Lizard Broth, Spider Eggs, and Marquez

Lizard broth and spider eggs have not been on any menus I have seen; however, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombia’s Nobel for Literature 1982 winner, learned to eat them before he was six.

I learned that bit of trivia when I visited an impressive remake of the house in which he grew up, now a museum, two hours south of Colombia’s northern coast. He learned it from the Guajiro people who worked for his family.

A bicycle pedicab was waiting for me as I departed the bus from Santa Marta to Aracataca where the museum is located. Arriving at siesta time meant I had an hour to wait. Hanging out next door seemed better than standing in the hot sun.

Cool air conditioning was welcoming as was the smile from the Morgan Freeman looking man sitting alone in the four-table café, enjoying a beer. Marquez’s portraiture hung above the man. As he stared into the distance, he could hardly keep from being face to face with Marquez, whose eyes, although different in each caricature, were compelling. I liked both men.

While I no longer recall the details of 100 Years of Solitude I do recall “living” with the characters in my head for some time, one of those books which didn’t end as I turned the last page. Now I was going to see the setting in which the acclaimed author had lived.

Meanwhile, about the man with the beer.

Taller than most, when he stood, he was imposing in the way that John Wayne appeared in the old westerns many of earlier generations grew up seeing…