Cabo de Gata

 

 

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

-Mahatma Gandhi

“Where are you? I will come pick you up.”

“We’re down Catolicos Reyes, past the Corte Ingles, over the river, standing in a round-about.”

“Haley, wave your hand! I think I see you! Wave your hand!”

I shake my arm vigorously in the air like a lunatic, spinning around each direction searching for our professor.

“Wave your hand!”

“I am waving my hand!”

“Oh that is not you. I sorry, I not know where you are. I have no idea. I sorry.”

Jorge apologizes, but I’m still flustered. We’re in the wrong part of the city and cannot find the meeting point for our Ecosystems of Andalucía field trip. This weekend we are going to the East coast, just four female students and our professor. We were told to bring all of our bedding to sleep in a bungalow by the ocean and I don't want to miss out! But first one must relax before the right path appears.

We drove through canyons created by the erosion of sediments from a massive ancient shallow lake. It would have been similar in size and depth to the current day Great Salt lake in Utah before the tectonic plates shifted and thrusted the lake bed above ground, where we can now see the beautiful layers of history mapped out before our eyes in linear ribbons. The surrounding area and climate of the past was nearly tropical and supported a great number of mega fauna species like wooly mammoths, large cats, and even early humanoids.

Every time we saw something of geological interest, we would park the car lopsided on the nonexistent shoulder and put our noses to the earth and examine it. Our curiosity was stimulated and a flow of questions poured from our lips, we were children again; discovering the world for the first time. Jorge was bombarded with our queries but answered them thoroughly like a patient father. We were already several hours behind schedule when we stopped for lunch, but time is relative here. Around nine in the evening we pulled into our dark campsite.

 

Calcium stalagmite rock

 

Can you find the castle?

 

Always have a feather eye open

 

Wind turbines to catch the breeze between two mountain ranges

 

Blossoming almond trees and solar panels

 

Break time

 

 Lunch basket

 

Fresh avocado from Jorge's family farm

 

Layer of quartz

 

 

 

Dead jellyfish!

 Our campsite (in daylight)

We settled into our bungalow and stumbled two hundred meters with our heads cranked towards the night sky observing the brilliant stars. A cast iron fireplace warmed the tiny restaurant on the sea, we sat nearby and ordered drinks on our school’s dime. Paella in a pan as wide as a grizzly bear hug came to our table with whole shrimps and oysters decorating the top. We hungrily inhaled it and ordered whisky torte and ice cream for desert.

Full and giggly, we walked along the dark roads after supper to stretch our legs, awed into silence by the presence of massive boulders silhouetted against a backdrop of an inky dome of pregnant with celestial dust. It was chilly and there was a supernatural feeling in the breeze. The idea was planted into our heads without anyone voicing it; we stripped off our clothes and ran naked into the salty black waters, laughing and full of life.

In the morning we ate fresh fruit and warm vanilla milk on the porch of Jorge’s cabin. We visited a geological history museum, an abandoned mine, climbed a volcano crater, had lunch on a beach, watched birds on the salt marshes, and stopped to look at several ocean vistas before heading back to Granada.  

 

 

 FIRE! Someone get the extinguisher!

 

 

 Abandoned gold mine

 

 I found a living metaphor: nature will reclaim the land.

 

 Seaside cafe stop

 

 

Scuba divers

 Puppy love

360 degree view from inside a collapsed volcano crater

 Orchid

 

 Break on the beach

 

Bird watching at the refuge

 

Salt marshes

 Coastal vista

 

LOVE LIFE.

LIVE LIFE!

"Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk."
-Jack Handey

And don't forget to be yourself.

besos,

haley

New Kids, Sunburn, and Discotecas

When I arrived home after traveling in Ireland, the rest of the students from the Arcadia program who are participating in the regular semester session had materialized in my domain. Apparently I have become protective and loyal of my new home. I surprised myself with how much I had missed Granada; the easy going attitude, the mountains outside my window, and tinto de verano. Ireland was enchanting but it just did not compare with Spain. I experienced a deep sense of relief when I returned followed by a frantic wave of panic. The awareness that I will not live here forever was an icy breath of unwelcome reality leaking into my core. I quickly attempted to plug up the cracks in my mentality with positive thoughts, and carried on with the resolution to live each day to its fullest.

