Word: buenaventura
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...were not for the shipping business, no one in his right mind would choose to live in the steaming, noisome port of Buenaventura. More than 350 inches of rain fall every year. Humidity is so high that shoes and clothing must be kept in "hot closets," where electric light bulbs dry the air, slow down blue mold. Malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis are endemic. Yet Buenaventura (pop. 15,000) is the busiest port in Colombia...
Because of its location (the first good Pacific harbor south of the Panama Canal) and the importance of the area it serves (up-&-coming Medellin, and the coffee lands of the Cauca valley), Buenaventura is also on the way to becoming the best-equipped port on South America's west coast. Last fortnight, a U.S. contractor (Raymond Concrete Pile Co.) finished two new storage warehouses and a 1,057-ft. wharf extension, which increased total berthing space to 3,432 lineal ft. Last week, the Colombian government signed a new, $4 million contract with the same company...
Higher & Higher. The new facilities, to be completed late this year, will solve some, but not all, of Buenaventura's problems. They will allow more ships to dock at the same time and will provide storage for the goods they unload. But about 30,000 tons of cargo are unloaded monthly at Buenaventura, only 25,000 tons can be carried out. Last week TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin cabled this description...
Colombia, says a local wag, appears to have suffered a stroke: all its activity is confined to its left side; the right is paralyzed. About 80% of the country's coffee, the bulk of its industry and gold mining, and Buenaventura, now Colombia's No. 1 port, are all west of the Magdalena River. The keys to the western development are the states of Antioquia and Caldas (see map), where in less than a century coffee bushes have sprouted from the wilderness, and factories from the coffee bushes...
...mouth of the wide, serpentine Magdalena, chief communications line from coast to capital. (Cartagena's harbor is connected with the Magdalena by a canal.) Last year, Barranquilla handled 80% of the nation's exports of cotton, coffee and oil. On Colombia's Pacific side, filthy, swampy Buenaventura (literally, good luck) had made good its name: the outlet for the booming western industrial regions, Buenaventura accounted for almost half of Colombia's entire foreign trade...