Aloha Everyone,
The boat ride on Guadalquivir was well organized. J.J. and I each paid 16€ for an hour long boat ride.
Our tour began and ended at the Gold Tower. During the time when precious metals were being moved from the New World, this tower was used as a temporarily storage facility for gold. Thus, it’s still known as the Gold Tower.
As a boat tours go, we would rate this 5 out of 10. Their emphasis were on numerous bridges we passed under but no in-depth history or culture of Sevilla.
Sevilla is synonymous to Flamenco and from our dear friends John and Pat, we learned that the best place to see a professional performance is Museo de Baile Flamenco. The cozy stage with a bar on the side was packed. Our 5:00 pm performance, J.J. estimated, had about 100 guests including quite a few families with small children.
Flamenco traces its origin to the Extremadura regions of Spain. It is a folk art form combining singing, guitar playing, dance, jaleo (vocalización to give emphasis or cue to the dancer), hand clapping and finger snapping.
The 6 performers, 3 musicians and 3 dancers (1 male, 2 females) captivated the audience. Through their simple folk music, they can depict love, passion, anger, loneliness, despair and uncompromising joy. The movements of the dancers were all consuming. At times they even look possessed. The dancers’ athleticism, endurance and discipline were impressive and inspired me to apply some of the movements to my daily Kundalini Yoga practice :-). It was a wonderful treat and definitely worth the 20€ each we paid.
One of the true joys of travel is an accidental meeting with wonderful people. Michael and Michelle boarded the same bus going to the Old Town. During our short bus ride, Michael invited us to look him up the next time we are in Seattle. A retired fireman, a professional trained chef in France, Michael owns Hot Chocolat and also holds classes on chocolate. Michelle, is a scholar in a field related to African studies She is in Seville attending a conference.
Extremely interesting and deeply engaging couple, J.J. and I were sorry that we had to part their company as we both had a full day of activities ahead of us.
Aloha -- Cathi