2. May 18, 2011

May 18, 2011 Wednesday

I have been feeling depressed all night. The internet here at Angel’s (our landlord) has been out since last Friday, the day after we arrived. I know that I am a bit internet-dependent and this cramps my efficiency. I have had to go to the corner café, Bar Hercules, for internet and have been using my iPhone there so I don’t have to lug the computer. I feel disconnected.

The other plan gone astray is that Angelita Vargas is not teaching right now, because there aren’t enough people enrolled in her class. But I came to study with Angelita and thought that I would start classes the day I came or the day after. Here I am after a week with no dance classes. We are still working on it, trying to organize something small, but everything in Spain moves slowly. 

I am also tired, as I got up early this morning to take the bus back to Sevilla from el Palmar, the beach where Freddie is now staying. 

He and I went down on Monday, after Paco and Pilar took me to drop off my partially unlocked iPhone (which I had bought specifically to use here in Spain) at a shop in Triana. The technician there is a friend of Paco’s and Paco says that he is brilliant. I called today and Fran (Francisco), the technician wasn’t sure that he could unlock it. But, because it had an iPhone 4 case he had assumed that it was an iPhone 4, which can’t be unlocked, or liberated, as they say here. 

When he realized that it was an iPhone 3, he said that he would try and that he would get back to me in a few days. Right now I am using the phone that was supposed to be Freddie’s, so Freddie doesn’t have a phone, which means that I can’t call him at the beach. I did send him a message from the internet café a little while ago, in case he checks his email. Of course, now that I am back, I was able to find his old phone from last year, which is terrible, but which Freddie could have used in the interim. But I am planning to go back to the beach on the weekend, assuming that I get a ride. I can take it to him then, if I get to Triana to retrieve the card from the phone in the shop.

On Monday, when we arrived in Palmar, the Levante, the wind that drives people crazy, was blowing and the weather was cold. We got Freddie settled in a room with its own bathroom in Hector’s place. It is nice. Freddie will cook upstairs at the Azotea until it opens in late May. Then he has to negotiate cooking with the women who run it, our friends Mar and Aspi. 

Freddie has rented the room for a month and a half. After that it has already been rented to some other people. So we are still looking for a place at the beach to rent for July. 

Hector is an interesting character here at the beach. He was born in Mexico, but he was raised in Los Angeles. He had a successful career in New York City as a fashion designer, married and had three children. After spending some time in India, he moved to Spain with his children, and eventually to Palmar, where he bought this large white building. As I wrote last year, he rents the front part to an Argentinean restaurant. His home is in the back part of the ground floor and Freddie’s room is on the other side of Hector’s home. The Lazotea, the social club which is now run by Mar and Aspi, is on the roof (azotea). 

Hector has been divorced for a while and lives the happy life of a loved bachelor. He is both charismatic and artistic, like Freddie. In fact, Freddie could be his father. Hector is only fifty, but will have his next birthday in June, like Freddie. His blue eyes laugh out of his brown face. He is very tall and a little heavy, but still extremely attractive. Like Freddie, everyone loves him and he has a big wonderful heart. 

The evening that we arrived we took Hector out to eat at the Cortijiyo, a wonderful fish place almost next door. Of course we spent more money than we had intended. 

The Corijiyo is the small, beachfront restaurant near where we stayed at the end of our visit last year. Our friend Jose owns it, but this year he rented it out to the big Jose, who is the cook. So everything is basically the same except that Jose-the-owner doesn’t have to do much. Jose stopped by while we were eating and they made him an omelet from eggs from his chickens. We all tasted it. He also ordered the fried long green peppers that I had forgotten about. I love them. Freddie and I ordered the navajas, a long shellfish that is a delicacy here. I have no idea what the name is in English. We also ordered French fries to go with it; they make their own French fries here and they are delicious. Freddie and Hector ate salads. 

My stomach was messed up, probably from the food in Mexico City, and this was the first day since arriving in Spain that I felt well enough to eat much and I was hungry, but not for salad. We all shared our food. Hector told me that he knew I was feeling better when he saw me eat the navajas with such gusto, which he told me later, can be hard on the stomach. They were fine on mine.

As we were eating, Jose told us about the guitar hanging on the wall above the entrance to the kitchen area in the restaurant. He had seen it lying in a field but left it, thinking that its owner would retrieve it. But when it started to rain and no one claimed it, he took it, but it had already been damaged by the rain. One of his workers, Juan, had tried to fix it and it had “no nails” glue smeared all over it. Freddie shuddered when he saw it. Jose has asked him to try to fix it and Hector has volunteered what tools he has. Freddie is in heaven. The only thing at home holding him back from this trip was his guitar repair work, which he loves and had just started to do again. Now he has that here. 

We slept very well that night on the comfortable bed and in the morning we walked down the small beachfront road, which is the main road, to the Kotadalu for breakfast. Freddie’s walking is so much better than last year. This trip he didn’t even bring his cane. 

