Castellers At The Sagrada Familia

Now that we're back in Spain, I've started going to castellers again. If you don't remember, castellers are teams that build human towers. I've often said that being a casteller is when you're both the monkey and the monkey bars. It's a lot of fun to be part of a group that's so tight knit even if I do have a pretty severe language barrier (I don't speak Catalan). But, regardless, I go to practice every Tuesday and Friday night and often on Sundays we have exhibitions somewhere in the city.

This past Sunday we had an exhibition in front of the Sagrada Familia church. It was part of the neighborhood around the church's neighborhood celebration. These neighborhood festivals (or, "diadas" in Catalan) are common in Spain and they often involve music, food, booths set up to sell stuff, and, in the case of Catalunya, castellers exhibits.

The Castellers del Poble Sec in front of the Sagrada Familia during the Diada de la Sagrada Familia:

I really can't think of anything that's more "Catalan" than the castellers and probably no other structure that represents Barcelona more than the Sagrada Familia. I got goose bumps watching the other groups of castellers building towers in such an amazing location.

Super-good artsy photo taken by Diana (all the photos except the last one were taken by her - Thanks Diana!) of the Castellers del Poble Sec in front of the Sagrada Familia's Nativity Facade:

In this photo, you can see a Chinese couple that must have gotten married earlier in the day out taking photos. They had some damn good luck (just like Diana and I did) to have wedding photos like these:

And, yes, a final photo of the girl from Chiquinquira and the casteller from Philadelphia in front of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia:

If you haven't been to Barcelona and you ever get a chance to come, try to find a castellers' exhibition to check out. It's pretty amazing to watch and a definite cultural must-see/do. Many of the groups have at least a couple of practices during the week that you can go to (all welcome visitors) and on many Sundays at noon, there are exhibitions in plazas all over the area. And the best thing, it's all free!

Catalan Pyrenees

When Diana told me that her cousin Carol, who's also originally from Bogota, and her husband (from Spain) invited us to go with them to their mountain house in the Pyrenees, I couldn't wait. The two weeks seemed to take forever but the big Friday evening came and we made the two-plus-hour drive from Barcelona with them up towards the intersection of the French, Spanish, and Andorran border. If you're familiar with the southern California mountains, think of a drive like going to Baldy and not like Summit (in other words, nice and easy!).

We got there about 9pm, which was just in time for a finger-lickin'-good dinner over at their friends' place. I have more than a few stand-out memories from dinner that night (amazing food, cool folks, the husband used to live near Washington, DC) but what I probably will remember for a long time was...the water.

Yes, the water. 

I asked for a glass of water and they told me "to try the tap water". Let me just say that, after living in Germany, the tap water's got to be pretty damn good if it's gonna' compete. Well, the water that flowed out of the golden goose faucet was the best damn water I've ever had even when compared to the best bottled waters. They told me that it comes almost straight from the mountain behind the house, but it wasn't until the next morning when I woke up and saw this amazing scene from our friends' place that I understood:

Carol and Juan's place is located in a large valley area called the Cerdanya that's ringed by Spain, France, and Andorra. Their scenic little village sits down on the valley floor with snow-covered mountain peaks staring down.

(Um, can I just mention how f'n lucky I am to get to do some of this stuff? Look at these photos!)

Anyway, we went for a walk around the 'hood in the morning and I saw this guy turning the soil in front of his house. He must have been like 80 years old but he was workin' it. The scene with the old house, the old guy, the small farm, the valley out below, and the snowy peaks up above was amazing.

Like I said, the valley is shared mostly between France and Spain but a part of it touches the small country of Andorra. Although there's three different countries, you'd never know it as all you see is Catalan flags flying everywhere. Even when we went into Font Romeu, France, to do some food shopping (it's the closest town), there were 99% Catalan flags flying and almost no French flags. You can sort of see one at the left end of the building below (of course there was no wind when I was taking the photos):

The Catalan Pyrenees really comes alive during the winter, from what I've been told, as folks from the three countries go skiing on the weekends. During the summer, it's fairly quiet and kinda' nice to be able to explore a bunch of old and new tiny villages. On Saturday afternoon, we visited Bellver, which is on the Spanish side, and walked up and down the cobble streets and ate some of the best and cheapest ice cream that I've ever had while in Spain.

Note the Catalan-independence flag hanging off the third level of this building in the town of Bellver, Spain:

After another amazing dinner and wine-drinking session, we woke up Sunday morning and went to Puigcerda (pooj-sair-DA), which is also in Spain and is build up around a large lake in its center. Amazing view of the mountains beyond the lake and some of the town of Puigcerda:

On Sundays the town has a farmers market where there's all kinds of food, beverages, and "stuff" to buy. I like these types of things because it's a great place to people watch and I loved how there were the sounds of French, Spanish, and Catalan everywhere. (Yeah, that's another snowy mountain past the end of the street.)

The highlight of the market (for me) was this woman who was selling homemade vermouth. I got hooked on vermouth by our good friend Vladimir who used to take us to a local Poble Sec place for Sunday-morning vermouth drinking. Juan buying a couple of plastic jugs of homemade vermouth:

Probably the only disappointment of the whole trip, if you can call it that, was that we didn't have time to go to Andorra for a quick visit. It would have been another country for me to add to my growing travel map but, oh well, there's always next time!

A big-ole' thank you and hugs to Carol, Juan, Ana Maria, and Juan Camillo for taking us for an amazing Catalan Pyrenees adventure and opening their home to us (and a nice family shot):

I can't wait to go back up to that area again, hopefully next time for some snowboarding at the close-enough-to-throw-a-rock-at El Molino resort! Another reason to get that driver's license!

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown

Writing this blog over the last three years or so has been fun (I can't believe it's been that long!). As you may already know, it's pretty much just a place to write about my experiences and the blog format is a convenient way to share it with family and friends. What I never expected was to get attention from folks that I didn't already know. But I've been fortunate to get to know a bunch of different people through it and even make some good friends.

Most times I hear from people they're looking for information regarding something that I've written about or to request permission to use a photo or two. It's nice to hear from folks who found me through a google search and even better when they say they like my writing and/or photos enough to use them for some other purpose.

It was through something like this when I was recently contacted by a producer of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. The new CNN travel-food-adventure show airs on Sunday and he's already gone to Myanmar (on my list of places to visit) and Los Angeles (already lived there). The upcoming show is about Colombia and why they contacted me.

When I first heard from them back in the beginning of December, I was, of course, hoping to get to hang out with Anthony on one of his adventures but it didn't happen (maybe next time, right?). The producers wanted to ask me about some of my experiences living and traveling in Colombia. They were particularly interested in the Air Colombia trip when we went to Puerto Inirida a couple of years ago. Since then, I've watched the first two episodes and have seen Bourdain posing in front of the same Air Colombia DC3 that we took.

More recently, CNN's contacted me about using some of my photos on their website (and hopefully during the show too). I sent them a bunch including ones about coffee carts, the Colombia coffee zone, and the Medellin Metrocable. I've always been happy with a lot of my photos and getting to post them on the blog but hearing that they liked them made me particularly proud!

So, if you get a chance at 9pm on Sunday (Note: time is Eastern Standard Time), watch his experience doing what I got to do and, if I'm lucky, to see some of my photos. You can also watch later online (here).

I should also mention that I've been told by my cousin and also by a friend that they think of me whenever they watch a Bourdain show. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have my own show like his. Do you think CNN would go for a show about a regular guy who's gotten to travel a whole bunch???