I would like to tell you all a story... it's actually more like a dream, in Spanish it would be called a "sueño" and it goes like this:
Once upon a time….
There was a little blond haired, green eyed, american-born girl who due to some strange twist of fate was born with an intense connection to the Latino culture. Her name was Tiffany Joy. She loved to speak spanish, dance salsa and play bossa nova on her guitar. One day, no longer able to deny the "call to the south" she left her family and friends behind and moved to Buenos Aires where she miraculously fell in love with a beautiful Colombian boy named Dani. He invited her to travel to his country where she was warmly embraced by his family and friends. Two of those friends being a lovely couple, who had just decided to join their lives together by marrying, there names are Alejandro and Clara.
Being unique, creative and simply fantastic - Alejandro and Clara decided to have an atypical ceremony - a Mayan ritual, performed by a beautiful mayan priest, at sunset on the coast of Colombia on a tiny island called Baru. They wanted nothing more in the world to share this special day with their beloved friend Dani and their newest beloved gringa friend, Tiffany - but alas, Dani and Tiffany being mere humble artists, had not a peso between them and with the air fare, hotel costs, transportation and more, a trip of that magnitude was just simply impossible….
Or so they thought…
One special evening in beautiful house belonging to the parents of the bride in a town called Chia, right outside of Bogotá, Dani and Tiffany played music and the whole family gathered around. They drank and laughed and made a pact, the pact was that no matter what it would take - Dani and Tiffany and their music must be present at the wedding ceremony.
It was a beautiful thought, but the reality of gathering the funds on top of the looming costs of an exotic island wedding brought everyone fast back to reality. One of the last nights that Dani and Tiffany spent in the house of their beloved friends, they played their favorite songs, drank wine, shared stories, laughed, cried, and pled with the universe to help them make their dream a reality.
Tiffany left the next day for her flight home to to Buenos Aires. Upon arriving to the airport, she was informed that the plane was delayed 3 hours, which was the beginning of what would turn out to be 72 hours of delayed flights, missed connections and an hours wandering around the airport in Lima… a complete nightmare…
Or so she thought…
At the end of the ordeal, the airlines offered Tiffany a voucher for $800 USD to compensate for the mishap. Nearly precisely the cost of a roundtrip ticket from Buenos Aires --> Cartagena… the arrival point to get to the tiny island of Baru.
They had asked and the universe had responded.
Tiffany jumped for joy and called her friends and by hiring Dani and Tiffany to perform after the ceremony as opposed to the saxophonist they had planned upon (sorry random colombian saxophone player for stealing your gig) and some how scrounging up the rest of the money, they had found a way to make it happen.
A couple of weeks later, Tiffany was on a plane to Cartagena, Colombia… she arrived a day early and spent time marveling over the amazing colonial city that lies within the walled fortress that once protected the cities inhabitants. She feasted to her heart's content on cocadas, pescado, and arroz de coco and drank limonada and cola y pola and all of her favorite colombian treats…
Then it was time to head to the island. When she and Dani stepped off of the bus, Ale and Clara were waiting for them with open arms and tears in their eyes. They were received by the entire family with a love and acceptance typically reserved for genuine family members… but for some reason, these two souls had been accepted by this beautiful family, these amazing people and they spent the next few days living the dream… playing music, walking by the beach, dancing, laughing, and crying from joy.
After the ceremony, the bride and groom and all of the guests - dressed in white like greek royalty - gathered around, champagne glasses in hand, a slight ocean breeze swaying the palm trees in the distance, and listened attentively as Dani and Tiffany performed a song they had composed for their beloved friends…
The song is called "Sueño"….
And it certainly was.
