In the lands of the coffee, from the book, Searching for treasures
Puno City, Puno Providence, Peru
“What do you mean? Your Spanish is much better than my French, I can honestly tell you that much!” Jon Jairo laughed as he answered the traveler. “You just take it easy, my friend. There’s a lot of merit in your traveling all the way down to these remote and faraway lands and on top of it all, learning our language! Especially learning to speak to the people like myself, living in these particular lands. Our Spanish couldn’t be worse even if we tried as hard as we could!”
What happened was not so complicated. They met in the inn and hit it off right away. You could say that it was love at first sight between my Pappy and my Mom. He never got to Medellin ‘cuase he turned back to tag along with my mother and not let her out of his sight! After they arrived, they eventually got married. The wedding was there in Manizales. Once married, they settled down in the village near Villamaría. They set up a sort of store and restaurant on the outskirts of their small town. My Grandpa, on my mother’s side, set them up with the money. There, they saw how many people picked up and left for Villarica. They also heard rumors about everyone doing good in their new lands. So they gathered all their stuff, packed the animals to the brim, and set out to make their fortune.”
“I’m so sorry, but can you explain that part about the animals to the brim?”
“I was talking about how they took their things with them. You see, you either carried your belongings or had your mules or oxen do it for you. They had mules, so they loaded their things on the mule’s backs. My mother even managed to take this china crockery she got as a wedding present. Together with a few other things, that tableware was passed on to my sister Pilar before she died. That was how it was done back then.”
“Perfectly clear and understood. Thanks for your patience, and I promise not to interrupt you again, Jon Jairo. Believe me, I find all these things that you are telling me fascinating. I actually feel like you transport me to another time.”
“Easy there, everything is fine, and there’s nothing to worry about.” Jon Jairo kindly replied. “You just give me a few days, and I’ll have you speaking like a Paisa, born and bred here in these faraway lands. You’ll be talking with this sluggish mountaineer’s accent before you know it! Having said, they both began to laugh out loud, long and cheerful laughter that filled the air. Jean Marie couldn’t understand why people would turn to stare at them, but he was having such a good time that he really didn’t pay much attention to it.