Flamenco and the Sacromonte

It´s been really cold here the past couple days. Today in particular. It was snowing slightly this morning when I was walking to Plaza Nueva. Brr. And I thought spring was on its way because it was March. I guess I´ll have to wait a couple more weeks.

This weekend has been low key but interesting. On Friday, a group of us went to see a Flamenco presentation at the CLM. There were 3 dancers, a guitarrist, and a singer. (I have no idea if they each have special names, if they do I don´t know what they are...) I am really upset with myself because I forgot my camera and don´t have any photos to post from that show. So, sorry about that. But it was awesome. I had never seen Flamenco before and it was a good first time show. The guitar was my favorite part-more than the dancing or the singing, (which you´ve got to have a certain voice for and this man certainly did!) I loved the flamenco music. Pretty cool.

Saturday, of course, was tango. I love Saturdays. I´m going to be disappointed when the classes end. I´m pretty impressed with how much I´ve picked up these past few weeks. This past Saturday one of the instructors had us practice some steps while following the line of dance. Though we didn´t all really go in the counterclockwise direction we were supposed to, it was pretty cool because we know enough now to actually dance. Ah! It´s so much fun!

Today was a visit to the Sacromonte: the "neighborhood" where Granada´s gypsies have traditionally lived. I have to say that I was really surprised by what it turned out to be. It´s amazing how much influence movies and the media has on our perceptions of other cultures/countries/groups of people etc. I will admit that I was expecting something other than what I saw, and what I was expecting was based on what I have seen and heard throughout my life. It just goes to show that you´ve got to see things for yourself before you really believe something. I mean when people talked about the "caves" of the Sacromonte, I was expecting just that-a cave that was built into the side of the hill, dirt, very primitive-you know, what you think of when you hear the word "cave". Well, as far as I could see this morning, there were no such "caves". It turns out that the "caves" are buildings, similar but yet different, from the ones in the Alpujarras.





As you can see, they aren´t what you would expect..or at least what I expected. We went up to the Abadía del Sacromonte, which is the church that´s at the top of the monte (mountain). It was quite pretty and again, I wish I had pics but photos weren´t allowed. Lame, I know.

There were a couple of funny stories that our guide told us about as we were wandering around in the caves (and these were true caves-underground and built into the earth). There are two large rocks on display in those underground tunnels. One is black and legend has it (or perhaps superstition has it) that if you touch it, you´ll meet and marry your true love within the next year. The other is a white rock that supposedly, if you touch it and you are in a bad relationship, your significant other will either disappear or die within the next year. She told us that this superstition was fueled by the fact that the only time that divorce has been legal in Spain was during the Second Republic (1931-1936) and since 1981. So, apparently during all those years that divorce was illegal a lot of people were touching that white rock. Heh.

Those were the highlights of the weekend. Can´t believe I´m starting on my 9th week here. Wow. Time flies.

Some more pics from today:


An interesting looking building that I´m pretty sure was part of the Abadía


A cool looking house we saw on the way to the top of the monte


Granada and the Alhambra from the monte. If you look hard, you can see the Cathedral.