this past week i went with javier and his family to his mountain refuge that he just finished building up in the mountains of extremadura. the land of the refuge sat over a tiny spanish pueblo that sandra and javier described as representative of the "spain of their childhoods"... i was confused about what this meant until i actually visited. the fact is that spain changed and westernized so quickly after it was made into a democracy in 1975 that anyone 35 years or older can remember a much different country. these tiny mountain pueblos have simply not americanized like the cities of spain have at all. needless to say, in this tiny, red roofed old village i was stared at endlessly. an old man asked where i was from and when i said i was american he replied, "latin america?" i laughed a little and said "no no, soy de los estados unidos," and he thought a second and said "veo...entonces, porque hablas espanol?" he didn't understand why an american would learn spanish. that is how different these two worlds are, and just getting a glimpse of this culture was certainly unlike anything i'd seen before.
further up the mountain, the green land goes on forever and you find yourself lost in the landscape, the animals both tame and wild, and the expansive blue sky. the only sound i could hear was the constant low mumble of cow and goat bells. we ate figs from wild fig trees and collected mushrooms that we took home and fried up for dinner.
some photos:
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