El Última Día en Porto Cristo

 It's my last day in Porto Cristo. I get an early start as I did on the other days while being here. I do my yoga and other stretches and complete the "Seven Minutes" exercise app which yesterday sarcastically told me to take a shower... I have a bit of cereal and pack my little lunch for the beach. After a quick "Buenas!" to Diego and Ana, the landlord's girlfriend, who had both just woken up, I set out to have my final beach day. I decided to go to my favorite little cove beach which is a nice ten minute walk through streets and then about fifteen minutes through rocky paths draped with reddish brown earth and desert like flora. 

I see a little baby quail the size of a small chicken's egg, lazily crossing the path. He gets startled when he realizes I am near and starts quaking for his mother, who responds somewhere to the right of us in the bushes. The little fluffy baby stumbles and runs to his mother. I smile to myself and continue walking. 

When I finally reach the little beach, I am happy to see that it's almost back to its beautiful crystal clear blue self. 

The last couple days have turned all many of these little coves into angry congregation of dark waves and a rubbish collection point from the rest of the surrounding sea. I was here the day when the sea was angry and the wind was taking everything that came in its way. This little beach seemed like a completely different place. I couldn't believe it! Just one day ago I was swimming in the calmest, crystal clear blue water I have seen in a while and the day after, it was an unrecognizable dark, murky, intimidating water. 

Today, the remnants of the stormy day are still here but the sea is more calm and so I swam in the beautiful cove once again. I had to, I must! It's my last day here after all. A funny one in fact... 

I waa feeling very observant today and had the entertainment of quite a few people on the beach. I was alone for a while since I got here at 9am on a Saturday morning and most people were still recovering from their Friday night out. I really do love my early mornings. Once in a while, late nights are great but the early mornings, when most of the world is still sleeping, there's just something special and magical about this part of the day. 

As always, I am getting off track... A father and his small son came first to the beach and stopped this from being my own private cove. They were ok and the kid was not loud so all was good. Later asquacking group of young girls about sixteen or so, came and disrupted the peaceful aura that this place had. They continued to giggle louder than necessary and each of them tried to speak and giggle louder than the other. It was quite annoying at first but then I just drowned their noise out when I started reading my book again. Oh, I forgot to mention that before the giggling pack came here, two nudist older men came separately, one from the western path and the other from the eastern path. They nodded to each other, to me and went to laid down to catch some sun (which from their tanned butts looked like they made it a profession!).

As the day went on, I enjoyed a few swims and read from both of my books. Another small group of people came but they weren't loud or annoying at all. The whiter of the two tanned nude gentlemen got up and walked over to the slightly more tanned nude gentleman and asked him in English if he could run sun lotion on his back. The more tanned naked man agreed. I was listening and watching out of the corner of my eye, giggling to myself, as this was right in my line of vision. They were acting like shy kids. The lighter man was asking the other one questions in English but the guy appeared to not understand anything. The Spanish man giggled and the whiter man said thank you and walked away. That was the end of that, I thought to myself.

Almost immediately after that, I witnessed a group of guys about sixteen or so, talking about the giggling group of girls and trying to convince one of the guys to go over to the girls. As I watched these attempts to connect to other people by strangers, for whatever their intentions were, I couldn't help but smile. 

Fear is what stops people from achieving their full potential and it's this same little voice inside that prevents us from approaching someone new or telling how we really feel to someone we already care about. Fear is an invisible steel barrier which limits so many of our actions. But why should it!? Each moment is an opportunity that we either take or lose. Our life is dotted with those moments and the direction of our life is determined by the fearless or the fearful decisions that we make in the end. There's no point to worry or to be afraid. In the end, the world will keep turning, the time will keep moving and the decisions you could have made and the leap of faith you should have taken will be left in the past and will become a regret, an unfulfilled desire. Avoid regrets and just go for it. If it's scary and nerve-racking, most likely it's worth it... Take the chance and jump into the deep end! 

Back to the beach though. The young kids continued to look at each other but the girls didn't really talk to the boys and the boys didn't talk to the girls. The lighter older nude gentleman moved his towel next to the darker tanned nude older gentleman and they both smiled happily. I smiled for them and silently applauded their courage. I guess they do have the advantage of more years lived and realizing that there's no need to waste time and that it's precious. Good for them! Although, sometimes even more years lived, doesn't mean that these simple lessons have been learned. It's never too late though...

I couldn't help it and later on after hearing them trying to communicate but not understand what the other one meant, I translated what the Spanish naked man was saying to the lighter naked man who did not speak English. The lighter naked man lit up and smiled when I translated that the other one asked him if he wanted to go to another beach which is nicer and more quiet and small. I added as I translated that it's a nudist beach too, since I've been there myself before. After some smiles between them and a big thank you as well as a muchas gracias, they walked off giggling towards the other beach. 

What a funny, odd day. I'm glad I could help though. Hey, everyone needs love... 

I concluded my last day at this little piece of heaven with an early evening swim. With the sun low and the wind not as strong as before, the glimmering water looked magical. I reveled in the beautiful nature surrounding me, trying to ignore the silly sounds coming from the younger kids. I focused on the waves moving me gently forward and back. The feel of my skin being hugged by the water and above, by the warm rays of the sun slowly setting. This little piece of heaven was mine for a while, what more could I want!? :)

I'm looking forward to where my life will take me next but I am so happy for where I've been so far. The places, the people, the experiences. They've all been so exciting; some overwhelmingly beautiful, some heart-wrenchingly sad, ad some just plain crazy. But all have been lessons, moments and pieces of the puzzle which made me who I am now and will continue molding me as I continue on this journey. 

Next stop, Palma for a few days! Catching up with Raquel, a wonderful friend with whom I traveled with in Laos after being part of a group of eight including me, Spanish and Argentinians. We all met on a little rickety passenger boat which took us on a two day journey from Northern Thailand into Northern Laos, Vientiene. It was filled with laughter silly jokes, lots of guitar playing and singing, it was great! Looking forward to seeing Raquel, reminiscing about our journey three years ago and catching up on life after that.