Strange Pilgrims
Homero schemes to sell an insurance plan and funeral package to the sick man, but the President is no longer wealthy and lives frugally.
Margarito is originally from a small Andean village in Tolima, Colombia but travels to Rome in order to begin the process of having his deceased daughter recognized as a saint.
Eleven years after her death the villagers are forced to move their loved ones from the cemetery to another location as the space is needed for a new dam.
The narrator states, "Without realizing it, by means of his daughter's incorruptible body and while he was still alive, he had spent twenty-two years fighting for the legitimate cause of his own canonization."
After an eventful night, he reflects on how life can pass by unnoticed, and when the woman finally wakes, she acts indifferent, leaving him with a sense of disappointment and realization about the fleeting nature of these connections.
"The Airplane of the Sleeping Beauty" recounts García Márquez's personal impressions, when he fell in love with a woman in a Parisian airport at the first sight.
One day, while the narrator was having breakfast in the morning at the Havana Riviera Hotel, a gigantic wave crashed down ("like an explosion of dynamite") on the shore, picking up and overturning several cars.
After the Havana Riviera disaster, the narrator met the Portuguese ambassador with whom that woman wearing a snake ring come and he asked him "what did she do?"
When he arrives, he takes the doctor's account to heart and leaves the woman at the hospital, where she eventually adopts the role of insanity imposed upon her by the medical staff.
She meticulously trains her dog Noi to travel to the cemetery and to be able to pick out her grave on the vast hill so that he can visit and shed tears there every Sunday.
One rainy day in November, she gets a ride from the cemetery back home and she finds that she had made an error in interpreting her vision.
She encounters grotesque sights, including the titular "seventeen poisoned Englishmen," which symbolizes the absurdity and indifference she perceives in her surroundings.
Despite her efforts, Prudencia's pilgrimage leaves her feeling disillusioned, highlighting themes of grief, cultural disconnection, and the struggle to find meaning amidst loss.
The narrator describes his family's journey through a village where the locals are inexplicably terrified of the tramontana, a cold, northern wind that sweeps through the area.
They react to its presence with anxiety, fear, and a sense of inevitability, leading the narrator to explore the strange grip it holds over them.
The story touches on themes of superstition, the unknown, and the irrational fear that something beyond human control can impose itself on daily life.
While their parents are away two young boys have the serenity of a peaceful summer holiday ruined by the intervention of a strict German nanny.
The nanny named Miss Forbes treats the boys terribly making them stay locked in the house and eat the most disgusting of foods, while she is free to roam as she pleases and indulges herself in delicious meals.
Billy Sanchez and Nena Daconte, children of two wealthy Colombian families, fly to Europe to celebrate their honeymoon.
No one could find Billy to apprise him of the situation so Nena’s parents have already arranged the funeral and transported the body home for burial.
