Making do--and loving it

Judy. One thing I can say about this way of life is that you’d better expect the unexpected. It may be the surprise of a tall ship docked at the harbor, or it may be that you have not located a community, and so you just adjust your thinking.

Being in Cadiz is more like a long-term Cambodian stay than a Oaxaca stay. With no church, no volunteerism, no expat community and no intercambio that we’ve been able to locate, we’ve not integrated here as well as we’d thought we might. And, frankly, our Spanish language skills just aren’t what we’d hoped for, either. There’s still time—we don’t leave for several weeks, but meanwhile we are taking advantage of what there is to see and do here, and there’s no end to that.

There are countless churches to visit, and while I can usually get bored visiting castles and churches, we have so much time that visiting one or two a week helps me to distinguish them.  Some contain paintings by great artists—Goya, El Greco, Murillo—and some contain moving paintings by no one I’ve ever heard of.

Goya's "Last Supper"

Sometimes the paintings are so darkened with age and soot that I don’t know what they are. There are

Black Madonna 

Madonnas everywhere—Dolorosa, Rosario, Merced, Soledad, Amargura—all dressed in elaborate clothing. Some are Black Madonnas, and some of the Black Madonnas have white baby Jesuses. 






While some churches require an entrance fee, there is free

El Greco painting of St. Francis

entrance to a small jewel box of a chapel around the corner from us that has an El Greco you can almost touch.  

We visited the city of Jerez one day. We’d been there years ago to visit the Tio Pepe Bodega, one of the sherry wineries, but this time we went to the Archaeological Museum, the Cathedral, and the Alcazar (fort). There is no way to escape the Islamic influence here, even if you want to.

Mosque at the Alcazar, Jerez

Their simple style is so

Garden at the Alcazar

lovely and calming. Visiting Jerez is a fascinating walk through history.

We’ve taken the four “walking tours” around Cadiz to learn more about the Spanish Constitution, the medieval 

merchants, the shippers to the Indies, and the castles and bastions. We took another walking tour with Pablo as our guide to orient ourselves.

Restored home

Cannon used to protect home

Around the corner from us is the Tavira Tower. Cadiz has 133 towers built onto the tops of the houses so that merchants could spot the incoming ships and fly flags indicating what goods they wanted to buy. The tallest remaining is the Tavira, which not only commands a great view of the city,

View from the Tavira Tower

but also is home to a camera obscura, the first I’ve seen. We could see people walking in all parts of the city as clearly as if we’d been standing near them.

One afternoon we went to the Cadiz Museum and were thrilled to see not only archeological displays, but also a fine collection of artwork and a display of sets and puppets from the old and well-loved La Tia Norica puppet theatre. To me, one of the best things about this museum was the integration of brand new works placed next to ancient or classical exhibits.

Reubens at Cadiz Museum

Modern works next to artifacts

Phoenician sarcophagi with modern work above 

A trip to the Mercado, just one block from our home, is an adventure:  Who has the best oranges? Asparagus? Tuna? Shrimp? And across the street is the grocery chain Carrefour where we can buy local wine, beer, coffee, etc.

We’ve begun to do a lot of our own cooking. It’s cheaper, and as much as I love the fried tapas everyone serves, the fried foods are wearing thin, while I’m not.

La Poeme is our favorite coffee shop, and most days we’ll stop by for an afternoon pick-me-up and, for Ted, a pastry. Well, and an extra fork.

Two evenings a week I go to a yoga class with Yogini Eloisa. Tonio’s class in Oaxaca helped me to understand the movements and poses in Spanish, so I’m not often lost. The class is pretty much a beginner class, with three men and three women, but the basics are fine, and I can always push myself harder. Everyone is really friendly, but my Spanish isn’t up to conversations about how hard work was today.

One day as we started our walk, we spotted a tall four-masted ship in the harbor. The Spanish navy uses the JS ELCANO for training and for goodwill tours. We stood in line for an hour, but it was well worth the visit to walk this magnificent vessel. One of our best surprises!

Early on in our visit, I spotted a Camino Santiago de Compostela symbol. I LOVE walking portions of the Camino, and have done so in several countries, though it’s usually because we stumble on it. (We did do a walk on the Portuguese Camino about

A Camino

four years ago and received our Compostelas.) I had trouble finding information on this new route, but my friend Linda, who’s about to walk the French Camino, located the route for me. Ted and I walked it down the seashore one day to Victoria Beach, and hope to do some more when it warms up.

Our intention is to take a couple of walks each day, but the weather has been cold and windy, so we don’t always do it. That’s been a bit discouraging. Inmita lent me a coat when we left Seville, and it’s a big help, but I definitely did NOT pack right for this trip. It should warm up in a couple of weeks, though.

At any rate, any cold afternoon can be warmed by a Caleta Beach sunset.

Sunset at Caleta Beach

So we may be having a different experience, but it’s a good one, and I’m glad we came.