Siestas y Fiestas

Well, the rains have stopped and the Andalucian sun is bright and hot. However, before it dried out, we discovered our yurt is not waterproof... or at least, not deluge proof. It all played out like this: on the evening of June 14th, massive clouds moved in and hung out all night. Around 10pm, a tempest began, lightning flashes, thunder and rain so hard it was like being under water... for two solid hours. The yurt finally gave up around midnight and all throughout, tiny waterfalls began to soak our every belonging, bedding, and Isaiah's face. Uh oh. We tried rearranging the beds and stuff but it was in vain. The rain in Spain fell mainly on our everything.

My mission was simple: find a dry place to sleep. Target: the big (and dry) yurt. The rain was so strong, you would be soaked within seconds so I threw on a hat and a pair of borrowed work shorts that were several sizes too big. As I ran from one place to the other, my soaked shorts quickly revealed their flaw... won't stay up. Now I'm streaking through the rain, illuminated every few seconds by large flashes of lightning. But we did all make it to the big yurt with dry bedding and a few dry clothes (Diego even slept through the whole thing!). Thank you spare rain fly. Now we have returned to our small yurt because summer seems to have set in for good.

The pace of life here is much more laid back than at home. Every shop in town, save for a few bars, closes from 2-6pm, and we have found it very useful to follow suit and take a siesta after our late lunch. Then we hang out, playing cards, writing in our journals, painting, etc until our late dinner around 9pm or so. Later to bed and then begin again.

There are hundreds of delicious cherries here on the farm and all over this region, and this weekend was the annual cherry fiesta or fiesta de cerezas. We went into Castillo de Locubin twice, once before siesta and then again around 10pm. I waited in line for 20 minutes and endured many cuts from incredibly short old Spanish men and women to taste the remarkably horrible cherry gazpacho... salty, oniony gazpacho with cherries. There were all sorts of stalls set up like the Saturday Market in Portland with people selling things of all kinds: soap, cheese, legs of ham, wallets, bracelets, spongebob balloons, etc. I was mistaken for a local twice until I opened my mouth.

At night, the rides were on. There was a spinning disk ride with naked ladies painted on it - kid friendly?! - bumper cars and a few bouncy castles. The bumper cars were sweet. Diego and Isaiah took turns driving and Cade and I went one round too. Here we were targeted by many fo-hawked Spanish youths, but we held our own. After bumper cars, we stopped for churros dipped in semi-sweet melted chocolate (SO GOOD!) before returning home.

We enjoy our work and our play out here. The days pass quickly and we lounge in the sun or by the pool on the weekends. Sometimes popping in to the Nacimiento bar for a beer and ice cream (how cool to have a park with a restaurant bar just a 5 minute walk from the farm... in the middle of nowhere!) We have no plans really but are hoping to see Granada and Cordoba and a part of the Spanish coast where a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. All of us are in terrific spirits and miss you much. Happy Father's Day Dad!

xoxo the Moylans

We Don't Need Raincoats!

Hello again! First, a brief rundown of the Hudson River valley. Wappingers Falls, New Hamburg, Beacon: these are the names of a few places we were near. Old American history. George Washington grew up here. We saw many old east coast friends here. Swam in the Hudson River, saw a great bluegrass band, played music in an abandoned high school (rock 'n roll high school), stayed up way too late, and were treated to some outstanding meals by our very good friends... although my feet did come out looking like a leper colony from the mosquito bites! After more teary goodbyes and goodlucks, our nomadic little crew was on its way again. Train to Grand Central, bus to JFK, Aer Lingus to Dublin (which was awesome: almost everyone was Irish. It felt like a Moylan family reunion.) Then Aer Lingus to Malaga.

Here, things got a bit more interesting. The airport in Malaga is a bit deceiving. Having all its signs in Spanish and English, I thought: great! Everyone will speak English. Yeah, not so much. One person did though and helped us to a taxi. This, after waiting for an hour for luggage which was eventually found in a different carousel. A 17 Euro taxi got us to the bus station - all conversation now in Spanish mind you. Here we purchased tix to Granada and on to Alcala la Real. It was hot! I was so tired I could barely stand. The boys had a moment of breakdown here and I could hardly blame them... almost 26 hours of straight travel... although they perked up after a Fanta and some Spanish trailmix. The bus to Granada was beautiful, past the Sierra Nevadas and thousands of olive trees. Lots of mountains. These glimpses we caught between brief moments of passing out from sheer exhaustion.

