Several Marvelous Items

Last night Sofia and I set off across town to look for the hippie tent village on some beach on the other side of the peninsula.  I had heard tell of this settlement from a girl who partied there every night this summer.  And we didn't want to spend any more money.

We found the beach just at sunset, and as we hiked the boardwalk to the sand, we watched the sun sink under the horizon.  It is amazing how fast it sets over the sea.  A huge fiery ball, lighting the bellies of the distant clouds with gold.  The rest of the sky was light blue and soft shell pink.  It was beautiful.  We forded an inlet, ran over a sand bar, and waded into the Atlantic Ocean.  The waves roared, and the riptide sucked at our ankles.  If I squinted a little, I could almost make out America.

Hidden among the cliffs, there were a couple tents set up and a few men busy around around a firepit.  Apparently there had been dozens of people camping there this summer, but now there were only three.  One of them had been the hospitaliero for the municipal albergue and knew that we were coming, so he welcomed us "home".  We were even invited to dinner!

As soon as the fire was built up, we went swimming in the little inlet where it curved around the sandbar and got quite deep.  The pull of the riptide on this beach is super strong and has pulled people out to sea before, so we wanted to stay in a protected area.  It was dark by then, and the water was freezing.  We stood waist-deep and shivering, trying to build up the courage to get all the way wet, when I saw something that looked like a blueish firefly in the water.  And then there was another one and another one!  Phosphorescence!  Bioluminescence!  I have read about those things that glow in the ocean at night, but I had never seen them before!!  They appeared around our legs when we moved in the water, just a few here and there.  So cool!

We both had to go pee, which we each managed with a bit of concentration cause it was so cold.  Don't judge us.  When I looked back down into the water, a whole STREAM of glowing things were flowing from me towards the open ocean!  Sofia had a little cloud floating away from her legs, too!  The sudden warmth in the water must have disturbed those little dinoflagellates (or whatever they were) enough to set off their glowing reaction!  (I hope this doesn't gross anyone out).
When Sofia looked down, she flipped out.  She's kinda jumpy in dark, unknown waters at night.  She calmed down about the glowing things, but then she made us both get out because she thought the bubbles floating on the surface of the water were jellyfish.  I got a flashlight, proved that they were just bubbles, and insisted that I had to at least go under the water once in order to call it a proper night swim.  She wouldn't let me do it alone, and she wouldn't let me do it first (can it be her "thing" to go into cold water before me when I'm humoring her by waiting my turn?), but eventually we were both all the way in and then all the way out.

The rest of the night was spent eating delicious rice and chocolate (not together) around a horribly smokey fire, and I went to bed around midnight.  Sofia stayed up with a ringletted German boy, and they slept outside by the fire.

After I woke up and had a pee in the sand, I sat on the beach and watched the waves as the sun gently lightened the sky from behind.  The tide was on its way in so the sandbar was getting wetter and wetter, reflecting the pink of the sky like a mirror.
A man in yellow boots walked across the beach with a net.  I waved, he waved back, and then he disappeared over the rocks to the left.  I was curious, so I put on my shoes and followed him.  Turns out he was catching shrimp in the tidepools.  He would scrape the net under the overhanging rock and then upend it into a plastic bag.  The shrimp were jumpy and clear with black markings.  I guess he was looking for lunch, He said that the shrimp were very small nowadays, he didn't know why.  Eventually I left him to it, but he passed me on the beach as he was going home.  He had dumped his catch back into the water because they were just too small.  Maybe someday he'll come and catch them again when they are big and be rewarded for his wisdom.

just like this!  only this is not my picture.

I also saw a man standing in the surf with waders on and a fishing pole with a huge silver lure, which he would occasionally pitch into the waves.  I have never heard of shallow-sea fishing before.  Or beach-side fishing?  I was quite incredulous and doubted his sanity until I saw fish in the waves!!  Silver foot-long things with pointy fins!  They swam at the top of the water with their mouths gaping open in the air!  They were in the semi-calm area where the waves had already crashed and the water was just pushing in to shore, and I could see fish shapes silhouetted in each green-blue swell!  It was so cool!  I kept hoping that one of them would get disoriented and beach itself so that I could catch one for breakfast...  I even (seriously) shouted Ernie's fish call at the waves, on the off-chance that Sesame Street knew something I didn't.  I didn't catch any fish, but yelling at the ocean still felt good.