A little town….or a village really….

We try to include a night where we do something a little out of our comfort zone.  For us, this means spending a night in a BnB or similar type accommodations, where we may have to engage with others.  While this may not seem “out there” for some….we are generally stick to ourselves kind of people.  It’s not that we find each other so interesting that we can’t converse with others…it’s just we tend to be on the lower end of the social metre.  So, we find ourselves in Charo, Spain with it’s fork in the road sister town Pacino Charo, which gives them a combined population of 7 children….enough for a school bus…..with not many more adults.

We left Barcelona in the morning with our car and headed out of the city.  We were both sad to leave it behind because we really enjoyed the atmosphere and quickly got into the timing of their routines for eating.  Breakfast is anywhere between wake up and noon, cafe and croissant, then from 2 until supper (9:00) they have tapas (Barcelona). It’s hard to stay up until 9 to eat, but they take the “siesta” seriously, so, we did also.  We went back to the hotel and had a nap and shower and got out again by about 7.  It’s actually quite nice, especially when on vacation….it gets you into vacation mode quite quickly.

Anyways, we had a three hour drive to Charo and that was amazing.  The landscapes are not necessarily so different, but when we look at our foothills we see foothills, in Spain, we see a village that has been there for a few hundred years.  So much history.

When we arrived at our BnB, the town is so small we don’t even know where to park, the end of the street is actually somebodies private property so we are asked to park at the beginning of the town….which is literally about 10 “Canadian” houses away…..but with 400 year old houses.  And our place is just that…built in the 1600’s.  There are a few people living there, and a few abandoned houses which we could probably buy, but that is literally it.  When we entered our BnB through the doorway there was an adorable kitten, and the woman shooed it out saying it was a village

kitten….until I whined a bit and she brought it back in so I could hold it.  But this is it….their door is open….the kitten comes in and wanders and they put it outside….it’s so casual.

The family has been living here for 6 years and took 1.5 years to renovate the property.  We think there are 5 rooms to rent, with breakfast included, and dinner at an extra price.  We took dinner as well, ate at 9, with the family, and because her parents and brother were there, it was literally the whole family.  The kids had their first day of school the next day, but were still up eating with us.  I asked many questions about the whole timing of everything thinking this had to be hundreds of years of tradition, but no, it is maybe 50 years.  Apparently after a civil war, the people were so poor they needed to work 2 jobs, and with no time for lunch, they started the 2 hour siesta in the afternoon in order to prepare for the evening work shift.

Our evening was lovely and we had a peaceful sleep only hearing a cow in the background, some dogs barking (often), and waking up to 2 roosters battling it out in the morning. But what an experience.  Worth the night.