Adventures of Ange

So I ended up staying with Neil for only a week. He is a nice guy, sure. Picking olives was easy work, I really didn´t mind it. I just couldn´t handle the loneliness that comes with being given work by and living with a single man 60 years my senior. He was peculiar, only burning twigs and dried orange peels in his woodstove, and living on a diet of rice, tomato, and copious amounts of red pepper. After the couple from Quebec left, he remarked that he must have taught them a lot about cooking. They were less impressed with him than I was, we reunited briefly in the market yesterday to talk with relief about escaping Neil´s.

I am now staying with Ainsley and Claire, the WWOOF hosts of Shanti. They have a beautiful house and garden, two guesthouses and lovely pets. They are in their fifties, and have the perfect mixture of structure and laid-back sociability in their lives. It´s delicious, Ainsley is a quirky artist and Claire an on-the-ball reflexologist.

I just came back from Baraka, the local Moroccan cafe; they serve the best falafells I´ve ever tried, and have an entire menu solely for teas. I just sat and wrote.

Last weekend I visited Beneficio again and met a lot of interesting people. A 41 year old guy from Madagascar who insisted he was a mountain elf, a couple of beautiful Czech girls, and a soulful Israeli songstress. I played with some homemade poi, we visited someone´s yurt for tea and Hebrew songs, then moved to a large teepee for Bajams, Indian chanting with guitar accompaniment.

The next day, I hitchhiked with a few other girls to Almenecar for the big market. Lots of people, lots of goods... soon the Beneficio people began to group outside MacDonalds... 4, then 7, then 15... then about 25 of us. Naturally the drumming began, then singing, guitar and flute, dancing, poi, juggling and general grooving. It was beautiful; purposeless, but passersby seemed really curious. I found a ride back, which really turned into an epic journey, with a young Spanish couple, child, dogs, and rusty van.

Over the past few days I´ve been chilling here, reading and drinking a lot of tea, just enjoying life. A few days ago I climbed up this smaller mountain in the middle of the valley, and I could see snowcaps to the north, and the ominous blue mountains to the south, the snaking roads along the rolling hills to the east, with the sun high in the sky and wind in my hair... okay it´s beautiful.