Welcome to the second instalment of Meandering Mondays. Just as a quick recap every Monday I’ll be sharing an experience with you. A travel experience from somewhere completely random inspired by a photo I’ve taken from that place. You can revisit the intro here.
Today we’ll be travelling to Barcelona and experiencing a little bit of Brazil while we’re at it [again if you’re after the colour version of the photo you see below you’ll need to trek over to here]. Hope you enjoy…
Capoeira
Probably the longest, yummiest and relaxed lunch ever. My wife and I had done the tourist thing in the morning visiting the Mercat de Sant Josep / La Boqueria followed by a meandering adventure through the old quarter of Barcelona. Inevitably we got lost and stumbled across a large plaza full of locals and tourists alike lunching and enjoying the beautiful summers day.
We’d been picking at the fresh food available at the markets all morning so we weren’t famished or anything like that but we decided to stop and quench our thirst. To our surprise, every half hour or so, street performers rotated through the plaza performing in front of the crowd showing off their amazing skills and musicianship. As we watched on, we couldn’t help but order a delicious tapas followed by another and then some all washed down so delightfully with a local white and a lager.
Although the street performers were entertaining enough to part with our hard earned, none of them really possessed a wow! factor until the flamenco dancer arrived accompanied by her handsome solo guitarist. The human body is capable of amazing things…let me just put it that way. As we applauded the spectacular performance, almost without delay, the sound of classical guitar was replaced with the rhythmic tapping of a pair of tambourines and a berimbau [a single-string percussion instrument originating in Brazil].
The Capoeira fighters had arrived. If you haven’t witnessed this form of martial arts / dance / acrobatics it’s a sight to see. I just knew this was going to be something special. With my camera at the ready I went over to get a closer look at the performance. After a routine that involved a melodic manoeuvring, one fighter built himself up to a back flip kick to the face of his opponent. The fluid motion of the back flip and kick combination possessed such force that sent his opponent flying back [all pretend of course].
As I had not anticipated this move, I had to rely on my instinct to capture this moment in the performance. By a combination of the right shutter speed to allow the impression of movement while still capturing the detail of expression on the face of these amazing performers [and of course maintaining the exposure] resulted in the photo you see above. Eternal gratitude goes to the Capoeira performers on that lovely day in Barcelona in that random plaza, a moment worth capturing, a moment in time and space.