We finally arrived at Alcala la Real, thank you high school Spanish! Alcala is a charming Spanish town of about 20,000 surrounding a Moorish castle! High upon a hill. This is classic Andalucia: narrow roads, white ouses crammed together and red tile roofs. We weremet here by our host. She drove us to our new home, past Castillo de Locubin (an even smaller town) on to Cortijo Vadillo, our new home for the next two months. Set upon a natural spring, among thousands of olive trees, in a valley surrounded by large montanas. One that just screams Denny Moylan Scramble. Our new house is a Mongolian yurt shipped from Mongolia, all painted and quite comfortable. Also luckily water tight as it has rained almost every day we have been here. Extremely rare for this time of year and part of Spain. We felt a bit nervous our first day, but our hosts have made us feel like family and the work here is wonderful. Picking cherries, gardening, canning, concrete work and demo. This is no ordinary demo. We're talking a five century old building coming down around your ears style. The floors are literally made of bamboo covered in plaster sitting atop OLD olive limbs for floor joists. We have yet to experience a hot Spanish day as it seems we have brought our Oregon weather with us. But the locals say that the weather will clear on Tuesday.

I had my 38th birthday the other day. My gifts included a captured crested gecko from our hosts' son, a song from Diego, an embroidered patch from Isaiah, a bookmark from Cade, and a fine meal and cherry crumble with cherry ice cream from our hosts. Best birthday ever!

We are in Castillo today using the internet as there's no good internet where we're staying. The bar we are at has wifi, cheap beer and serves free tapas (listen up Portland baristas!) and the wine at the store starts at .65 per bottle... no kidding!

Because internet isn't readily available, we will post when we come into town. In between posts, we will be writing letters and thinking of you all often. We are all well and in great spirits. Hoping you're well too. Mucho gusto!

The Greatest City in the World!

"New York, just like I pictured it, skyscrapers and everything..." Stevie Wonder

Yep, its big all right. If you have been, you know, and if you haven't been, it is really hard to imagine. Like explaining color to a blind person. Even though I have been here many times, I still have that sense of wonder when I see it again. A never ending sea of buildings. And all the people! If you stand on any corner and just watch, you will see every country in the world represented... in about ten minutes. It is so too much.

So, an uneventful crowded flight to JFK, an hour long bus to Grand Central, and then a half hour wait for a taxi to west Christopher St. We finally settled into our good friend's cozy 400 square foot apartment in the lower west side of Manhattan. Here you can find everything you could possibly want within a half block. We had pizza on Bleeker St. and in the morning tackled the subways to the Met. The subways can be a bit intimidating, but really do make sense once you figure it out... although the stench is revolting. The weather smiled on us and Central Park is such an amazing place to stroll around. The subway dropped us off on W 86th st. and then we cruised through the park to the Met on the east side of Central Park. You can see the building from Ghostbusters! Sweet. The Met is a monster, architectually stunning and filled to the brim with so much stuff. Mummies, swords, odd old musical instruments, paintings, and we're talkin' old, like 4000 years. After two hours, we had all the history we could handle, well for a family anyway. Cade and I could have spent all day there. We contemplanted the USS Intrepid, home of the Air and Space Museum, but opted for pretzels and hot dogs with red sauce instead. Honestly, why can't any hot dog vendor outside NYC get that red sauce right? It's just ketchup and onions, right?

After a busy morning, we walked on the 81st St. path back through Central Park and grabbed the subway down to west 4th and Washington (C train BTW). After a quick pack and farewell note to our friend who loaned us the apartment, we hailed a cab and returned to Grand Central Station. This is another monster of a building with a super high and stunning ceiling... and so many people, just like in the movies. Here we grabbed the metro north Hudson line to New Hamburg, about an hour and half out of the city. Now we're relaxing with friends that are really so close they are family and enjoying the country mouse life outside the city. The next several days will be our last bit of US normalcy for quite a while.

New York is a whirlwind, but so worth it. There is nothing like it that I have seen, so far...

XO The Moylans.