Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Our New Adventures

We left Isla Bonita about a month ago on bicycles with our friend Chris from California. We're trying to hit up every outdoor market that we can. Joe and Chris play music, while Seth and I sell our handmade items. On weekends if there's space for us, Seth and I also do giant bubbles for kids to make money. The bubbles haven't been going good though since it's been raining here in Spain almost every weekend since we left. The weather started out great so we camped in some amazing spots. My favorite place was in Agua Amarga where we camped for 2 days inside of caves on the beach. There was about 6 caves to choose from. The town however, only had 1 grocery store that was only open in the morning.
We passed through Rodalquilar and they happened to have a art market going on. It's a artisanal town that has a market once a month. We had a blast there. Seth and I sold a lot of art and Joe and Chris got paid out by the lady who organized the market and got tips. Rodalquilar was full of our kind of people. Smiles all around and very welcoming of us being there. Las Negras is close to Rodalquilar and full of casual people, art galleries, cafés, fun shops, and people selling handmade art on the beach. Las Negras is cute and small just like Rodalquilar in many ways.
From El Toyo to Calananda is what people call the "White Sea". It's meaning, there's nothing but agriculture growing under tons of plastic greenhouse's. The people are all African and Muslim between those towns. Barely any Spanish. Being in a landfill of plastic, we've had hard times trying to find a place to sleep. There's been a huge storm with high winds and rain going on for the past week. We got stuck in El Ejido that lasted 3 days of full on rain. It was miserable. We found shelter under a bridge. The bridge had 4 tunnels to it. One was raging with a full on river and the other 2 were damp. We chose it good and our tunnel was dry for the most part. Being in El Ejido, I definitely felt like a outsider. Since I have blonde hair and blue eyes, I stuck out like a sore thumb. When we went to a grocery store, which are all owned by Muslims, I his my hair in my hoodie. I felt like everyone was eyeing me. I've never felt ashamed to look the way I do, until then. There was a lot of poor people living everywhere. One guy lived on the side of the river bank with a couch and trash in a circle around him to form a home for himself. We were all feeling depressed staying under the bridge with pouring down rain, no sun, and surviving on barely any money for we couldn't play the market due to the weather.
When the sun came out on the 4th day, we were amped to get up and ride as fast as we could to get out of there. No looking back on that place. We rode to Vicar and camped out in a graffiti, small outdoor arena. We awoke next to the market a few blocks away. We set up in the middle and were s huge success. I don't think they've ever had music or art to sell before at their market. I had a crowd around me as soon as I was setting up. I made nearly 30 euro's selling art and Joe and Chris made about 30 euro's as well. We did great and it felt good to get back out in the market scene. You never know until you try. I went into that market thinking no one would like handmade items there. In Spain generally people are not into handmade items. I was wrong about that town. I learned, don't judge until you at least try.

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