Coto del Valle

I am writing this post from a rustic spanish hotel tucked away in a beautiful national park. I have a ridiculously comfortable queen size bed, have enjoyed authentic spanish cuisine all day, and have met some thoroughly wonderful people so far.

After the meeting yesterday, my new photographer friend from Canada showed me around the city. She's someone who really knows how to listen and how to laugh. Her company made this huge foreign city take on such a jovial tone.

Madrid at night

Some of the street art in the city

Grand Via at night

A small city park

After wandering the streets for a few hours and making sure we knew how to find our meeting place for the next day, we headed back to our respective hostels. And good grief, mine was awful.

A sign hanging outside my door -- I did not adhere to it, however, and made good use of the "clean" beds.

 I climbed into bed around eleven o'clock and did my best to fall asleep. However, the sirens passing by every five to ten minutes did a very impressive job in keeping a person who hadn't slept in 48 hours from drifting off. I tried to adjust to the sirens, and just as soon as I thought I might be able to tune them out, the drunken yelling started. As the inebriated spaniards hashed things out right under my window, I thought, "Okay, this won't be so bad. They have to go to bed soon, right? And then it'll be just me and the sirens again. I can do this."

However, I quickly learned that people in Madrid do not sleep. The pissed Spaniards carried on their shenanigans until six in the morning.

So recognizing that the noise was not going to disappear any time soon, I did my best to ignore it. Treat it like a clock ticking in the background. A very loud, anxious clock.

Then my dormmates came in. They all plopped down in their squeaky bunks, and immediately fell asleep. One of the fellows started snoring. Quietly at first, then louder and louder and louder until he finally woke himself up with a gigantic sneeze. Then he would fall back asleep and the process would start all over again -- starting out with at small snore and culminating in a resounding "aCHOOOO!!!"

I quickly discovered that the very nice girl from Seattle sleeping below me was a sleep moaner. While the fellow was snoring and sneezing, the sirens blaring, and the drunks arguing, she moaned and giggled in her sleep all night long.

And the final dormmate of mine managed to sleep through the whole f*cking thing. I think that by the time my alarm sounded at six o'clock, I had the most resentment built up toward him -- for being able to sleep through the horrendous cacophony, whilst I lay awake in misery.

I met my Canadian friend at 7:00, and we wove our way through the intricate Madrid metro. We made it to our meeting place in perfect time, and proceeded to board our spacious bus for the six hour drive to Coto del Valla.

A view from the bus. Olives EVERYWHERE.

The drive itself was uneventful. I spoke with a Spaniard for a few minutes, tried to sleep (without success), and spent a good deal of time talking with two Canadians and a very funny gentlemen from London. The road was extremely narrow, and about an hour out from our destination, became nauseatingly tortuous as well. The elevation climb was steep, and my fear of heights definitely kicked in.

It was a relief to finally arrive at the hotel. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Rolling hills covered in coniferous trees and olive groves. Forests filled with wild boars, of which I've already seen an entire family. They fed me an incredible meal and then set me up with this lovely little room. After spending last night at the hostel, I simply cannot believe my good fortune.

I spent a couple of hours in general initiation business -- which was quite fun and I got to meet a lot of new people. The variety of English speaking people is delightful. I've been hearing Irish, South African, British, Canadian, American, and Australian accents all day long. Most of these people are very well traveled and all have epic adventures that they love to share.

I'll be doing a presentation on yoga in front of the entire group at some point this week. My job is basically to make the head honcho -- a hilarious, British ex-Navy man -- look very silly. I anticipate that Dancer, sideways Crow, or Half Moon will accomplish this goal with ease.

And with that, I think I'll turn in for the night. I haven't slept since Monday, and I'm definitely starting to lose my mind. As I'll be speaking with Spaniards for about 18 hours tomorrow, my mind is something I'd like to have in working condition.