Mozart & Cotinga

Cotinga is a wonderful Finca, taken care of by even more wonderful people. What it has to do with Mozart? After a first inspection our intention was to start with Mozart in July. But first the car was in a very bad condition when we got it, made worse by some mechanics destroying more than they fixed. Second, casita’s (camper cabin) interior was absolutely worn off, so we had to renovate it on our own completely. This caused that we were about two months delayed with the start of our trip.

Cotinga was not only our base camp during the entire renovation of our car, it became home and very important to us. That might sound sappy, but our dear friend Eduardo invited us to work on Mozart in his yard and he and his amazing team supported us, supplied us, cheered us up, enjoyed and suffered with us, went with us through good and through very bad moods when the entire journey seemed to be at stake. He reminded us without being aware of it, that Colombia’s mentality consists of alegría (joy), being supportive, kind and helping others, and most important: not taking life too seriously. Without Eduardo, Esediel, Gloria, Marisel, July, Andrea and Leidy, we would have dropped Mozart into the next canyon and continued this trip walking. So, reminding ourselves of these partly very hard two months, we are not really angry about the bad luck which took away so much travel time from us. Instead we are glad to have found such a warm place to stay during this time and that Eduardo shared his perspective on life and the world with us. We feel more than gratitude for the dear friends we won and we were granted time with. When Mozart was finally finished and ready to turn south, when this moment finally came, it was much harder than expected to leave our amazing Cotinga friends behind.

Thanks Eduardo for standing all our moods, for giving us space to work on Mozart, for inviting us to the chocolate ceremony, for deep conversations, many glasses of wine, nice dinners, Colombia’s best vegetarian pizza, for your incredible flexibility and most important, for your great attitude to treat other people. Stay as you are!

Asi es la vida, nunca es recta! Hay que respirar, agradecer la salud y el nuevo día.

- Eduardo Villa -