When we got to the Kotadalu, we discovered that it is being remodeled and that there was no place close for breakfast. So we walked to the grocery store and bought food and I cooked when we returned. Freddie drank beer for breakfast. 

Later Hector told us that there is another place to go for breakfast. He may take Freddie there while I am away.

That day, while I checked the email at last with our portable modem and took care of business, Freddie helped Hector with some projects. The weather was cold but less windy than the night before. Later, Hector and a visiting German friend went to the beach. When Hector returned he said that the water was not too cold and was magnificent, so Freddie and I quickly changed clothes, grabbed towels, crossed the street and went down the small sand dune to the ocean. It was already around five o’clock, and the sun was out. We took a quick dip in the sea, and it was refreshing. Then we lay in the sun, shielded from the wind by a sand dune. 

Hector’s German friend Indira, was still there and we talked while soaking up the sun. Freddie left and Indira and I stayed and chatted until she had to go to a Yoga class. Even in Palmar there is Yoga, apparently. Indira and her boyfriend have a healing center outside of Vejer (a small, chic town on a hill above Palmar). Indira studied in India and combines a number of healing modalities into her own thing. 

When I returned, I took a shower and washed my hair and felt renewed. I heard voices outside and Hector was talking with Gila and Klaus, the older German couple we met last year. They are both writers and live in a house farther down the beach. They are a beautiful bohemian couple in their 70’s and 80’s. Klaus has had medical problems this year and had several operations in Germany. He looks older and slower than last year. But he is still driving, which he loves to do. Gila, slender like a bird, with shoulder-length grey-blond hair, is still beautiful and vibrant. It was nice to see them again. Gila does reflexology and offered to work on Freddie’s feet again. If I return for the weekend, we are invited for a Sunday breakfast.

Later, I was able to do a short shamanic journey and then I went up the metal outside stairs to the Azotea, the roof, to cook some dinner. The weather started to cool down again. We are not really into summer yet. It was so beautiful to look out and see the ocean and the fields and the little houses. 

Hector decided that the wind was quiet enough so he could paint his project. If the wind picked up it would ruin the paint job, but it didn’t until later, after the paint was dry. He was repairing a table that he had painted a picture on for another of Jose’s restaurants. Last year I included a photo of it, a mermaid. This year Jose has rented that restaurant out to the Kotadalu people who have made it into a Pizzeria, the second one in that small area.

The wind was starting up again and the moon was full.  The night was beautiful but cold. 

The next morning I got up at 7:45 AM, heated and ate my breakfast that I had cooked the day before, and caught a taxi (ordered the night before) to Cruces de Conil to get the two-hour bus back to Sevilla. I had discovered, the day I took the bus with Freddie, that I could catch the bus at Cruces (crossroad) in addition to the one in Conil. Until summer, you have to take a taxi from Conil to Palmar, because the regular buses don’t run. But I also learned from Hector, that there are two local buses a day that do go to and from Conil and Palmar once or twice a day. On weekdays, until summer, only one bus leaves Conil for Sevilla and that is at 7 AM and takes 2 and ½ hours. My other option was to take the bus to Cadiz, which takes an hour, and then to transfer to the train to Sevilla, which takes over 2 hours. Last year I didn’t know of all these options. But I am hoping to get a ride down this weekend, because a ride usually takes about only an hour-and-a-half.

Conil is not big, but it is the town that the residents of Palmar have to go to in order to use an ATM, go to a hardware store to make a key, rent a car, and more. I guess that inconvenience helps to keep el Palmar somewhat unspoiled.

My roommate Yuko, just came home and we talked for a while. She is Japanese, but lives in North Carolina and teaches Japanese at the University there. She is another Flamenco addict and loves the same kind of Flamenco Puro that we do. We first met in a dance class, in 2007, and then met in other years too. She is a friend of Juan and Lucy’s as well. 

I decided to have roommates this year, to save money. The euro is very high compared to the dollar and now with Freddie renting at the beach as well, our expenses are big. But having roommates helps. Our friend Rina, from Atlanta and also from Japan, is coming in June with her daughter Akhane. The visits will overlap for about six days. Yuko and Rina are also friends. We all love “real” Flamenco. And I have met them both here in Sevilla. Rina and I see each other every year here and so we have developed a friendship. 

As I was talking to Yuko, I realized that I don’t feel depressed anymore. Writing brought me out of it. How wonderful. It is almost 1:30 AM and I was going to go to bed early!~ Lakshmi just called (she is home from work at Los Palacios Andaluz where she dances). I am going to start classes with her tomorrow, so at least I will be dancing. Good. I am ready.

Stephanie is coming early from Jerez tomorrow and I told her I would be up. Oh well. Time to go to bed. I am just glad that I feel good now.

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2011

May 10-25 Writings
May 18 Writings
May 19-22 Writings
May 23-29 Writings
June 5-10 Writings
June 11-16 Writings
June 18-19 Writings
June 21-26 Writings
June 27 – July 9 Writings
July 17 – August 3 Writings
August 5-6 Writings