¿Acer sol?

This day in the Sierra Nevadas has convinced me that I was in fact hexed yesterday by the angry gypsys. Oh, that´s right. I haven´t told that story. Well...Sandra and I were walking through the square when two ladies pressed rosemary into our hands and began to tell our forture. It all happened too fast to protest and we went with it. It was quite hokey, but included blessing, stamping on the ground, assurances of long life, love and happiness. Whew! All was well until the end when my lady asked for payment. I was fine with giving her a euro, so began scrounging in my pocket. Meanwhile, Sandra was feeling very generous and had given her lady 5 euro. It only took 2 seconds for my lady to start clammoring for 5 as well. She wouldn´t accept less and I wouldn´t pay more, so I broke away from her and left the square quickly with her shouting behind me.

Fast forward to this morning. We awoke to cool temperatures and a bit of fog (the first day it´s been less than 75 and sunny). Traveling to the bus station to buy our ticket for the short drive to the mountain was simple enough, but when we arrived, we were only allowed to buy a one way ticket. We thought it was a mistake at first, but when we returned to the counter to exchange the ticket, we were met with much resistance. I argued as best as I could in Spanish, but it was no good. There was some screaming - on my part, in frustration - and on the part of the ticket vendor that we would miss our bus - so we decided to take our chances on the return and board. Worst case, we would hitch back, or sleep under the stars.

On the bus we met a group of fellow travelers in the same situation and we commiserated for a bit. When we arrived in Sierra Nevada, we were deposited on the side of the mountain in pea soup fog so thick we couldn´t see more than 5 feet or so. The driver waved farewell and pulled away. We were stuck. It made more sense to be stuck together than stuck apart...so that is how we acquired four Islamic traveling companions who were, incidentally, dressed only in shorts and t-shirts. It was less than 50 degrees on the mountain.

A la Maria von Trapp (albeit with slightly worse weather than on a typical Hollywood set), we set off on a few short walks that were manageable. Finding a pile of snow, an innocent lob of one small ball caused a full scale snowball fight. Not smart. Now, we are cold AND wet. But, we managed to scale a few sheer cliffs with loose rocks, observe an altar to Mary on a mountain top, and climb to the top of an observatory whose door was open (or maybe there wasn´t actually a door on it). Billy goat sentries watched us from high above in their watch tower, and we were lucky enough to get fairly close to the group they were guarding. We convinced a guard to let us pass through a military zone and eventually managed to find our way back to a tiny coffee shop despite a map that was written in German and the pea soup fog.

Soon enough, pea soup fog turned into full scale downpour and we still needed to walk an hour down the mountain. We had determined that a bus would return us to Granada at 5 PM. It was noon. Bob´s ski shack was friendly enough until about 2 when Bob had had enough of entertaining our motley crew. It was still pouring, so we begged him to take us partially down the mountain where we could meet our bus.

Once there, with travel companions who were nearly frozen, we found a cafe and spent the afternoon discussing religion and politics (shocker!). It was quite eye opening to hear our Muslim friends´perspectives on the war and the state of the world. They are also Britains and are more than willing to passionately discuss many subjects. There´s nothing like opening your mind and letting a few new perspectives in!

So, perhaps the hex has been lifted. Or perhaps there never was a hex. Whether my traveling companions agree or not, it was a skipping kind of day that I would repeat many times over.