Adventures from my doorstep.

Fiesta at Puerto Juviley, Andalucia , Spain.

Lunch ? Err well... two hours later...

Smelling is important...

needs more salt...

waiting for lunch...

Paellea!!!

and then

Swedish Inger buying from the craft stall !

Wendy whose partner Angus makes the fabulous flags.

and music...

Hamlet's Blackberry.

So my car has to be in the repair workshop for 24 hours. What can I do in Andalucia with 24 hours, without my car?

I'll go to Granada by bus. There's something I need to do there.

I want to find interesting and affordable hostals for my retreat guests. Why? Because when they arrive in Spain after a long haul flight, prior to taking a retreat with me, they need to sleep off their jet lag. I'm heading for the Jewish quarter, the Realejo. I had no idea Granada had so much street art.

'The Realejo' was home to the Jewish community many centuries ago. There were Jews living here during the lifetime of Christ, my friend told me yesterday over a delicious lunch. Check out Restaurante Albahaca Calle de Carlos Cano, 1, 18009 Granada 958 22 49 23. Hard to find, but definitely worth the search. ‎

Most guest arrive exhausted. Two years ago we didn't have Wifi in the village. Five years ago, only a few guests came with mobiles. Ten years ago nobody came with any digital device, and getting online involved a half hour drive down the mountains three times a week. Now, everybody comes with an ipod or a netbook, or something similar. How to have a retreat from our screens is part of the challenge, for many people.

A retreat in the village of Alcazar is a magical experience which can help re balance your life. How long are you comfortable alone before you need to check your emails, texts, voicemails, pokes prods and tweets...

...alerts and comments, links and tags, photos and videos, blogs....

searches, downloads, uploads, walls and widgets...our intertnet tools are fertile, constantly multiplying, says William Powers.

Second best to a retreat in the magical village of Alcazar for anybody wanting to ease their dependency on the digital world - and delve deeper into their own inner world of ideas, desires and dreams - would be to buy William Powers book Hamlet's Blackberry. He offers a fasicnating look into what we are doing to ourselves, and our world through our growing dependence on our 'screens.'

Creative Retreats,Retreats for Artists and Writers, Good Grief Retreats, Good Food Retreats, Shamanic Retreats in a tiny mountain village untouched by tourism. Open all year round. www.healingartjourneys.com. Photos of Street Art in Realejo Granada.An enchanting hostal is ( see fountain photo) : Hospederia La Juderia, Placeta de Berrocal 5- 958 272 124. 25 euros per night.

Back to the screenplay.

Sorry folks, the new version of blogger isn't letting me make paragraph breaks, except when I upload a pic !

I don’t seem to be able to tap into the confidence to restart my screenplay. I seem to have lost the passion I had to write it. I’m also wondering if it’s slipped past it’s sell by date?

Just to recap: I wrote the screenplay synopsis in 2007. The idea came from a journey to Patagonia where I went (for the second time) specifically in search of a story to make into a film.

Do I abandon my original idea into which I poured my heart a soul for a few years, or do I start afresh? Am I going to feel I’ve failed and wasted precious time if I decide to re route, or abandon the story?

In my original story, the two main characters are Rachel and Jerome, a real life couple I met in Patagonia. When I changed Jerome’s name to Claudio, and researched this name on the net, I quickly came across Claudio Urey, a protégée of Ivan Nogales whose thriving arts centre of street kids in La Paz I now fund raise for. Ivan told me he’d lost touch with Claudio.

I tracked Claudio down easily through Facebook, and met him in Santa Cruz three weeks ago. His life story from orphaned drug and drink addicted street kid to inspirational teacher and actor is a huge character arc. Father to two daughters, creator of a vibrant arts space for street ,deaf and disadvantaged kids , he is writing an opera in which all the participants are hip hop dancers. He found God when he was living in a cardboard box in Devils Wood he says. His gentleness is convincing. Be careful somebody warned.

In short he’s doing great things with his life, albeit having axed, or been axed by the people he’s loved the most. All this has made me think my (film) story needs to be his story. I think I have to start all over again.

Finally Arriving Home

After a week of feeling so strange, I'm finally 100% home at my kitchen table! This is entirely thanks to a dear friend who put a question to me. What if you had ignored your intuitive voice in the situation when your heart was torn she asked. What have you been spared by saying no? Well that resonated with such force, I came straight back into my body with a jolt.

“Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.” Christian Morganstern.

In some inexplicable way I felt deeply at home in Bolivia. I can't say I'm sure they understood me, but I can say I felt welcome and appreciated. It is a blessing to be home with hindsight now in full view.

Adios Bolivia

After a week back home in Spain, a part of me still hasn't arrived. It's such a strange feeling. A cross between yearning and pining and grief. A part of me was reluctant, not ready to leave Bolivia - that part is still there. And another part of me would like to get on the next plane and start all over again. Eyes wide open. More savvy. More alert. The ache is almost physical.

A monastery near Pisac Peru.

Easter Sunday at the monastery.

Easter flowers candles and bread.

Leaving small gifts and big smiles.

After almost six weeks in Peru and Boliiva , back in my beautiful mountain village in Southern Spain, my heart aches, broods, craves, desires, dreams, grieves, hankers, languish for, sighs for, thirsts for, yearns for South America, and all its craziness, confusion, beauty and mystery.

"Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.” ― John O'Donohue