San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia: The first town in the Americas founded by escaped slaves

San Basilio de Palenque hosts exuberant three-day drumming festival in October that attracts acts from all over the world.Credit: Getty Images

"Where are you from?" shouts the man opposite over the simple rhythm coming from the drum wedged between his knees. Not exactly a difficult question but every time I try to answer, my concentration falters and I lose the beat. He smiles and we start again. And again. Clearly, I haven't missed my calling as a drummer.

I'm in San Basilio de Palenque, a ramshackle town in the foothills of the Montes de Maria mountains, 60 kilometres south-east of the port city of Cartagena on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Surrounding the simple main square where we're sitting are colourful concrete houses and rustic restaurants and bars, all blaring out competing high-energy salsa tunes. It's Sunday morning so people are filing into a small whitewashed Catholic church while barefooted children chase each other along pot-holed, dusty roads, scattering dogs and chickens as they go. All in all, a fairly typical scene in rural Colombia and certainly not somewhere you'd guess is a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Until, that is, you learn its history.

In the early 1600s, a group of enslaved Africans led by Benkos Bioho escaped from their Spanish captors in Cartagena and fled into the hills. After resisting many attempts to be recaptured, they were finally granted independence in 1713, making Palenque the first free African town in the Americas.

The town has around 3500 residents, many of whom are direct descendants of the original settlers.Credit: Impulse Travel

Today, the town has around 3500 residents, many of whom are direct descendants of the original settlers. The community has its own unique language, known as Palenquero (believed to be the only Spanish-based creole dialect spoken in South America), and is the venue for an exuberant three-day drumming festival in October that attracts acts from all over the world, hence the drumming workshop. Organised day tours like the one I'm on help keep the community's culture alive and also bring in much-needed income.

My local guide is Lorenzo, an eloquent 29-year-old. "Palenque is like one big family," he says. "Everyone knows each other so there's hardly any crime."

He introduces me to Afroneto, an artist who's painting a colourful mural of common Palenquero words on the outside of a house ("To remind people," says Lorenzo). Next, I meet Keyla, a singer from Kombilesa Mi, a successful Afro-Colombian hip-hop group that's about to embark on a tour of the US.

The town's best-known resident was Antonio "Kid Pambelé" Cervantes, who in 1972 defeated Alfonso Frazer to become Colombia's first boxing world champion. After a tour of the town's well-equipped boxing gym, I'm persuaded to don gloves and hop in the ring with head coach Pedro. To everyone's surprise, I'm even worse at boxing than I am at drumming.

We visit the town's small museum where there's a recreation of one of the settlement's original dirt-floored homes plus photos explaining how escaped female slaves would hide money and seeds in the braids of their hair.

In a nearby house, the community's healer shows us a selection of traditional plant-based medicines used to treat everything from diabetes to worms. When I ask him if he's worried about tourists bringing COVID-19 into the community, he shakes his head. "I trust 100 per cent in my medical plants." So far, they haven't had a single case.

The tour finishes with the best meal I eat during my two-week trip in Colombia – a whole fried mojarra (a type of fish) simmered in a sweet coconut sauce, served on a palm leaf with rice and an avocado and onion salad. Not content with producing world-class musicians, artists and boxers, the town's collection of 60 handwritten ancestral recipes won Best Cookbook in the 2014 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

As we sit sipping refreshing glasses of aguapanela (cane sugar dissolved in water), I ask Lorenzo what time the music from the bars and restaurants will stop tonight. He looks confused, as if I've just inquired as to whether the sun will rise tomorrow. "When the party's over, of course."

THE DETAILS

VISIT

Local operator Impulse Travel's full-day tour of Palenque, including lunch, transportation from Cartagena and an English-speaking guide, costs $US151 a person (based on two people travelling). See impulsetravel.co/en

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Rob McFarland was a guest of Impulse Travel and Pro Colombia.