The Festival Of Coconuts And Tamarind

I was looking forward to this festival as soon as I heard the name. I simply love coconuts and tamarind, and I couldn’t wait to see what kind of products they were going to be making out of them.

We arrive in ‘La Sierra’ in the evening to film a little parade that signified the beginning of the festival. That evening I got another better introduction to the music of the tamboras, about which I had already learnt a little in the near-by ‘El Paso’ during the festival of the accordion. It was interesting but I was really burning to see and taste the treats made from tamarind and coconut.

Following a little presentation of the music and filming a little interview that Jhoy - the director - had wanted we drive into the night and head to another town where our hotel was located. During the trip I hear a sudden and loud bang from the back of the car – as I look around I see an overturned motorbike lying on the road. The driver had already gotten up and seemed to be alright, he was just limping a little. Roger - the driver - got out to check if his car was alright too.

“How stupid!” He says as he gets back into the car. “He just drove too fast and didn’t look in the wrong moment – other than a little scratch he and the car are alright though.” After that little incident we continued onwards to our beds.

We enter the town in the very early to film another morning procession – these were really starting to get on my nerves. Waking up at 4am leaves me with very little energy for the rest of the day, the only good things about it is that you can get an incredible amount of work done – and witness the sunrise. After that procession we enter the frugal house of an organiser of the festival. As we walk out the backdoor we are greeted by a massive back garden. Here palm trees with plenty of coconuts and tamarind trees which branches hang heavy with the brown pods, ripe and ready to pick, line the hard grounds of the backyard.

“There you are.” Lucia, the owner of the place greeted us. “What are your filming plans looking like for today?”

“Well, that all depends on what the plan of the festival is looking like – but we’d love to start with a little breakfast.” Natasha replies and sits down on one of the plastic chairs at the table under the palm-leaf roof. While waiting for the food to be prepared I wander around the compound a little bit. Besides about a dozen chickens and a dozen pigs enjoying themselves in the mud I encounter a whole lot of tortoises playing about with overripe mangos that had fallen from the green canopy above. One of them must have measured about half a meter long – the grandmother of the little family.

We had finished our breakfast and it was time to start filming. A young boy from the village came by to show us how they climb the trees to harvest the coconuts. After strapping a GoPro to his head he scrambles up the smooth trunk as if it was nothing. Once on the top he sits in the leaves of the tree and throws down a couple of the green coconuts. They slam down with incredible force from 20m above, some of them break during the landing and start leaking the delicious coconut water into the ground. Now we start using a machete to rip the green layer of protection off the coconut, revealing the brown hard shell underneath. I drink one of the younger coconuts for refreshment, before grating some of the older ones with more meat into little bits. With a whole bucket of coconuts gratings prepared the mother of Lucia starts cooking a coconut treat that she would sell later on during the festival. Using milk and panela (which is a sweetener derived from cooking sugarcane juice) she mixes the three simple ingredients in a big metal pot over an open fire. Now that this was cooking we left it for the time being and started looking at the process of preparing sweets out of tamarind. They had already collected a few buckets full and hence we started by peeling the brown fragile shell off the pods. Revealing brown-reddish meat inside which has a lovely sour sweet taste. Using the flesh and a lot of sugar we start forming balls out of the mix, which also would be sold later on. That being done we continue with the coconut sweets. The grated coconut meat had cooked in the milk and panela for a few hours now and was beginning to really thicken up. We put the finished product on some leaves, which would be used to display the sweet on the stand of Lucia’s mother. Of course we went on to try as much of it as possible – I cannot wait to try recreating this simple recipe once I get back to Scotland.

On the way back to Barranquilla we stop by a river near the village to swim. We stop the car at a farm from where we'd have to walk the little paths leading down to the water. We receive a warm welcome by the few farmers - as we arrived they were in the process of making the traditional, salty cheese from the coast. They use this as a way to preserve the otherwise quickly spoilt milk. Following brief conversation we start walking and shortly arrive at the river. As we walk down a steep hill we see a few men on horseback riding through the shallow water.

Jhoy looks at me and says: "Do you know how to ride a horse by any chance?"

"Well I have done it before, but that must be about 7 years ago now. I am very happy to try though - if their horses are trained enough." I reply, very willing to get some beautiful images of riding a horse through a river.

A short conversation and a little climb onto the back of the horse I am riding through the beautiful landscape in and around the river. With every step the horse took sprays of water dispersed into the air and thousands of little droplets captures and reflected the strong midday sunlight. It was surprisingly easy to ride and an incredible amount of fun. So a refreshing swim, a horseback ride and loaded heavy with coconut sweets we hit the road again into the direction of Barranquilla.