You gotta love Spanish culture. Machismo, fine wine, tapas, flamenco, Rafa Nadal. We felt very fortunate to get a chance to visit southern Spain, also known as Andalusian Spain, where many of the classic stereotypes originated and are strongest even in this modern era. Everywhere we turned there was stunning architecture, natural beauty, history to be discovered, and fabulous food & drink.
But as great as the history and culinary delights may be, my favorite part of traveling to faraway places is reaching out and meeting people with different backgrounds and different approaches to life. Making new friends is quite easy in Spain, especially if you’ve got a couple of beautiful women as traveling companions. Consider the fine fellows whom we met at a beach bar on the north side of the peninsula.
They introduced us to TÃo Pepe sherry, caramel liqueur, and many a Spanglish joke. The biggest of the three said to us, “I’m the big guy. I don’t speak English good, but I sing for you. Best flamenco singer in all of Spain? It’s me.” He was pretty good, but of course there’s always an ulterior motive for everything. “We sing songs of Spain for you, now you sing America songs for us.” But what kind of song did they want to hear? “America the Beautiful?” Shannon asked. “NO NO NO!!” said our new friends, “Radio songs!” “Lady Gaga?” asked Courtney. “NO!” they said. We were getting nowhere, so we finally decided on some George Michael–“Faith” to be exact. Courtney and Shannon took the lead, and I joined in for the chorus. They toasted us when we finished, so I guess we weren’t half bad.
