Saturday, October 23, 2010

Valle del Bliss- or watch what you wish

My second flight would take me from Barcelona to Malaga, and then a train to Costa del Sol. From the airplane, I saw just plain brown soil with occasional mounts. It seemed all pretty much the same, so I closed my eyes again to fall into relaxation. When I opened my eyes again, what I saw seemed from some surreal movie in forms and colours and textures: mountains in different shapes some of them in shades of beige, others carpeted in plain green, and others with perfect stripes of dark green as if drawn with a ruler; as if this was not be pretty enough, a wide winding stream of bright turquoise water was topping off the picture. I smiled. What’s that? What are those plantations that look like perfect green lines? What is that incredible stream of water? I do not know what this is, but I never heard about this beauty, and what a joy to appreciate this from the heights!


Later on, time in Costa del Sol was up. I was due for a change. I decided to visit Teba, a whitewashed village in the mountains and stay in a house. I did not have much information other than what I had seen on line. When I arrived to the house, I got the most wonderful gift: it was not only in that precious area I had admired from the plane, but the house itself was situated in a natural balcony in the heights of Teba, overlooking that glorious valley!

Then, in hindsight, another image came to my mind: when I had no plans of coming to Spain and I was still in Miami, I was captivated by the Spaniards’ spirit of celebration after their triumph in the World Cup. Italy was cut short, and here I am in the low-profile Spain, enjoying that same captivating spirit live, impregnated by the mesmerizing Nature that is soothing and energizing at the same time. Watch what you wish? Watch what you like, maybe? Even though in neither case I had made a specific wish, it seems that I was drawn to Spain, and drawn to the Guadalhorce valley.



View of the valley and lakes (called "pantanos" by locals) from uphill Teba.

Note: Colors are natural. This is not a touched-up photo, as much as it may seem; nor are upcoming photos. Are you ready?



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