The Colors of Barichara

The chapel of  Santa Barbara is at the top of the hill.

Is that door colored "Barichara Green?"

When you enter the city of Barichara, the very first colors you see are white buildings with dark green trim including the doors and windows with terra cotta tiles on the rooftops.

The plaza is laid out in a NESW square; here you are looking west.

I am not sure when these colors first came into existence, but they are considered the ‘original’ colors of the village along with dark brown or, in a few cases, dark blue. 

All around the central plaza, that is the only acceptable color. There are places like the Mayor’s office with wood doors and windows that have been stained darker or oiled, but if you want to see more color, other than flowers and plants, you will have to look a little farther.

 

The only truly 'yellow' doors & windows I found.

On the outer fringes of the city, people have gotten bolder and more colorful. 

This faded blue door  is one I noticed when I first came here.

I recently roamed around and found many variations of the basic brown, green and blue, as well as white, black, ochre, lavender and pink, but no red doors. When I asked someone who has been here for 20 + years about this, she said "Oh no, this would never do. Red is a political statement." Except with flowers.

Here is an updated link to the 2012 FICBA site, so you can check in to see what the offerings and activities are. If you are planning to be here for the film festival and you don't have a room yet, contact the Casa de Cultura as they may have people who will open up a room in their home for that weekend.

Brilliant blue, like the skies some days.

Purple, purple door - I love it!

When the village was designated a national monument in 1975, it was determined that certain standards of color and design would be adhered to within the village, even with houses which were being reconstructed or added as new houses to existing lots. Thus, like nationally protected villages or structures in the U.S., there is a board of over-seers who make sure when you arrive, you are visually transported back 400 years. It is worth the trip.

Some Pretty Views in Barichara

This is part of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes,
stretching from Bogota, on the equator south of us,
all the way north near the Caribbean Ocean.

After some intense posts, I thought it was time for something a little relaxing, a rest for your eyes and maybe other parts of you if you have been having a tough week. It is hard for me to believe it is the week-end again, as the days seem to be rushing by with increasing speed.

This is what the Andes look like around 9 a.m. These mountain ranges are relatively young, geologically speaking, and if you look closely you can see that although they reach upwards to 13 or 14,000 feet, the red, clay-based rocks are underneath the green growth. It is for this reason that preserving trees and other soil-holding plants is so important to Colombia. That muddy bit in the lower left corner is the Rio Suarez.

This balancing act of stone and wood and tile really
captured my eye on my morning walk.

I occasionally start out walking either in the morning or late afternoon (it's cooler at those times) and don't exactly know where I'm headed, but go looking for something interesting to take a picture of or to explore my neighborhood. There is a lot of construction going on here, but there are also a lot of very old walls, gates, paths, houses and lovely flowers just waiting to be noticed.

We are passing out of the rainy season so there are more and more mornings when the sun is shining brightly - and intensely - as soon as it clears the horizon to the east.

In a little less than three weeks, the second annual film festival will take place here: FICBA II. That will bring lots of new folks to see this quiet village, only for five days it will be anything but.

I don't quite understand the point of trying to make this into a mini-Cannes or Berlin or Los Angeles with an all-night dance hall, bright flashing lights everywhere and rivers of alcohol lubricating everyone so they can go and sit on uncomfortable folding chairs and pretend they connect with some weird filmmaker who thinks its cool or artistic to do a handi-cam film following some suicidal teenager around.

Last year I created a bit of a stir when I insisted that the people at the entrance to the various films be more diligent in assuring that the films were age-appropriate. This came about when I saw two pre-teens heading into see something I was pretty sure they were not ready to see. I hope they do a better job of that this year.

But some of the films did warrant a viewing so I'm looking forward to seeing the schedule.

Because vehicles are so very expensive here, older ones
are preserved very well. This is one of my personal local
favorites; totally NOT the original color but still cool!

My art classes are going well, and it helps me with my Spanish. Yesterday my art teacher asked me to use some words in English because he's decided he needs to have some basics. This is the trend in Colombia. There is an ad that runs on the TV showing two guys talking in Spanish to each other. One is obviously the 'up and coming one' and the other is a sort of 'doofas' who wants to be more like his buddy. They are promoting an on-line English class. Personally if I was promoting the classes, I would show different classes of people, different circumstances where knowing English would be advantageous.

Thanks for stopping by and I will close with the sunset taken at the end of this day.

The same view of the Andes at sunset. You can see the Rio Suarez at
the lower left heading off to meet up with the mighty Magdelena.

Festival Internacional de Cine De Barichara

Coro Polyphonica de Barichara presented at FICBA's first
annual event in Barichara, Colombia.

Perhaps you didn't hear much about this international film festival this year, but that was possibly because it was the first year, and perhaps because it didn't get much 'international' coverage, but the Festival Internacional de Cine de Barichara (FICBA) holds promise for the future. (The only 'official' link I could find - even before the event - was this one on Facebook and they never posted the schedule there. In fact, I am not sure anything was ever posted, even afterwards. Strange.)

At any rate, it was announced on the last night that plans for the second annual FICBA will be supported by local and regional entities and it will take place again in late June or early July of 2012, and some major young, international directors are promising to attend. This year there were 4 categories: Animation, Experimental, Documentaries and Fiction with 9 international 'samples' plus 5 architectural 'samples.' Running for four days and nights, there were lots and lots of young artistic faces in the village, and the awards all went to young Colombian competitors.

I was not in the mood that weekend for sitting in a folding chair for two hours over and over again, so I only went to one presentation and was sadly shocked at the subject matter. "Violeta Y Mil Colores," was filmed in New York, directed by Harold Trompettero, (in Spanish with English subtitles) and classified as a documentary. It is about a young woman who is wanting to commit suicide because she is so disillusioned with her life. I left before the ending. There were other movies that friends of mine attended and raved about and I wish now I had seen something more hopeful.

There is no movie theatre in this region, so everything was well-attended by all ages from here and from San Gil and Bucaramanga. For the younger crowd, after a day of forums, instructional presentations and informational seminars followed by movies in three locations from 6-10 p.m., there was a disco bar that functioned from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. I was pretty glad I was living in the hills away from all this!!

On Sunday evening, just before the award ceremony, our Coro Polyfonico de Barichara (the group has a Facebook page) sang two songs for the SRO crowd. We did a rondel, "Dona Nobis Pacem" by Mozart, and "Padre Nuestra," a Spanish version of the prayer, "Our Father," which were well received. But some days afterwards, several people asked me why we were singing such semi-catholic songs. I said, "It's what we were most practiced in..." I expect that with a full year to practice, we'll have a wider repertoire to offer if we are invited to present again next year.