Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2008
costa brava
last day by the med sea for a few weeks..at each new location, it amazes me how quickly i get accustomed to the place. although everyday is different, after only two days, i feel like i had been here for at least a week. perhaps this is telling that I am comfortable here, or that I am doing some many different things, in a new environment, that perception of time changes, or perhaps it is a combination of both and others.
Being situated in the southern pyrenees, in the cerdanya valley where i am surrounded by a magnificant mountain range and ever changing sky, certainly provides a stark contrast to the flat lands of england. my first two days at the sanilles spa were quiet, but for the last week the partly renovvated hotel and thermal spa has hosted a yoga retreat of 22 people, which means non stop work. before anything else, a word on the guru: thats what we (behind the scene ppl) call him). bald late thrities, wheres small dark glasses, big smile, nonstop, and and repeats every sentence at least threee times, even the english girl here that doesnt know spainish can understand him. impresando. unfortunately, the yoga group doesnt seem content with the yoga
la playa
i love this sea happenings, i have not seen any actually yoga postures being practiced, and so they have created an odd vibe, more betwene themselves than anything else.
as for us, its the english man who reuns the place, his step son that is here for the week cooking, his crazy little boy, emilio, french catalan espanol mixture of a crazy old guy, an english girl and another american girl, plus migual , the manager of the work duties who has one of the kindest hearts every. i have recently discovered that he actually knows a lot of english, but he pretends to know nothing, so that we have to learn spanish.
the days blurr together, cook in the kitchen, have learned more machinary - lawn mower!, also another tractor digger (superwoman), gardening, taking care of horses, and random tasks. intermixed are lounging by the pool, reading, hikes, and day trips to nearby little villages. last sun i went on a hike up the mountain with a hand drawn map and instructions to find climent on the outskirts of the town musser. the other american girl and i lost ourselves a few times before coming to the house and garden of
girona
many call this city a town.... climent, a scultpure artist. we ended up talking with him for almost two hours about everything, who we are, his art, life questions, and his writing, which at the moment his focus is on the 'el despierta del mago' the awkening of the magician, within each individual. the experience knocked us both off our feet in a sense, feeling how open this man, who we had heard was a hermit, looks like yodi, was talking to us. afterwards we wandered through his garden of rock scultpures, inspired by ancient mayan rituals, and his laberyth through the mountain, created to allow you to lose and find yourself. any anticipations i had for the day were replaced by a surprising, moving experience.
learning how the things you learn from a place are usually not what you had hoped for in the beggining, or what the place had also advertised. rather, it is unexpected encuounters with the people you meet there and random experiences.
oh, and every child here, including the five year, speaks at least three languages, catalan, spanish, english and french.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0494s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
