From Villa de Leyva to New York.

History runs like a sonorous river through the walls, the balconies, the streets, and the great plaza of a colonial impressive town very famous in my country full of legends and traditions, a magical place to rest and feel free from the heaviness of modernity. It has been 450 years and Villa de Leyva is still a fantasy. In the silence of the night, it is easy to imagine the sound of horses trotting and the parades of the Colombian and Spanish soldiers on the cobbled main square. Many of the streets of the village are also made of stone, but not so the heart of its inhabitants because their hearts are dressed in goodness typical of the peasants of any place in the world. Their contact with a natural habitat decontaminated and opened under the sky makes them very affable.
At dawn you can still hear the crowing of the roosters, a wonderful awakening in old times that connects humans with a nature in order away from calamities, cement buildings and alarm clocks. When the smug winged male sings, the non-native sleepers and vacationers sigh and turn around in bed to continue snoozing and dreaming in a valley among the peace of the mountains.
Sitting on my couch I wander. Should I pursue the impossible love? I do not know what to do. While I think I get visions from Boyacá. I smell from afar the freshness of fruits and vegetables, changua soup, panela water, coffee, beer, arepas with cheese and roasted typical sausage. I see handicrafts, wool ponchos, hats, and peasants that smell of indigenous land, potatoes, and onions. I get carried away by my imagination to the Plaza Mayor of Villa de Leyva the most beautiful in Colombia full of emotion and freedom, tribute to the excitement of life.
I start giving in to the uncertain love affair bit by bit. After all, Villa de Leyva is a romantic center that captivates lovers, a meeting point with great nature, a citadel of cobblestone where people fantasize and stay in charming inns for lovers, old houses converted into rooms full of history, art, and ancestral relics. The bougainvillea climb the walls, hanging from the doors and balconies; the streets are adorned at every step with pots of geraniums that color our feelings and where love and affection are found inside a paradise of mountains, clouds, and infinite blue.
Enchanted by the Images of the village, I decide to pack and go to meet a womanizer who invited me to spend the Christmas vigil at his friends’ farm in Villa de Leyva. «No strings attached,» he stressed, and since there is no commitment, I decide to invite my friend Liliana so that my elusive little man can’t stay in the same room or in the same bed. Is this an effective strategy to protect yourself from a Don Juan? Definitely.
Driving through the mountains of all tones, the landscapes take my breath away; I feel thrilled by that wonder of endless path full of natural beauty. On the way we stop in a typical restaurant without luxuries, as is the custom, to eat a late lunch with blood pudding sausages, arepas made with sweet corn and a can of refajo a mix of a Colombian soda and beer, while the cars and coach buses lift the dust of the road, and the sunshine illuminates the scenario.
Half an hour later, we arrive at the Main Square one of the favorite plazas of Colombian and foreign tourists. Villa de Leyva looks like a hornet’s nest. I call my male friend who apologizes because he will not be able to see me until the evening. He does not mention that I am staying with him. How so? What a disappointment! Well, it doesn’t matter since seeing us at night under the moon and the fireworks will make the Christmas emotions stronger and the attraction more intense. My friend Liliana is not very convinced that there will be romance and only looks at me warning me without words.
Oh boy, there are no hotels available! Finally, a rather rickety room appears in a family home, five blocks from the square. Suitcases in the room, shower with warm water, change of clothes and new makeup to be beautiful and walk through the enchanted village and then dine in a nice restaurant among flowers and tapestries woven in colored wool, with a table on a balcony that looks to the horizon and the stars. We order delicious typical food, red wine to celebrate the occasion and dessert a treat that one cannot skip in Villa de Leyva.
At eleven o’clock at night my cell phone rings, but I cannot hear with the noise and music of the square. The man hangs up and I call him back immediately. The phone rings several times as my anxiety goes «in crescendo» until he responds and between screams tells me to see him after midnight. What about Christmas together? That was the idea! Later, the hands of the clock mark twelve hours, the whistles and happy commotion rumble and when the fireworks light up the sky and the streaks of light fall on the spectators, I see my friend standing on the stairs in front of the church like a god waiting for his goddess and I smile. The firmament darkens again, and more rockets with powder shoot towards the sky exploding in beautiful pyrotechnic figures. An immense golden glow illuminates the square showing me my friend kissing with a girl who does not let go. It is not a visual effect and like the fires of artifice I feel like gunpowder, dynamite ready to explode. Liliana gives me a compassionate look with her black eyes.
The New Year’s Day arrive, I have no party and no desire to make the dazzling ridicule of Villa de Leyva. Liliana and I are together, sipping champagne as we watch on TV the famous ball drop in Times Square. We forgot the grapes to make the wishes, but we took out the suitcases a superstition that will take you in a trip. A wave of determination hits me hard as I take the last sip of the first glass of champagne. I serve a second glass and slowly sip it. The old year is about to fade and while I serve the champagne that is left, my intuition manifests clear and resonant like firecrackers and when the countdown begins, I tell Liliana: «In six months we will be in New York». Three, two, one, happy New Year! We laughed watching the ball falling, and people kissing and hugging on a cold night warmed with the happiness bursting in Times Square.
Our present is altered in that instant and with high glasses Liliana and I make a toast of joy for Villa de Leyva, the starting point, which made us aware of the need for a new adventure. With a heart filled with hope we also toast to the new year transmuted with a desire, a toast to an energy with positive vibration that will change our existence, and a toast to our next nonstop destination: the great metropolis of New York. Cheers!