The Mountains; Heading Home

The alarm clock was never heard.

At precisely 6:30 am, there is a loud crash, a bang and then the ensuing magical chaos of ‘Via Con Dios’. I jumped out of bed and the sounds of tubas, trumpets, drums and all sorts of assorted brass were echoing through the room. There are no real windows, so I could not really see what was outside. The only thing I knew was that this music was outside and sounded very, very close.

I open a shutter and could not see anything. It was still dark. I thought the band was just behind this huge tree and shrub. As the song ended, all I could do was laugh. I stood on the porch in my undies and t-shirt, and clapped as loud as a man can that was awakened by a small mountain village band at 6:30 in the morning. The claps echoed and I could hear some band members laugh. They started straight up into another song. This had to be joke. It had Ray and Lourdes written all over it.

Tonya was asking “What’s going on?” while she just lay in bed and laugh. The mystery band played and played for half an hour. No one else in the village complained, there were no shouts and no tomatoes or eggs being thrown. As the sun begins to rise, I could see the tops of a tuba and some other shiny brass in a yard just beyond the shrubs, behind an old shack. The band had set up there and began their early morning concert for gringos. I grabbed my camera and filmed a few brief moments to keep.

priceless

Undoubtedly, this was the best send off gift either of us had ever had. A perfect end to a wonderful trip. This will definitely be a memory we keep our whole lives.

Sometime around 7:30, Ray and Lourdes show up. They claim they didn’t hear a thing. Ray says the people are just friendly and were saying goodbye. Lourdes claims she has no idea as to the who, what, where and why. Ray tells me that Lourdes had asked the band to play us a goodbye song before we left, so we would have nice memories of our stay.

We hit the road around 8. I practice the proper way of mountain driving and we manage to have brakes the whole time. We stop in Mascota and buy up some regional sweets and goodies, then do the very long haul back home. We were in high spirits, and many times during the drive we would smile and laugh about the pre-dawn concert. There were no arguments, no dog accidents, no drug gang incidents…just a very relaxed drive home.

However, as soon as we got to the city, a wrong turn was made and once again our journey into the unknown began. Getting lost is becoming a bad habit.

To this day, Tonya thinks the band was a coincidence. I think otherwise…