Evening of Day 1
Suzanna is a traditional dress maker, dancer, accordion
player and singer. We met her through Cano, a gaita player that Donna knew from
our days at Lark in the Morning Mendocino Music Camp. She offered us a
wonderful apartment just above hers for our stay in Santiago. This particular
evening she recommended that we come out with her, have dinner and listen to
she and her friends sing traditional Galician and Spanish songs. The restaurant was in a small town rural
setting, all stone and lovingly cared for.
Suzanne proudly showed us the largest stone oven in Galicia, now used as
a small dining room. We sat at a table as Suzanna and her four friends sang
folk songs the entire time. The master of the house and the restaurant brought
us a variety of grilled meats and appetizers fresh off the grill. We ordered a
variety of Galician seafood and enjoyed tasting a great variety of grilled vegetables,
large prawns, scallops, potatoes, and… As it got later things loosed a bit.
Bill, Donna’s dad sang along with some of the pieces he knew- Spanish, Mexican,
Venezuelan, Peruvian- even coming around to an American pop song where I filled
in the lyrics that the others did not know. Donna sang a beautiful traditional
Mexican song that she knew. This went on
until near midnight.
Day 2
Truckee made arrangements the previous day for a highly
touted Cathedral rooftop tour. One small detail was that the tour was entirely
in Spanish and none of the four of us understand more than the simplest
Spanish. It is unfortunate that the Spanish tour appeared packed with
information that we could not understand, as the guide gushed on and on about
the history and beauties of the top of the Santiago Cathedral of Saint James,
the Apostle.
The tour promised wonderful views and we did have those. We
climbed maybe 200 steps and came up on a stone tiled tilted roof, level enough
to walk on at least fairly safely. Nestled in the Galician countryside, this
city has a great deal of character, the red tile roofs, white stucco, broad
fields, stands of oaks and broad expanses of green countryside. The one bit of
Spanish we did recognize was when a Spanish tour taker climbed a roof peak, to
impose himself on a cross for a photo op. The guide loudly interrupts her
monologue with a firm “ por favor!!!!”. The errant tourist ejects himself
quickly from the cross, just after the photo op. I got a photo of it too.
We then took a walk through the streets (or Rua- in Galician)
of Santiago. Nearby was an extensive outdoor and indoor market with many fresh
fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and meats. I vowed that I would buy some of
those fish soon and cook a family dinner. With family days become pleasantly
lazy. We walk a little. We have a long delicious lunch with a little wine or
beer, take a little nap, then walk a little more, and sit down and eat again.
Donna had heard that there was some live music just down
from the Cathedral. The group was two gaita (bagpipe) players, a drummer and an
accordion player. At one point I got up to speak to them and told them that
Galician music was very popular in our part of California. They, of course,
knew Cano, but also asked if I knew Keven Carr. I know him very well. They knew
Molly even better, Kevin’s lovely daughter. They were excellent musicians and
played much of the time in harmony. As the
night went on, teenagers started to arrive in droves. We were about to leave,
when our waiter suggested that we must stay for the best part. A ceremony would
begin, honoring the Druid spirits of old, casting out bad spirits, lighting the
alcohol and dancing. The owner brought out a big ceramic bowl and lit it. He
stirred it for a while, dripping the liquid fire with his spoon. Out came our
waiter, dressed in Druid straw. (See the photo.) Suddenly the band struck up
the music, he started to dance and almost immediately pulled Lennie in with
him. He urged us to get up and dance and we did, as the rest of the dinners
clapped. It was exhilarating and just plain fun. The waiter did not want us to
pay for our share of sweet alcohol, because we were part of the show. We tipped
him what we would have paid. It was a grand night. We walked home and Donna
suggested that we go out again, just the two of us, and look for music. We
walked the lovely streets, and then on our way home heard the characteristic
sound of the gaita. A five person group was playing in a pub. They were toward the end of the festivities,
as a similar bowl of alcohol was there and emptied with some glasses around it.
This lively band was in town to record a CD, and Donna said that she had seen
them playing on the street much earlier. The managed to rouse the entire audience
to their feet, gaita, bass drum, little snare and tambora. Yet again a wonderful musical evening.
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