Episode 03 · Colombia, Ecuador

A Journey from Colombia to Ecuador

Travel from Joe Arroyo’s salsa and the accordion of vallenato to Paulina Tamayo’s Ecuadorian música nacional.

The program starts on Colombia’s Caribbean coast in Cartagena, with Joe Arroyo, Carlos Vives and vallenato, plus early Shakira from before she was known outside Colombia. It ends in Quito, at a festival of national music where Paulina Tamayo sings live.

The confirmed recording is available.

Listen on SoundCloud ↗

Paulina Tamayo in a sequined dress, looking upward with her hands together; portrait from her official biography — Paulina Tamayo. Portrait from the artist’s official biography. Photo credits ↗

From the Caribbean to the Andes

01 / CARTAGENA

Joe Arroyo

Born in Cartagena in 1955, Arroyo sang with Fruko y sus Tesos for ten years before leading his own band. His 1986 song “La Rebelión” returns to colonial Cartagena and an enslaved man’s resistance, becoming one of Colombia’s best-known salsa records.

02 / CARIBBEAN COLOMBIA

Carlos Vives

Carlos Vives brings in vallenato, the accordion song form of Colombia’s Caribbean region. Alongside it is Shakira from her Colombian years, before she began recording in English. Together they widen the Colombia leg beyond the sound of Cartagena’s salsa.

03 / QUITO

Paulina Tamayo

In Quito the program goes to a festival of national music for a live recording of Paulina Tamayo, known at home as La Grande. She sang Ecuador’s música nacional: pasillo, albazo and sanjuanito. Tamayo died in October 2025; this archive performance brings Andean and popular traditions into the Ecuador leg.

Featured artists: Joe Arroyo · Carlos Vives · Shakira · Paulina Tamayo

Places: Cartagena, Colombia · Quito, Ecuador