Roasted coffee and Pava the Mule

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That Roasted Coffee!
and the disappearance of Pava the Mule.

It is only in the Polka, a hill where six ways intersect, that people can see the surroundings of the world.

There arrived six mules that came from different places, they were loaded with tons of coffee to distribute within the small villages of the region. Looking to the east, there is a beautiful town called Libano from where you could see the beauty of its extension and the imposing cathedral that was erected in the very center of its route.

The Muleteers sat down to rest and as they looked at the world that stretched at their feet, they began the conversation:  

–“ By the canyon of that river.” said one of them “came the avalanche after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption (snowy volcano) and buried the village of Armero”.

Armero was a town with a population of about 30,000 inhabitants  that were killed by the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. Towns like Murillo and the Libano were located closer to the volcano than Armero but they weren’t touch by the volcanic landslides, they didn’t suffer this enormous tragedy. strangely the volcanic lahars were redirected to armero and destroyed the town completely, erasing it from the map along with its thousand of inhabitants.  The conversation of these muleteers happened not long ago.

–“ I wasn’t born.” say another one ” but my dad told me that during the night those waters came down lightning like a thick fire”.

A mule neighs around to force the muleskinner to continue the road, that mule was the one that came from the furthest place, from a place called Cantarrana. The muleteer joined the conversation:

–“ Pava doesn’t like to hear stories that remind her of that tragedy” apparently that was the name of the mule that whinny so much, “ the boss says that she is very old now and that she had to live that tragedy ”.

–“ ¿How come?¿what do you mean by that? ” asked the older muleteer who is called Mr. know it all, he seemed to know about everything but this days.

–“ Yes”   said the pava’s muleteer “she is one-eyed, with the spine week and ben over the years, and some what cripple.But there she is , standing still. The boss doesn’t have any more mule” .

This man, in his twenties, pulled out a tobacco and started smoking it with large, spacious puffs. and said 

–“The little mule was traveling to the village carrying a load of coffee and when she was crossing the road next to the lagunilla river, the first wave of lava from the volcano came down and took her away. She was found 5 days later 100 kilometers away by the Magdalena river, she was hurt but nothing serious. The little mule scape from the men that tried to take possession of her, she arrived here two days later, with the coffee she was carrying roasted to perfection and with a cat sleeping on top of the coffee. It was a black cat with scorched tail”.

The muleteer while smoking blew out smoke that everyone in the group smelled like roasted coffee. The mule’s whinny was heard like a laugh, a real hearty belly laugh, as he restarted his way to the village.

The other five muleteers never saw this whinny mule and her Muleteer who throw out puff of smoke that smelled like fresh roasted coffee again.

The scorched-tailed black cat appears when the muleteers tell the story making fun of it.

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