LOVE IN THE TIME OF COLOMBIA

ON HER RETURN TO COLOMBIA, A WRITER’S JOURNEY IS ENVELOPED IN THE MAGICAL REALISM OF CARTAGENA, TAKING HER TO ANDEAN VOLCANOES, AND EVENTUALLY, THE AMAZON

- POOJA CHOKSI

On July 25, 2016, I found myself sitting next to a friend, twiddling my thumbs at LaGuardia waiting for a flight to my segundo hogar (second home), Colombia. The butterflies in my stomach were relentless as my eyes were fixed on the departure screen. My ears were caught in the rapid cadence of Carlos Vives’s ballads about the oft dubbed ‘land of the forgotten,’ providing the melodrama that matched my anticipation of returning after years of being away.

As we approached Cartagena de Indias, I fixed and refixed my hair as if to make the best impression possible upon touching down. The humidity that hit us as we exited the airplane might as well have been a cloud of nostalgia, which continued to chase me through the nooks and corners of the city, familiar and new, on the late-night taxi ride from the airport. It took me back to the day in early 2010, when I first arrived in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, a young and green intern at an English language school in the city. After 20-odd flight hours, three layovers, and three immigration counters, I finally stood in front of a sign that said ‘¡Bienvenida a Cartagena!’. The exhaustion from the journey was dwarfed by the excitement of arriving in the city I was to call home for the next six months. As it goes with life, my plans changed and I stayed on for three years. My plans changed because I had fallen in love—with a country.