so this first excursion was for her a fascinating adventure idealized in her childhood dreams

"

She paid no attention to the urgings of the snake charmers who offered her a syrup for eternal love, or to the pleas of the beggars lying in doorways with their running sores, or to the false Indian who tried to sell her a trained alligator.  She made a long and detailed journey with no planned itinerary, stopping with no other motive than her unhurried delight in the spirit of things.  She entered every doorway where there was something for sale, and everywhere she found something that increased her desire to live.

"

love in the time of cholera, márquez