Romance
in the time of the Monsoon
How can I not think of Gabo, Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, when I am wandering around this lovely small town of Fort Cochin?
I was watching the sunset, the breeze from the Arabian
Sea, the swaying bodies of the local people with their wide smiles, fishermen
trying one last time to unload their wares for the day. The tourists are afraid
to come because of the monsoon and the pregnant skies are threatening but in
the four days I have been here, there has been no rain.
But I did buy an umbrella.
When and how did I fall in love with Fort
Cochin?
I have been a traveler all my life and there are
towns and cities that just caress your heart, I return to them over and over
again where I feel completely at home, regardless of the fact that I am just
visiting, but I take ownership of the streets with the abandon of the mindful
caretaker. Smile is a must, I remember my good friend Joe of Bogor, and of
course here the smiles are returned.
I am completely at ease walking along the streets
of Havana, Cuba. I remember falling in love with the village of Baracoa in the
eastern end of Cuba; I still can recall that feeling to this day. Miami is a
city that offers me comfort, during my travels; it is always good to rest a day
or so there. I am happy also that I can get a good cup of Cuban coffee there.
The biggest city that I have fallen in love with
and still in love with is London, I am not tired of it nor will I be.
Melbourne, Australia would always be special. Suva in Fiji islands soothed my
itchy feet during my student days and at one time I thought of living in
Honolulu in Hawaii (also liked Hilo).
This year I have discovered Leticia on the
Colombian Amazon, Quiberon on the Brittany Coast with its wild coast offers
refuge. I loved the British colonial architecture of Rangoon, Malacca in
Malaysia always opened a secret or two to me, there I had the chance to study
the Greatest Navigator that ever lived, Zheng He/Cheng Ho. I would have loved
Hanoi more if only I could communicate with the Vietnamese a little better, in
Siem Reap, Cambodia the streets always welcomed me. Who would not welcome a
tango in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, walking the same streets of
Palermo as Jorge Luis Borges?
I plan to enjoy this romance for a few more
days, then a long journey to Mexico where I have to remind myself that I am a
Physician, continue being with the Indigenous People of the American Continent.
