A Spontaneous Outing

  Cala Llombards, Spain
Tuesday, October 3, 2006

We've been back from Ibiza for almost a week now and it's still hard to get accustomed to the reality of routine. Ever since we got back, I haven't feeling well. That's an understatement....I have been feeling miserable. I could hardly get out of bed without feeling nauseous or dizzy, so I stayed in bed all day, only getting out for bathroom breaks. Ed was a darling and took care of me as best he could, and although he felt healthy, he confined himself indoors just to be with me and care for me.

Just yesterday (5 days later) the sickness began to subdue and I was able to get out of bed without feeling I would pass out. We decided it was high time to get some fresh air. Our friend Erea continently stopped by, as we were to leave for the beach, to ask if we wanted to drive with her to Cala Llombards, a beach not too far from here. We had been going to the same beaches for over 3 months so we had no reason to decline the fortunate offer.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at a small little beach town, where the summer houses were a bit more extravagant than the ones I'd seen around these coasts. Instead of the typical one-story chalet, here there were two or three story houses standing on top of rocky hills, ornamented in stone with staggering views of Mediterranean blue.

02 Cala Llombards

The incredibly steep and sinuous street down to the beach was a little scary to drive down on but once the trees opened up, the clearing revealed a staggering sandy-brown landscape engulfing a light aquamarine liquid filling. The stony walls of sandy colored rocks that towered over the water were layered with small fishing cabins which, as is typical in Majorca, have green front doors. Further above some beach houses were visible with sun terraces overlooking the water. The highest point of the rocky hill was decorated with a large brick house whose view one can only imagine.

04 Little Fishing Houses

At the bottom of the rocky depression lay the calm waters which ranged, as on a watercolor palette, from light green on the shallow shores, to turquoise, to ultramarine blue on the deep bouldered lengths. We walked past the sandy shore where many German tourists were to the small natural staircase leading to the rocks and boulders on the sides of the cove. According to Erea, there was a fantastic spot to jump off from the rocks into the warm water.

07 The Stony Cove

The jump she mentioned was a 2 meter jump into the light blue sea which didn't seem too bad when looking at it from afar. But once I stood on the very spot I was to jump from, looking down into the precipice I was supposed to leap, it suddenly didn't seem too fun. I verbally manifested my change of opinion but was soon peered-preassured by Ed and Erea to basically stop being a pussy. After twitching and kicking in fear, I managed to jump (not without a loud Oh-God-I'm-dying scream that echoed all across the Mediterranean) only to find out that my feat was captured in video, and that a lot of children were laughing at me. Fabulous.

I swam about in the transparent water with the hundreds of silver fish that slowly bobbed around looking for food or coming close to anything that moved. Ed jumped in with a cracker and it was actually kind of scary to watch how the thousands of hungry fish or all colors appeared out of nowhere before him.

11 Ed and Lu

I put on the snorkel mask and silently observed the virgin sand below the water, snaked in tight wavy lines, where no rocks or corals dared touch that white clean spot of sea. I climbed out of the water and into the rocks again to sit in the sun and watch the seascape while Ed and Erea continued to jump from the rocky ledge and play about in the water.

Children on both sides of the cove were jumping from whichever high rock they could find. We were surprised to find that some were diving head first from a height of about 8 meters. And here I was complaining about a 2 meter, feet-first jump. No wonder they were laughing.

The sun was going down so we started heading back to beat traffic. Erea had to go back to work at 7pm at the hotel and she was just in time for a quick shower. On the way back we talked about doing this more often: there were hundreds of little lost coves, one more breathtaking than the next just waiting to be discovered by us...only by us. So we set the date for next week.