fragments of time
another early morning start today. it is a bit crisp today, so i’m happy to get walking a steady pace out of los arcos and catch up with maria consuelo de colombia soon. she is one of eight children, just as i am. she kindly teaches me español as we talk.
we talk about photography, regions of columbia, where the best coffee is grown, which is in armenia. if you are confused, there is a country with the same name, but this one is a town in el cafetero.
she explains to me and a chico de francia that there is a special kind of sombrero in the region of caesar in colombia, the sombrero volteado, that is a bit smaller than the one tangling off the korean woman’s backpack.
after the first hills up and then down again, crossing over the river linares from sansol into torres del rio and an unexpected pourdown of rain, which we use for a desayuno and where i briefly meet jaz and annette from canada again, we head off towards viana. someone left a paraguas for us at a reststop - it must have been there for a while, judging by the moss. the landscape is hilly and pleasant.
plus i learn the palabra for poppy flower, which is amapola. which is also the name of a famous freedom fighter in the colombian war of independence with simon bolivar in the early 19th century. policarpa salavarrieta ríos aka ‘la pola’ was executed by firing squad at the age of 22. her last words were:
‘aunque mujer y joven – me sobra valor para sufrir la muerte y mil muertes más - although i am a woman and young, i have more than enough courage to suffer this death and a thousand more!’
eventually our ways part and i arrive into viana solo. the town sits on a hilltop and is designed like a grid towards the dropoff into the ebro valley. viana’s churches were destroyed during the carlist wars of the 19th century, they are still in ruins today.
i have a little break and a bite to eat, before continuing on again towards logroño, the capital of the la rioja region and not a small town at all, under a darkening sky, for my place for the night.
i meet jamie again and we talk some more - she is one of ten children, i can relate. plus since she seems interested, i tell her a bit about the history of austria past world war one, we talk about gun culture in the estados unidos, et cetera - before heading in different directions in logroño. there is a bit of rain on the last few hundred meters.
in between conversations, i get to listen to music again. but no coherent thoughts today, nothing worth reporting despite today being a significant date in my family.
i leave you with my last words for today, taken from the vulkan song ‘blinding ornaments’:
‘you only have a fragment of time, so be alive.’
‘solo tienes un fragmento de tiempo, así que vive intensamente.’
