La Manga Cemetery is the burial ground where Fermina Daza makes a final private farewell to her dead husband before sailing with Florentino Ariza. On the morning of her departure, the cemetery becomes the setting for an unspoken reckoning: she tells her husband what she had held back during their life together, then explains the journey and says goodbye for now.

Setting and Farewell

Early on the day of departure, Fermina has a car take her to the nearby seminary burial ground, then known as La Manga Cemetery. She stands before her husband’s crypt and speaks to him in a monologue, freely recounting the recriminations she had choked back. She then tells him the details of her trip and takes leave of him, making the cemetery a place not only of mourning but of belated candor.

Place in the Departure

The visit precedes Fermina’s boarding of the ship. The first departure warning sounds at seven o’clock, and its sharp resonance in her left ear accompanies the unease of the day; the night before, she has dreamed of omens she does not dare interpret. Despite her previous travels, she feels as if this is her first journey, and her agitation intensifies as departure approaches. After boarding, she feels abandoned and sad and wants to be alone to cry.

Narrative Significance

Fermina tells no one that she is going away, following her usual practice before trips to avoid exhausting farewells. At the cemetery, however, she gives her husband the detailed goodbye she withholds from the living. The visit sets the emotional terms of her departure: she acknowledges the claims and grievances of her marriage even as she prepares to leave, while the phrase of temporary leave leaves open the relation between memory and the life ahead.