Delve into destinations through music, film and literature
In order to better prepare for visiting a new destination, what better strategy than to explore its music, film and literature.
In order to better prepare for visiting a new destination, what better strategy than to explore its music, film and literature.
Such a strategy allows a portal, if you like, into the place. With this in mind, Lonely Planet has released a list-driven but comprehensive guide dubbed Armchair Explorer ($34.99). It’s a title for our times as, let’s face it, most of us now have more flexibility and travel hunger to read, research and plan. Unmasked daydreams are allowable in all LGAs, and preferably with a soundtrack.
The book is divided into six regions, then broken down to specific countries. I spent last weekend in South America, where I have too many knowledge gaps, although I could give you the stats off the top of my head for the smuggling of cocaina, thanks to my devotion to NatGeo’s Airport Security telly series set in Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Behind the scenes at Bogota’s El Dorado international terminal? I could draw you a map.
The South America section covers 11 countries, including French Guiana and Suriname, both below most tourists’ radars. Let’s look at Colombia, home of magical realism and birthplace of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His masterpiece, Love in the Time of Cholera, has found new resonance in Covid times and is replete with imagery and longing. It was made into an English-language film set in Cartagena in 2007, with Javier Bardem in full brooding mode and an unconvincing Benjamin Bratt, who should have stayed put in Law & Order. Other Colombian authors to seek out are Fernando Vallejo and Jorge Isaacs, while Lonely Planet’s playlist suggests folk, pop and hip-hop stars plus national treasures Bomba Estereo and Toto la Momposina.
The former Dutch territory of Suriname, on the continent’s northeast coast, has produced a swag of documentaries, some with a spiritual edge and others looking at the darkness of colonial rule. Music? Dropati is considered to be the “mother” of modern Chutney (Indo-Caribbean) music, much favoured for Hindu wedding parties, and loads of online videos attest to its energetic joyousness. All that’s missing in the book is a pull-out map to stick on a pin-board and mark out a campaign, like a military commander, for 2022 and beyond.