Eighth Entry -- Country Living

Outside my new home are olive trees. Lots and LOTS of olive trees. Their branches are dripping with olives. Since it's late November, most of the olives are turning color. Spainards typically harvest them in December by shaking the trees and either preserving/canning them to eat or taking them to a local refinery where they're pressed (with other olives from local residents) into oil. If I'm lucky and still here when the olive harvest takes places, I'll get to help out with the 4-day long party. They tell me I'll need a few days afterward to recover. HA! I think they said something about 3 hours of daily work, and 10 hours of eating and drinking during the event. But I digress...my point is, there are no hotels nearby. Motorbikes are not whizzing along. The nearest tapas bar is some distance away. But from my windows I can see a few pomegranate bushes, a couple of bubbling creeks, and enormous hillsides all around. I'm in the country. And it's stunningly gorgeous! Uh, ok, well...on second thought...let me retract that. The small, coastal town of Mojacar I visited a few days before coming here was stunningly gorgeous -- white-washed buildings along the rocky coastline with WIDE sandy beaches, blue sky and that smooth, Mediterranean ocean. OH! MY! GOODNESS! uh yeah...THAT was stunningly gorgeous! But the terrain I'm in now is quite pretty in a different sort-of way. To my Eastern Oregon friends and family, the landscape here is similar -- dry, arid surroundings encircled by a low-lying mountain range, sparsely dotted with evergreens and orchard farms. 

Amparo's & Eduardo's villa (I'm next door)

This morning, like most mornings, the sky is a brilliant blue and the wind is blowing fairly rapidly. The casa I'm renting (or was moved to actually...someone else got the rooms I had rented, and the owners thought I'd prefer their other rental just across the property) is perched about 2 miles above the nearest "pueblo" of Cocentaina, which itself is nestled at the base of a large hill (like so many other small towns). There are remnants of an ancient castle on top of that hill above the town. I can see the castle directly across from my windows. And don't doubt it...I will definitely hike up there soon. Damn straight! Cocentaina itself is pretty small. It reminds me a little bit of Canby or maybe Silverton (a bit bigger than Elgin). Not much goes on there. Just the sort-of typical, small-town life that I've seen in any other place this size. You can feel the "everybody-knows-your-business" community vibe in the air. I've been walking the couple of miles from my rental to the town for groceries and to familiarize myself with the area. What a contrast from Granada and the other cities I've visited so far! And I love it! Now I *really* feel like I'm getting a sense of what living in Spain is like. It was almost just a tad cliché the first time I walked to the town and passed a woman alongside the road with a herd of sheep grazing in a nearby pasture.

A town like Cocentaina is steeped in history. From a brochure I picked up in the main square, I learned that the oldest known archaeological origin remains date back 40,000 years! Holy cow! At the end of the 11th century, Cocentaina was the capital of a large Islamic region. And then, like other areas of Spain and Europe in general, there's a long timeline where one group conquers another group and religions battle for territory and yada-yada-yada (I read also that, at one point, Muslims from Granada attacked and burned the village of Cocentaina -- yikes!). And so with all that history and the various buildings and structures that remain, it's interesting to observe how people in present times incorporate that history into their modern lives. My favorite example is how people collect water from the ancient fountains. I've seen this many places here. Most towns (at least in southern Spain near mountain ranges) have large, outdoor fountains created centuries ago for funneling water from the mountains into the villages. The water flows continuously down into the fountains then out from a spout of sorts as clear and fresh as you can imagine. To this day, people use these fountains to get fresh water. I love watching people carry large, plastic water bottles up to the old fountains then filling the bottles with the fresh water. Lovely! And so ecological (which incidentally Spain is embracing quite rapidly -- recycling centers and organic markets are everywhere.) 

Farmers Market - see the castle above?

Last week I went to the farmers market! YAY! Finally!! Rows and rows and rows of vendors lined the old plaza, bordered by a massive, 14th century, Gothic-renaissance style palace that set the stage beautifully. I'm sure the old plaza is the same location where a market, of this sort, has been held for centuries. I walked around eyeing the most incredible fresh fruits, vegetables, dried nuts, olives and flowers (oh, and many vendors selling cheap, crappy imported clothing too, but we won't talk about that!). But with the fresh produce...I was in heaven! And everyone I talked with was so friendly. "Quieres probar?" They'd ask. "Do you want to try?" And they'd hand out a slice of peach or clementine or smoked tuna. MMMmmmm!! I had a total blast going around, tasting the yummies, and practicing my Spanish. Oh yeah...another great advantage to being in Cocentaina...a slower, friendlier, safer pace for the practice I've been needing! I'm sure I killed all their poor ears, but I got through it none-the-less. (And BTW Jackie & Marcia: no, they didn't have an outdoor coffee stand from what I saw. Doria's would be MOST welcomed here I'm sure! :-)

