Displaced by armed conflict on the plains, a cowboy makes a new life in the mountains.
Camarita is a 64 year-old cowboy from 'El Llano', the grasslands of southeasetern Colombia. in 2007 guerilla rebels murdered his son, threatened his life, and forced him to flee his cattle ranch.
He now runs a little bbq shack called 'Camarita's', high in the lush coastal mountains of northern Colombia. He started selling smoked sausages from under a tarp on the side of the road. The fragrant, slow-smoking techniques he learned as a boy on the plains quickly attracted passing locals and tourists. Word spread and his business grew. He used his earnings to instal a brick oven, bamboo siding and a palm-thatched roof.
Camarita's business is now thriving. Tourists from around the world scribble 5-star reviews in stacks of tattered guest books. Specialty dishes include carne asada, steamed plantain, and roasted corn. Camarita makes a special house salsa with the papaya, garlic and limes that grow in the gardens on the slope behind the restaurant. Diners lounge in hammocks and take in sweeping views of the Carribbean 2000 meters below, and coffee plantations stitched through the SIerra Nevada mountains above.
