FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Christmas lights in the little village of Pozo de los Frailes:

It is traditional here for each parish and each local municipality to create a nativity scene called a Belén. However, these are not nativity scenes such as we have in the UK because they don't only tell the Christmas story but include local buildings and places, even local people.

Yesterday we visited Almeria, my favourite city. I love its shabby charm and its atmosphere full of a lost elegance of past years. And it has some of the best graffiti I've ever seen!

Its municipal Belén was vast, filling a hall in the Museo de la Guitarra.  In it we found buildings from Almeria and its surrounding area, such as the Alcazabar (the old Moorish fort), the Cathedral, and the iconic church from the salt works near the salinas (salt marshes) on the Cabo de Gata. Here are some photos, first of a market scene just as you can find in any village here on market day:

I loved this little cat curled up asleep!

The church at the salinas with a pile of salt next to it:

Finally, a shepherd with the Alcazabar up above him:

We visited the Alcazabar yesterday but more on that in my next post!

San José in December.

We have been here in San José for a week now although it doesn't seem like it. It's taken me a long while to recover from the journey, longer than I would have expected. I suppose it's inevitable given the worrying acceleration of my degenerative problems and nerve damage over the last couple of years.

The house we're staying in is a real home. Last year, the place in Rodalquilar, although lovely, felt much more like a rental property. It's true it is a little strange being in someone else's home, with their family photos and personal possessions around us, but it feels welcoming, and it's so easy to get to the sea, to the shops, and anywhere else without any difficulty. Given that San José is built up the hillsides surrounding the bay, this is a real boon.

I have a space where I can work, with a terrace on either side giving me views of the hills and the Eucalyptus trees that surround the house - their smell is wonderful.

We had a couple of minor teething problems when we arrived, such as the fridge not working, and the house being terribly cold as it hadn't been heated for some time. L & L, our kind and generous landlords, sorted everything out - even driving all the way from Granada to buy a new fridge!

San José has that special atmosphere of an out-of-season seaside town.  Today, being Sunday, the market was set up in the Rambla and we bought our week's vegetables and fruit, also an impressive Poinsetta to decorate the house for Christmas.  My sister will be visiting us for the holiday, so S is battling with the old and uncooperative vacuum cleaner and swearing and cursing in a manner that would make a sailor blush - even a seasoned fisherman from the Cabo!

Landscape, Inscape

After several days travelling, and a couple more days to recover from travelling, we are settled at last in San José, the Cabo de Gata.

The journey seemed more of an ordeal this year, although I don’t know why since the ferry crossing was painless and we took a two night break in La Cabrera, just north of Madrid.

Crossing the Bay of Biscay, I couldn’t help feeling a little sad, even if it was contrary of me, that in this world of satellite and instant communication, we are always in touch - through Facebook, email, WhatsApp. The world has become so much smaller and lost some of its mystery.

I have this romantic idea of travelling as being neither here nor there, totally inaccessible, somewhere imbetween, outside the world we know and the world to come. 

It is a place of infinite possibilities because we could always change our minds, go to another destination, never arrive, leaving those expecting us puzzled and bewildered.  We could disappear through a portal to somewhere beyond, like death itself, destination unknown.

La Cabrera was beautiful, the jagged Pico de Miel hills are like peaks from a folktale, the creation of someone’s vivid imagination.

We have been lucky as we left London only just in time, now it is covered in snow! We left La Cabrera and northern Spain only just in time as well, as they have been lashed with torrential rain and gale-force winds. Even here we had strong winds and some rain yesterday, but today the sky is a cloudless blue once more.