How swiftly life changes. Along with a new roommate to make our happy apartment complete with six women, the shipment of fresh students delivered to me a wonderful running partner. She is a fellow nature enthusiast, cross-country runner, and at times our similarities almost freak me out. The first run together we completed sixteen miles, and the joy of finding someone to run with in addition to the accomplishment of finishing my longest run ever put me in good spirits. Our companionship and common goal to run the Madrid marathon this April gives us a powerful training advantage. We run up mountains, pet animals we probably shouldn’t (owner-less dogs, snakes, horses), climb trees, and collect small souvenirs (almonds, feathers, bones). She is a woman after my own soul; sometimes I believe we can communicate telepathically. This last Tuesday we completed a seventeen-mile run together, and afterwards iced our sore legs in the municipal river full of deflated soccer balls and glass bottles.

Last weekend I spent all my free time outside, and hope to repeat this as often as I am able. Saturday we didn’t exactly know where we were going, but kept choosing the uphill streets until we ended up in the gardens of the Alhambra above the city. Katelyn and explored the magical icicle caves, the tiny castle surrounded by a fairy-sized lake, and finally picnicked at the highest elevation possible. I caught a whiff of herbs on the wind and discovered that nearly all the landscaping bushes lining the walking paths were rosemary, so I pulled off a few sprigs to make roasted potatoes later. I always wondered where the local gypsies collected their stalks of rosemary to offer to unsuspecting passersby, those who are not familiar with the trick reach out for the herb and have their palms seized and divined.

 Before barbed-wire

 

 Demon spit

 

 

 

Icicles

 

 

D'awww 

 

 

Why, Charles! Your head...!

Lunch time

We pointed to a small restaurant perched on a hill across the valley and agreed we wanted to make it there for merienda (snack time, around 6-7pm). The trek there was breathtaking, with the sun shining brightly on the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevadas and olive trees studding the dry red soil. We found our way to a cramped table facing the city below and drank café as we watched the sun sink lower towards the horizon. I could feel my face cooking in the reflection of the mirrored tabletop, but it was too beautiful to look away.

That very evening my roommate Ayelén invited us to join her on a hike the next morning, and we accepted. She had heard from a classmate about a hiking club that meets every Sunday and carpools to a different location each week, and so we gathered where we spotted outdoorsy-looking people standing on the street and the four of us were divvied up between stranger’s cars without knowing our destination.

 

Ayelén, Katelyn, Haley, Theresa

 

So happy!

 

We have the same camera

 

My natural element: snow

 

Kiwi

 

 

I love alien hoods.

 

National Pride

 

We made it!

 

Lunch

 

Wow.

 

Runner girls

 

 We were up there!

On the ride home my carpoolers had a competition to see who could identify the most songs, the radio station would switch between English and Spanish and we would take turns singing to prove we knew the lyrics- laughing like we were old friends even though we had only met that morning. The driver did not let me pay my share of the gas money. We said goodbye (a kiss on each cheek, always) and headed home. I had a smile and fourteen hours of full sun on my face.

Valentine’s Day came and passed without much consequence, I baked my roommates brownies using Cola Coa (similar to Nesquik) and frosted them with Nutella. They were eaten very quickly. One day later a surprise came for me in the evening, the blooms were thirsty from traveling but lovely:

I went to the discoteca for the first time last night, my roommate finished her exams and invited me out with her and friends. Up until this point I had been discouraged about partying, the extent of my night life had been a couple glasses of wine at a few bars and always back in bed before eleven. I think I avoided it partially because I am running so much but also because I am daunted by how late one must stay up in order to attend the discoteca. After spending four hours in an apartment watching the clock and nursing drinks, at 3:30am we finally walked to Granada 10. I was happy as a clam dancing to Shakira and other remixed songs until around 5:30am when the strobe lights flashed in the hollows of my eyes and the heavy bass resounded in an empty stomach. I told my group I was going to sleep, and was chided saying the night was still early. I don’t know how they do it! I gave it my best shot. I walked home alone and saw just one man, he was dressed in all black and had a ski-mask on but I kept a wide distance between us (sorry I don’t mean to scare you mum, but it’s the truth!) otherwise there was only sound of my heels clicking on the marble sidewalks echoing down the empty streets.