Last week I had the opportunity to travel to my mum's homeland not only to see where she'd grown but also to visit family. Living 6+ hours from us, it's never easy to go and visit them but everytime we go I'm amazed by how much I love going there and how beautiful it is to get out of the city.
We used to go more often when I was little but as I grew and life got more busy the visits slowly decreased to the point in which even though we call them, we don't see them every year.
One of my favourite memories from all of those times we went to visit is when my grandma on my mum's side and his brother took us to see their land and everything that was growing there. For me it was a first, a scary first.
We all took off on a day long excursion. I wish I had pictures from those days but I was 10 when this happened and I had no clue on how to use my dad's camera and to be honest, I didn't even care about it.
That land has been famous for being very fertile, they mostly produce sugar cane and bananas and entering was like entering a different world, everywhere was filled with plants and many different things. The only rule we had was to remain close as the path was narrow and tricky to go back to.
My brightest memory is to when we faced a plant of coffee beans, they were red and not ready at all but I remember touching it and asking them what this was, being the little city girl I was I didn't know that coffee came from beans they would later on toast and grind.
My dad explained me the process as we continued seeing everything around us and finally reaching our destiny, the little hut that overlooked the land and the little towns around us. My grandma made a huge effort to get there as the condition in her legs wasn't the best.
I don't know for how long I'll remember this day, some parts are becoming more blurry as years pass by and although I know it shouldn't, it saddens me, because that was the last time my grandma saw the land that saw her grown, my uncle has since then passed away and nothing will ever be the same as it was that day.
This is one of the main reasons of me wanting to write some of my memories, it's a way of preserving all of those memories that are slipping away. It's sad but this days are the ones that made me amazingly happy growing up. I hope you enjoy them and as always remember to keep on dreaming.