Amazon and Gabo come to capital

Photo exhibition about world’s largest rainforest

ISLAMABAD: While the exploits of Pablo Escobar and its massive cocaine smuggling operations brought global infamy and even recognition to Colombia, for many Colombians, it is perhaps the majestic Amazon forest, works of fiction writer Gabriel ‘Gabo’ García Márquez, salsa and coffee are perhaps its best ambassadors.

Two of these kicked-off a week-long Colombian Festival at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) late on Wednesday through an exhibition of photographs of the ‘Amazing Amazon’, and screening of documentary film ‘Gabo’, on the life Márquez.



More than two dozen photographs by adventurist and environmental photographer Nicolas Van Hemelryck were put up on display.

Hemelryck, who recently turned to filmmaking, showcased the amazing flora and fauna of the world’s largest rainforest which is spread over 5.5 million square kilometres covering much of north-western Brazil and extending into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries.

The Amazon is crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, including the powerful Amazon. River towns, with 19th-century architecture from rubber-boom days, include Brazil’s Manaus and Belém and Peru’s Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado.



Márquez, born on March 6, 1927, in Aracataca, Colombia was a novelist and is considered to be one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, mostly for his masterpiece Cien años de Soledad (1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude). When he died in died on April 17, 2014, in Mexico, the Colombian president tweeted that he was one of the greatest Colombians of all time.

Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a 2015 Colombian documentary directed by Justin Webster about the life of the award-winning writer. The documentary included archival footage, interviews and live footage of author, his family and friends.

Marquez’s novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” remains at the heart of the documentary, how it became a classic worldwide, helped the author make friends with Cuba’s legendary Fidel Castro and helped many Cuban writers who had been imprisoned.



Speaking at the opening ceremony, Colombian Ambassador Juan Alfredo Pinto Saavedra said that his country has several socio-cultural similarities as of Pakistan.

“There is a lot that is common in the two countries that can be shared with each other’s people,” he said.

Reiterating that the Amazon forest and Gabo remained the crown jewels of his country, Saavedra said that there was no other attraction with which to begin the Colombian festival.

PNCA Director General Jamal Shah said that the festival would pave the path for long-term cultural interaction and exchange between the two countries.

He added that by featuring the Amazon forest and a Nobel prize-winning author certainly lend great honour to Colombia and grant it a global identity.

“There is a lot to learn from each other’s culture and heritage,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2017.