boggling.