Arcos de la Frontera, Alma's pueblo
damn power lines
lunch at Alma's...fresh squeezed orange juice, artichokes stuffed with meat and bread crumbs, tortilla española, an interesting salad. good dessert not featured
coffee at the Parador (a fancy chain of hotels run by the Spanish government)
tables at the Parador. they caught my eye ;)
Alma and Lucie
practicing for Semana Santa...getting through these streets is sort of interesting. When the time comes to actually process through the streets with this next week, it will be laden with flowers, candles, silver urns and candlesticks, and a virgin.
lots of grunting. and now it weighs nothing compared to what it will.
(my roommate's name is Lola)
funny to have so much green in a place with a fair amount of cacti
this kind of reminds me of an album cover
the streets of Arcos are rather steep...so a fraying black cord is required to keep your sweet ass moto from sliding downhill. Radical.
trajes de gitana...the dresses worn at Fería, which is coming up in Sevilla in April and here in May. The traje de gitana is the only traditional outfit where the styles change every year or two---so one of these dresses, which starts in the 250€ range and goes up from there--can really only be worn for a couple years before it starts to get painfully out of style. Alma's friend runs a dress shop in Arcos and gracefully allowed us (and by us I mean I was psyched) to have a little fashion show.
so much fabric goes into the ruffles...some of these dresses weigh A LOT. They kind of look like curtains on the hanger, but on people they look like....
this. The women in the background, Alma's friend and her mom, had quite a time getting us to show some attitude. Being flamenca doesn't come naturally to me? No? Weird.
Lucie trying on the same dress, which had been Alma's friends from a couple of years ago (all of the dresses in the shops were really small, because Fería doesn't hit Arcos until September, so they aren't yet stocked up).
Lola didn't have this problem.
looking good.
sevillana
this one had great ruffles---volantes
they had fun with dressing me up...and I was eating it up
my wine
"Never eat anything bigger than your head," my dad always told me. Well, this one broke the rules. Welcome to the pueblo.
entering Cádiz on Sunday
I want to steal this bike.
with the cathedral in the background...sort of looks Turkish or something, no?
"pescaito frito"--fried fish of many varieties, typical of Cádiz and eaten on a bench close to the sea
I'm a dork.
OK, so this says "Cádiz. Clean. Smile." We should add "Overflowing."
inside a park. But sort of looks like enchanted tropical beach, no?
I'm a dork. Version 2. These things really buck.
I have a thing for weathered fishing boats and their even more weathered owners.
CAUTION! SAND!
kite surfing is so cool. some of these guys really knew what they were doing.
these flowers grow in the sand by the beach. about the size of gerbera daisies.
