Adriene Crimson

To help us cure our collective hangover, we went to the beach. The beaches here have umbrellas and lounge chairs for rent and the one that M & M like has a bar/restaurant right on the sand.
It was sunny but very windy that day so we opted to sit on the slightly covered porch to have the tinto verano that Shanny had to buy us because of his lost bet the night before. We were playing a card game called Fire and commenting about the people on the beach getting massages right in their beach chairs.
Adriene “I wonder if they’re using sunscreen for their massage lotion”
Everyone “probably not”
Adriene “Those massage therapists aren’t going to last very long if they keep bending over so far to give these massages” and a discussion of body mechanics while massaging ensues.
In the middle of a particularly festive round of Fire, we here some squabbling and Markus says “Woah!”
The two Thai (?) people giving the massages were having a fight. The woman was shorter than the man and yelling right in his face while he pushed her repeatedly, once even sending her down to the sand. I was amazed that she kept getting back in his face after he’d been so physically abusive. He was also grabbing her wrists and hands in the attempt to damage her means of generating income, I’m sure. The waiter finally said something along the lines of “call the police” and the argument went from physical to just verbal – but still so much in each others faces. Then, almost as quickly as it started, it stopped, they came to some kind of agreement and went back to massaging the sunbathers! Again, I felt amazed at these people and their industrious and, I assume, competitive line of work. I can imagine that their argument was about money and that the end of the argument came about because one of them offered the other a payout or a client.
Until the waiter referenced “la polizia” I was sort of taking this in stride as a “spanish thing.” I’m glad I got pulled out of that pigeon hole and brought back to the reality of competition for tourist money. Thank Gaia that even tho I’m in a competitive industry, I don’t have to deal with people trying to take away my physical ability to work as a way to get themselves more work.

Shortly after that, we went home for siesta, and then back out for an early dinner at 9pm. More pimientos and boquerones came to the table – yums! Also sizzling bowls of shrimp in a garlic butter broth – heaven! I had sole in champagne sauce which was flavorful and lovely, Shannon had the cod in chef’s special sauce while Markie and Marie got thier favorite dishes – grilled fish variety and fried fish variety, respectively. Marie’s was definitely the most interesting looking – pieces and whole fishes fried and piled high on her plate. Shanny’s cod was very salty – at first we thought it was the sauce but it was the fish itself! This is not the cod of my youth time visits to Cape Cod – no no. But when we were used to it, it tasted of the sea and the sauce was spiced just right to counter the salt.

When we returned home, we melted into bed with happy, full bellies, and finally recovered from our hangover a la bienvenu a espana.