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Published: November 21st 2013
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San Sebastian de Mariquita La Capital Frutera de Colombia And then I went to the north of Tolima to see one of the cities whose name sometimes makes people laugh or frown their eyebrows, but I guess that´s why in 1997, they changed it to San Sebastian de Mariquita; described as the city of daydreams and hopes, as well as the fruit capital of Colombia, the city is so full of history, legends and myths that I thought, it would be worth a visit.
So, I travelled to San Sebastian, oh yes, and after a 4-hour bus ride on a good road without any paying tolls, I found myself in the north of Tolima; shall I say I also felt like a king with the lovely weather at my disposal? The difference was, I wash´t provided with a King´s house but a hotel with a small swimming pool. Do not worry, you´ll get me a bit later.
In the Route of Mutis According to Wikipedia, the village has been there since 1551, and apart from being an important mining village, it stands out as a selected destination:
first and foremost, Mariquita became a paramount venue as King Carlos III, appointing Jose Celestino Mutis as director of the Botanical Expedition, selected it for a formal study of its flora; it was then that one of our Colombian scientists had his chance to get well known; he would later become the director of the Astronomical Observatory in SantaFe.
There you have it then, we have to remember that from1783-1784, Mariquita had become the main laboratory of the Botanical expedition. Thereby, I was not surprised to see some signs displaying Jose Celestino Mutis's expedition for, as I just wrote, Mariquita was crucial in his botanical expedition. Well, the king was not wrong to support this expedition in the city, soon, Mutis would find a large array of plant species that served him the purpose of his study.
No wonder why I was told that professors take students to different forests to admire a great variety of trees and plants that are all enough inspiration for research. A shame that the House of Second Botanical Expedition was closed when I tried to visit. It might have been interesting to observe what they had to illustrate
the expedition, although I think I did see most of it in Australia, that's right.
Other than that, history tells us that it was in this village where the founder of Bogota, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada died; indeed, during the times of the Spanish colonisation, it seemed that given its lovely weather -roughly about 26 degrees Celsius, the Kings would enjoy coming to the village to have a relaxing time as it was believed to be a healthy adventure. On the net, I found that the village keeps the house where the kings used to abode, this is called La Casa de los Virreyes.
It must be due to this that the village got its independence two years after Colombia's independence. A place with a lovely weather might have been quite coveted by Colombians and gain in confidence. After losing some of the mining importance, there was a sad event that would change the future of the village; as a matter of fact, Armero's calamity -which I have already visited and described for you- served the village the purpose of reinventing itself and that's what they did. Another phoenix, you might say.
But who was this Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, vea pues? Well, this
conquistador, born in Granada, Spain in 1509, died in Mariquita at the age of 70. He was nothing more than the mere founder of our Colombian capital Santa Fe de Bogotá. That´s why, you understand why the village is mentioned in our history books. Given Quesada's courage and organisation, he is sometimes compared to Cristobal Colon or Hernán Cortes. History has it that this great conqueror seemed to be immune to some viruses and that his intelligence helped him always find the best way to get his objectives. Although he was most famous a bit further in history, he is not as remembered as the previous heroes I mentioned.
For my consolation, let's say that although I didn't see places, such as the Municipal Forest, described as awesome by other visitors, I let my imagination fly and then I was able to have them close to me. I enjoyed the historic and cultural city depicting some old houses and plenty of resorts, oh yeah, you find lots, anyway, if you fancy that, you won´t miss it as the
city sells itself with plenty of advertising, a shame the best venues are said to be far from the city and I didn´t have much time to spare, I hope you are luckier than I was.
The main activities now are agriculture, cattle breeding and commerce; lucky them that their food still remains natural and that well-known transgenity has not taken over. While I was there, I couldn't believe that fruits were so cheap and so natural, good for us that we can still eat naturally. I'll leave you an assignment, after I left the city, I heard some people talk about a fruit called Mangostino, which I was not able to find, please put me in the picture if you can, I wanna taste it.
One of the venues I liked was the cathedral; reading about the church, I found out that the Señor de los Caminantes they have inside was meant to be taken to Pasto but for those things in life, the people in charge of taking him to Nariño decided to have a rest in Mariquita and they state that when they intended to carry it again, the Christ didn´t
allow them to take him. Whatever the truth is, lots of people go to the cathedral, specially during the holy week, to thank Christ for his favours.
Lately, apart from being a place remembered by its contribution to the history of our country, Mariquita welcomes groups of people from different regions in Colombia as they now hold the national competition of marching bands.
Well, this is coming to an end. Up to you to find the reasons to come here, be it history, if you are into mining, there you find mining resources of salt, gold and silver. This, together with the abundant fruit variety, make it really worth visiting, specially if you find yourself somewhere near Tolima. Awesome, you won´t regret it.
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Mafe
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Amazing Post Frank!
Thank you for writing about our small town :D!! Mafe (http://www.rayofincaraiz.com)