abril the puppy
february 24, 2025- bogotá and villa de leyva 2025
we checked out of the villa in the morning, waved good bye to the hammocks we lazed around in and the bright fuchsia flowers that surrounded the property. i’d wake up at around 6 am during our stay to prep itinerary details for the day with manue. my tired eyes would open to the sun rising over villa de leyva’s mountains and i’d see abril, the villa’s 10 year old mutt, trot back in after a night out doing who knows what- i like to think she was patrolling the neighborhood, feeling responsible for our group of 12 travelers who showered her with endless affection. our group was obsessed with the town’s constant supply of friendly, sweet dogs, who are clearly fed copious amounts of arepas, empanadas, and salchichas. i love dogs, but one of my favorite parts of the trip was an indoor/outdoor restaurant which had long, intertwining tree branches above many of the tables and two black cats who climbed the trees like mini panthers. you aren’t supposed to feed them, but i did.
we were heartbroken that abril wasn’t around to say good bye. we got breakfast in town at a tiny, traditional place called la tienda de teresa and then some of us who finished early decided to walk around before heading back to bogotá. as i turned a corner with shakia and kt, two of our travelers, shakia noticed one of the street dogs looked exactly like abril. i casually called out to her- not in the way one would call a puppy, all jubilant and with my high pitched baby animal voice, but more the way i’d call out to a friend who’s been saving my spot in line. abril immediately turned her head. that was, in fact, our girl abril, spending her sunday morning out and about in her city. we gave her so many hugs and then said our good byes, grateful to have ran into her. i was tickled that she had recognized her name so casually, a bemused look on her face, and i kept repeating the interaction in my mind as i called all our travelers back to the van.
and then, once we had finally managed to get all travelers aboard the van and ready to go, abril decides to trot over to us for one last despedida… because colombia is where magical realism was born. it’s true that colombians take forever to say good bye, and this is further proof it’s a thing across species. i couldn’t believe this sweet, gentle animal somehow found our van at the exact time we were leaving and felt the need to come back around and say good bye to everyone, all at once. efficient and sentimental queen.
moments like these make the travel experiences more than just a retreat, a vacation, or casual group travel. there’s something magical that happens when a group of people get together and decide to say yes to life’s invaluable gifts. friendship, whether human or animal, adventure, meals that honor the land where the ingredients come from, cultures vastly different from our own. i couldn’t have planned or predicted that moment, and that’s one of the things i love about the kind of travel matria does- we make space for the unplanned memories that make a trip unforgettable. my role is simply to encourage everyone, including myself, to remain openhearted and available for that kind of magic.
love you abril