Uñt’ayata: 11.02.2024
Day 15: Today we take you to Campo de Guardamar , the largest and best weekly market on the Costa Blanca. Just getting there, near Torrevieja, is an adventure, especially with a motorhome. Endless queues of cars on narrow sandy paths and a huge parking lot with everyone standing all over the place. We even managed to get there around 10am as planned. That's because these markets have such a strong appeal for Icke that she manages to get out of bed early in the morning...
As usual, we separated at the start of the shopping marathon. Icke has to wander through the stalls and alleys alone. She manages to spend an hour at a clothespin stand discussing with the saleswoman which shape and color is best and then leaving without buying a single one. Simply standing there and watching the spectacle impassively might work for the first two or three stands. By the fourth time at the latest, the escape instinct kicks in. And Icke is already annoyed at the first stand when she sees how my hair stands up.
That's why we've gone our separate ways from the start, even if it's a bit of a gamble afterwards to find the good guy in the fray. Although we are both equipped with cell phones, it took almost 45 minutes today until I was able to direct Icke on the phone to the café where I was sitting with my fourth cortado. On such occasions, I aim for a coffee every half hour. A little arithmetic: How long had I been sitting there?
Correct. Over an hour and a half. But I enjoy waiting. Seeing people come and go, this colorful mix of young and old and from all over the world is always an experience. We will be there again next week. “I now know what they have,” Icke said as he got into the motorhome. “Now I can spend a week thinking about what I want to take with me.” And because nothing, absolutely nothing, can be forgotten, she immediately grabbed a piece of paper and made notes. What gives me a headache: It was an A4 sheet of paper - and Icke writes very small...