The Mysterious Girl from an Unexplored Salvadoran Village

There was a pottery festival at Illobasco village, located in Cuscatlán Department, a few kilometers away from the city, for a metropolitan chap like me, those kinds of places are really enigmatic and unknown because I do not usually go thereabouts, so when there is the opportunity to visit them, I don't think it twice. My family and I were planning a road trip to a pueblo, for we needed a break from the city, my dad was looking in his computer for some local celebration in our country, he found a festival that was going to take place in the previous mentioned village on July 13th and 14th of 2019, we were really interested about it and we had good expectations, besides, we wanted to support and promote our own tourism, once the trip was planned, we waited until Saturday.

The trip was set afoot, so we were heading to the village, to get there, you have to ride in the famous Carretera de Oro (gold freeway) just like 1 or 2 hours depending on the traffic, my father was riding the car, and there was my mum next to him as a copilot, on the back seats there was me and my mum's best friend, a woman of her age, we had a good time along the way, as we were talking, we could behold the beauties of our country, meadows furnishing the landscape, the imposing Chinchontepequec volcano visible in the right side of the car's window, random people walking to and fro in different directions and just the nature itself, whilst in the road, I realized that San Salvador was no longer in my perception, I was getting into a new world, everything I had knowledge of was flying away, I clearly was eager to experience new cultures and lifestyles, and overall, the people, whether for good or for bad, I always have the thought that the essence of any part of the world are their individuals. So, this is how my story of a missing love begins, and instant crush I left on a village that I could barely point on the map.

"Welcome to Illobasco, land of artisan men and women" said a blue sign, pointing out that we had arrived to our destination. The streets were narrow and finding a parking lot was kind of difficult, however, we made through and we left the car on a little alley next to a small pizza restaurant, we walk for a bit whilst we enjoyed the village, we were looking for the place where the main event was being hosted, we found it, there were a lot of stands under canopies, local people were selling their handmade and handcrafted products, such as natural shampoos, typical Salvadoran candies, indigo t-shirts, plants, bonsais, toys, souvenirs, drinks, etc., a total bargain!, while my mother was spending her money on those things, I was taking pictures and recording short clips from the place, because I wanted to show the place to my foreign friends, so that they could appreciate such a lovely event as well as make them feel interested of Salvadoran culture a little bit more, we ended up doing that for around two hours.

It was sunny and the temperature was 30°C, lunch time had arrived so we started to look for a place to eat, while walking we saw a musician group playing Salvadoran music in a small stage, on the right side of the road, there was the small food court from local selling their delicious plates, some of them were selling beef, roasted chicken, hamburgers, pizza, typical food, Mexican food, etc., as we were deciding for what to eat, we were discussing on how disappointing that fair was.

- "Social media pictured something different from this place, I was expecting as the event stated: po-tte-ry, not any random selling stand!" – Said my dad, he sounded a little bit concerned, however, that was not the big deal for him at all.

- "You're right, this is not a way to promote a place, they have done it wrong this time, I hope it doesn't happen again next year, if they keep doing this" – said my mum.

The food did not look appetizing for me, to do me justice, I had eaten before arriving, so I decided not to eat. My mum and her friend decided to eat some tacos, my father was still thinking on what to eat, without any clue about it he decided to drink some shots instead, he went to a mini bar stand where drinks had different brands, colors and tastes. There was a man serving drinks to his costumers, there was a girl next him serving drinks too, probably she was her daughter, she looked like my age, though, perhaps she was a bit older for 2 or 3 years but I couldn't tell, I was 19 at the time, her skills to prepare shots were as good as his father's. I gazed her from head to toe and she was actually a pretty woman: thin, white skin, fine facial features, long dark brown hair and freckles all over face. Those things made her shine and look unique among the other people around her, and those things were the reason of setting my eyes on her.