A Spanish Haven: Los Nuñez

Correction: My great grandfather --- not my great great grandfather.

Ordinarily, I would not have opted to get back into El Carro today, but going to Los Nuñez to visit Lyn was a great incentive.  And we had a lunch date with Saidie up in the hills above Almogia where my ancestors lived and worked.  It was perfect to catch my breath, sit back and enjoy the camaraderie of these two lovely women.  And her Iris garden was aflame with blue blooms and various other flowers down the hill below the swimming pool.  Always a warm welcome...A little wine, a big lunch and ice cream with raspberries!

During the afternoon, the conversation turned to my father, Miguel Ruiz Silvan and the memories Saidie shared with me.  In Almogia, there was a restaurant/bar called La Loma.  Often, she told me, she and her husband John would go up to La Loma of an evening for coffee, games and conversation.  There, she met my father when she was trying to have a conversation with a Spaniard.  My father introduced himself, translated their words and they became friends.  People in the area could not pronounce Saidie's name so she was given the name of María.  And that is what my father called her...

I asked Saidie. "Is there anything of my father that you recognize in me?"  Since I wasn't raised with him, it is difficult to know him through others' eyes and memories.
"Your eyes."  She answered immediately.
"And your warmth and friendliness," interjected Lyn.  "He was always up front with people and I like that in a person and he had such a funny sense of humor."

Both responses were special for me.  And on the way out of Almogia later that evening, Lyn showed me where Restaurant La Loma used to be.  It is on the corner of the main road when you drive into the village.  I'd seen it before, but never knew the significance.   It's still owned by a man named Francisco but the old La Loma with the upstairs patio without a roof no longer exists as it was.  The village has, of course, changed dramatically since the years when my father lived in Los Nuñez and frequented Almogia, just twenty minutes up in the hills above his house.

The air was cooler today.  The dogs didn't bark when I arrived, they just stood quietly at the grilled gate giving me their silent welcome.  They thought I was coming home... Lyn and I sat on the circular balcony with wine and tapas at the end of the day to watch the sun go down and she showed me all the flowers in bloom around us.  The lazy life of the villagers were a haze below.  Music filtered up to us and the gentle sway of trees swished on the neighboring hills downward into the village houses toward the road.

Tomorrow (Sunday) Lyn is taking me to Malaga to an authentic Spanish market...

And then we will have lunch at cousin Pedro Ruiz's restaurant, Venta Gloria before El Carro takes me back to Calahonda again.  And I didn't get lost today!  El Carro now can nose his way through the maze of highways and country roads, past all the small villages and up the hill toward Los Nuñez, across the one-car bridge and up, up and up some more.

Every moment spent in this quiet village makes me happy; a special balm to my homesickness.  And each day about 4:00 here... when my phone starts pinging with WhatsAPP messages, I know America is waking up on the other side of the world.  I absolutely love seeing messages from loved ones even if it's just a "hello, thinking about you."  And my heart speeds up.