Hike from Valldemossa to Deia

It took Bernd, Louis, and I 3,280.839 895 feet up and 8 hours across to hike from our village to the next. That was yesterday, and today my legs are aching like they never want to walk again :) but it was so worth it.

Over looking Son Moragues. Bernd points out some of his stone sculpturesThey say the smaller they are, the deadlier they are. This one was no bigger than my thumb.Some kind of crazy yellow fungus - and yes, I touched it.Scant plant life at the crest. Mostly thorny low-lieing shrubs. The wild Rosemary smelled amazing.One of the many rock cairns that led the way, sometimes there wasnt really a trail to follow, luckily Bernd new where he was going.Bernd and I smiling at the red lichen growing up the rocksOur final stop before hitching a ride back to Valldemosa. The pay off - A beautiful cove they call Cala de Deia.

La Playa

Last weekend Coco, Iana, Louis, Barnd, and others decided to have a BBQ on Aina's roof in Palma. We then projected the movie "Yellow Submarine" on the wall and danced infront of it until we passed out. The next morning, we hiked to a little beach cove and swam around in the crystal clear water. No jellies in sight.Tico, hiding from the sun, and looking very much like a dark haired version of the dragon from "The Never Ending Story."This ic Coco, my new roomate. She is another artist working for Bruno. Her specialty is darkroom and fashion photography, but she's also amazing with collage.

Borino Negra - Xylocopa violacea

Quite possibly the next specimen of interest. Unless I can catch a hummingbird moth.

I didn't notice this until later, but you can see two lady-beetles mating to the right of Borino Negra.

Mi Hermano!

Bale (ok), I know this isn't about Mallorca, but I miss my little brother. These images are old, from Camp Pemi 2005. He's the cutest 15 year old that could drop kick you in a flash. Congrats to Yoda for his awards in karate and music this year!

Old Tower and Cave-like dwelling

These 4 images are from a quick excursion - just a 10 minute hike from my apartment. The tower is a great place to watch sunset because you can see all the way to the Mediterranean...that is if you can brave the rickety planks of wood, "stairs", leading up to the top.



The cave-like structure made a really neat place to make photos...but once again, you don't want someone standing on the roof when your inside seeing as the ends have already caved in. My friend Kevin was doing just this when I took the self portrait, luckily none of the flying rocks got me. On to live another beautiful day in Valldemossa.

TICO

I have a new love. His name is Tico. He belongs to Aina (below), a good friend and manager of the Son Moragues. He's no Roscoe, but when Tico looks at me, wags his tail and jumps into my lap, I melt. Maybe it has something to with his amazingly dispraportinate leg height to body width. His breed is actually used to hunt and kill large animals. Although I cant imagine it, I'm told that Tico has taken down some of the Bruno's Lambs already. We try to keep tabs on him, but he always runs off into the wilderness and comes back covered in seed pods.

Cray-Fishing

Son Moragues has a large circular reservoir at the top of a hill. Its hundreds of years old, over 30 meters deep, houses its own micro-ecosystem. Most notable is a species of red crayfish, quite cute, which sift through the debris on the surface for nutriment. They hang out near the surface on the permieter, but who knows how many there are down there. The largest I found measured 7 inches.
Bruno decided one day that we needed to go cray-fishing. I went along to get pictures for my next watercolor. We walked up the long stone staircase with nets and buckets and...raw meat. Once we arrived, Bruno tied the meat to the end of a string and plopped it under the water, almost imediatly he pulled it back up with a huge crayfish on the end of it. Easy.
I got a little too adventurous and started wading into the water, a few steps in showed me how stupid that was as I felt a pinch. I jumped and tried to run out of the water, but my feet slipped on the hundred-year-old algea and i went under fully clothed. I caught myself and quickly searched my pockets for anything electronic, thankfully I was smart enough to put everything in my bag near the edge.
We must have collected over a hundred in a few hours. We stared into our bucket of crayfish bounty, astounded at the sheer number of them all crammed into one space. A space so much tighter than the one they had known before. I dared Bruno to put his hand in the bucket, (just joking really)...but a few minutes went by and without warning he stuck his fist into the middle of the crayfish mass with confidence. He must have held it there for 10 seconds as we all cringed.

Macro Mallorca: a photography project

Illustrations

My first piece. It aims to showcase the ruins of a circular meeting place in the orchard as well as a native grasshopper. The process: 1- reference photos taken on location, 2- composition designs, 3- large drawing on translucent paper which is then transferred onto a piece of thick arches watercolor paper, 4- slowly add layer upon layer to bring out the depth until you get that tingly sensation that tells you its done.

Saint Catalina Thomas meets deadly flying candy

I woke up one morning to a marching band playing this special tune through the streets. Everyone seemed to know it. Apparently I had just arrived for Valldemosa's annual celebration commemorating the birth of their patron saint, Santa Catalina Thomas. It was pretty cool, they all dressed up in traditional clothing and at night, they mounted thier kids onto donkey-pulled carriages decorated with palm fronds and grape leaves. The carriage march through the tiny cobblestone streets was fascinating. Even more fascinating was the force at which a 3 year old can hurl candy at your head :)

My New Environment

Here's my apartment. In case you were wondering, that is my refrigerator. It's packed full of veggies from Bruno's Co-op. I work in the garden on the estate for a few hours a week in exchange for yummy fresh veggies. I can also get olive oil, eggs, garlic, and Mallorcan pear marinated in sugar! Yum :) I love the blast of organic freshness that emanates from my fridge when i open it.


My first two weeks were spent settling in. My territory is a super small village off the west coast called Valldemosa.