Friday, January 20, 2012

The cuerda of my ordenador is not working. I will not be communicating much till I can fix it.
Quick overview:
Met Paula, a Mexicana living in Montreal, who speaks Spanish and French. Looked at the only big flamenco schools, with her. Both are in Sacromonte. The only one worth considering is Manolete, of course, where Hiroshi is studying. We wandered up to a bar, where we saw Manolete himself (older, quite famous in the past) sitting. He was much smaller than I expected, very friendly and personable. He bought us some beers and we sat and chatted, on the patio, looking across at the Alhambra, which for several reasons wouldn´t happen in Sevilla. The bar was a cave, by the way, as are many buildings in Sacromonte.
We saw his school, Paula talked about lessons, we went back to the patio at the bar, and hung out with a flamenco singer from the neighborhood, and several other guys that drifted in. Tapas are free with drinks in Granada, so we sat for hours and ate and drank. We kept getting served even without asking for more. It only cost us 5 Euros each in the end. The owner, Kiki, a grey haired man in a black jacket, a gitano brimmed hat, and a polkadot scarf, played all kinds of music on the patio and occassionally did a little dance, came along and played with my hair, and was generally a funny, sweet little old guy. Jesus, one of the guys, had a room in his house for rent for Paula and so we walked way down the road out into country with farmland below us, and the Sierra Nevada or whatever in the background. We sat there talking to his two other renters, one a girl involved in flamenco, and teaching. On the way back, Paula hitched us a ride with the first truck coming along. The man was Argentinian, and no sooner had we got in than he pulled off to the side and told us we had to see the cave house of a senora. So we went and met this lady and saw her spectacular house, a huge place with various cave rooms, all rough and cave looking on the ceiling, which has to be very regularly maintained and painted white. A patio with huge mirrors attached to the house, looked across the small valley and mirrored the opposing mountains back. The senora was wonderfully hospitable to two random strangers, but we left quickly and got dropped off at the Mirador de San Nicholas, with a sunset view across to the lit up Alhambra, with its snowy mountain backdrop.
I went to meet Dominic later, and the plan was to go back to Sacromonte late for some casual insider flamenco. I went but they still werençt there at 1 am. The only trouble in my flamenco life is that I  not a late night partyer (like 3, 4, 5 am), especially after no siesta and an intense day of meeting people.
Must go as other hostellers are waiting for the only working computer.

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