Alright, so before I get too carried away and paint this picture of wandering about in a cotton dress, carrying a basket of fresh produce, living in a stucco, grass-roofed adobe with people strolling by on mules...let me clarify that the area is also very modern with a huge American influence. First off, there's no cotton dress. Oh no! More like my Columbia ski jacket. It's quite cold here now. Woke up to snow the other day! Also, my rental itself is quite contemporary. It has a loft design with floor-to-ceiling windows and new, mostly digital, appliances (took me nearly 30 minutes to figure out how to run the damn stove!). Except for a few antiques, which give the place an artsy, eclectic style, the furnishings are primarily Ikea. LOL! And behind me right now is a cool, impressionistic painting that I think the owner did himself. A few days ago, my romanticized ideals of this quaint little village with its ancient fountains and hilltop castle were squashed slightly when I discovered the MASSIVE Wal-mart-esque supermarket on the other side of town. Talk about eery! I'd been wondering what the large, space-age-looking structure was to the west of the village, below the castle and above my view of the olive trees. Imagine Wal-mart, Costco and Target combined and decked out in a pre-holiday frenzy. But where all the hanging, promotional signs and price stickers are in Spanish! I felt like I'd suddenly been transported back home, but got stuck in a weird twilight zone between Spain and the U.S. -- sigh! 

Mi casa en el campo!!!

Since there's not nearly as much to do here as there was in Granada, I'm spending more time inside...writing, cooking, admiring the views, trying to stay warm, studying Spanish, and listening to local radio. I don't watch much television as there are no English-speaking stations here, and honestly, there's only so much figuring-out-what-they're-saying that I can take. But the radio stations are cool and cover a helluva range of music genres. I hear "traditional sounding" mellow tunes, modern pop, rap! (which is really funny in Spanish), folksy -- almost "bluegrass-y" -- tunes (also very strange to hear in Spanish), with an occasional (old) American number thrown in for good measure -- such as, Crystal Gayle's 'Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue' and CCR's 'Heard it Through the Grape Vine' -- HA! (oh and for Riley & Alyssa, I've been hearing the 'Cups' song from Pitch Perfect, also in Spanish! LOL)

But I suppose my favorite part about this place is having met my hosts, Amparo and Eduardo. If you don't already know this story, I found my rental online through a website called 'airbnb'. As I was planning this trip, I wanted to travel around some, but also wanted to experience the culture, so I decided to base myself in two main areas: a city and a small town. It was only by searching airbnb and seeing Amparo's photos that I located this rental and found Cocentaina. Amparo and Eduardo own and rent the space and live onsite as well. In fact, I thought I'd be sharing their home (with my own, separate entrance), but as I mentioned earlier, someone else (a British guy named Huw) has it instead and I've ended up in their other, smaller house next door. These two are absolute characters! They're both Spanish and have a very warm, hospitable, open-spirited, "we-swim-naked-in-our-pool-and-love-art-history" sort of southern European energy about them. FANTASTIC people!

Snow covered Cocentaina - WOW!

My first night here, Amparo picked me up from the bus station, then brought me to the house and whisked me inside where they started pouring the wine and bringing out the food. There was salami and bread and olives and pickled capers, followed by Eduardo's grilled, wild mushrooms ("setas") and homemade traditional Spanish omelet. OMG! I also met their husky dog, Bly, adorable puppy, Oly, and their four outoodr 'gatos' (plus a funny little stray dog that's been haning around that they think might be pregnant). My eyes darted in a thousand directions taking in their VERY cool, artsy, country villa. Wild, funky paintings and prints hang on every wall, which are painted in rich, vibrant reds, blues, and pinks. A giant, twisted old tree branch hangs overhead in the living room and from that hangs a 40s-era brass chandelier, making the contrast really unique and creative. There's a big, brick fireplace with a beautiful arched design, but it's filled with old books (as is most every other surface in the space), and instead, they use a wood stove to heat the room and grill the occasional slice of meat. And in the center of the seating area is a round table on wheels that allows them to gather around, huddle up close, drink, eat, smoke, talk and laugh for hours. Which is exactly what we did! (And since then, there's been more fun around that table with them and a slew of friends that come by to visit...but I'll save those stories for another time.) But on that first night, through a lively mixture of my broken Spanish and their broken English (although Eduardo's English is pretty good), we got to know each other and our lives. "Make yourself at home!" They kept saying. "You have no obligations here." "If you need anything, please ask." Their hospitality was endless..."and here, have another glass of wine!"