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