Postcard travelling

Last Saturday I got on the bus to Ribadeo because I saw a beautiful postcard of the town in the bus station and I decided I wanted to go there. The day was bright, sunny and perfect for an adventure. For most of the ride going there the bus twisted and turned following the winding path of a river through the mountains towards the coast. I enjoy riding the bus and day dreaming. I thought about the concert I had attended the night previous. It was beautiful concert by the group called ´Batuko Tabanka´ as part of a series of events organized around International Women´s day. It was a simple,yet powerful performance of a group of local African women singing songs while drumming on leather cushions and while they played, they took turns getting up and dancing in front of the group. I couldn´t help but feel how beautiful it was to be a woman watching them.

Arriving in Ribadeo I was a little disappointed to learn that the beaches I saw on the postcards were not next to the town, but rather in the surrounding area (approx. 10km away) and the short story is you need a car to get there which I did not have. I did figure out a way that I could have gotten there using three different types of transportation, but since I only had six hours I decided to explore the town instead.

First I walked along the river to the lighthouse overlooking the ocean for lunch. Then I wandered back into town to look around and I found the old part of town curiously consisted of a labyrinth of small narrow streets. The map from the tourism office had a number of red dots marking points of interest and little else. I found most of the streets were not even marked on the map and they strangely sloped upwards and downwards interchangeably. I found myself wondering how people accessed their houses because often the streets were green with algae from the rain and quite difficult to climb.

On one corner I saw a house with a for sale sign. I was very intrigued by the building that admittedly was in very bad shape, but had a lot of character. I thought about the idea buying the house overlooking the port. It was more of a romantic idea than anything else, but the plants growing off of the balcony and the broken shutters made me want to take a look inside. I watched the house for a while and as I did an older woman wearing a pale pink dress made her way up the steep street towards it. She was carrying what looked like a pail of water and when she arrived at the front of the house she stopped for a few minutes to watch the people strolling along the boardwalk below and then continued to the back of the house. I imagined she was going to feed some chickens or cats, but she kept looking around as she walked. When she stepped back out into the street she stopped a moment to step into the bushes and then continued her descent the same way she arrived pausing a few moments for the view.

I liked a how Cala lilies seemed to grow wild and how the streets were quiet. Looking up at the town from the water´s edge I saw five cats perched on a stone railing. They posed and stretched in the sun just below another railing with the remains of statues of roman goddesses. I had to smile at the scene curtained by blowing clothes hung out to dry because on another balcony I saw the shadow of the head of a black dog watching them. When I looked accross the river I saw the region of Asturias and it felt like it was another world.

To add to the mysteriousness and quaintness of the town on the steps of the townhall in the main square there is a life-size silver statue of a marquis walking down the steps. He is wearing bright coloured clothing with one arm awkwardly raised above his head and I guess his statue is there to remember the building used to be his residence until he was assasinated there in 1809.

My time was up and so I walked back to the bus station to catch my ride back to Lugo.