Shall I stay or shall I go?

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Potatoes and beer this weekend in Cartagena. "We're stocked up, we're ready to go, we've got in lots of Heineken." said the bar owner.

The US aircraft carrier, The George H.W. Bush, is due in Cartagena sometime this weekend after its tour of Libya. On board are 700 to 900 thirsty sailors. Shops and bars in Cartagena are waiting for them. The last time there was an aircraft carrier here the Americans were loose with their cash and apparently drank an average of four or five bottles of beer before they started on the  food.

In the countryside around Cartagena there are about 4,000 hectares of land given over to growing potatoes. Production is 200,000,000 kilos of the things each year. The growers are miffed about the low price they are getting for their crops. Their response is a potato festival. They hope to make the public aware of the quality of the local product, to show off the varieties and to cook up some tasty potato dishes.

As I drove home from work the national radio station I was listening to handed over the lunchtime slot to local broadcasters and those were the two lead stories.

As you may imagine I was tempted to stay in town; try a few spuds, join the jolly Jack and Jill tars in a beer. What more could anyone ask?

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