Dates of travel- April 16-17, 2017, Easter
Easter morning in Figueres….I ache as i wake and walk around the cool cloudy empty streets. Most businesses are closed. Across from the Dalí theatre, people slip into St Pere (Dalí’s church) for the 9 am service. In the cavernous chapel, voices reverberate…vague hallelujahs, a plain sermon, nothing to stay for. I return to the pink tower of the theatre, looking at the church tower through it as a single piece of art.
The bus to Roses leaves at noon. 3 euro. Someone says it’s an ugly place, all resorts, but that’s not so. It’s a cute town, and today is market day. The market has secondhand clothes and housewares and a Peruvian man selling artesania from the Andes. I sit on the grass by the little beach, under palms, looking out at the Bay of Roses with snow on the Pyrenees far to the west. It’s warm and breezy; boats pull in, people sunbathe on holiday. Big houses cover the hillside. 
The streets of old town are narrow with hotels and kebab restaurants scattered throughout. The hotels are booked or holiday-priced and there are no budget hostels. I’m only here for the stone dolmen up on the mountain east of town, and as suggested, it is possible to hike there. As I have bought a blanket at the market, my mind is set on sleeping up there too.
The Dolmen Cap d’en Cubertella and blue butterfly magick
On the road to the Dolmen, near some steep stairs ascending, a curly haired woman stands. I ask her which way to the Dolmen and she takes me up the stairs…both ways go there but this way is better, she says. Her name is Paqui and she is on the way to harvest thyme from the hills as this is the time of year. When i tell her i plan to sleep up there she offers her couch to me and then a day trip to Cadaqués tomorrow. She had just seen a blue butterfly along the way from her home, a rare thing, a sign.
The Dolmen is on the hilltop, with amazing views of the sea, the bay, Roses, and the hills. She comes up here often to meditate, to see the moon and the sunset. The stone structure is ancient, around 5000 years old, large capstone covering a dark chamber most likely used for burials. Paqui and I sit by the dolmen and share stories of Ayahuasca journeys. It feels like i am in a lucid dream. Near to the dolmen is a menehir, a standing stone. A lady hikes by us to tell us (in Catalan) that “it’s just a stone, it’s not worth the wait.” She has not seen the Dolmen. Paqui and i laugh as she is gone. 
Back in town, Paqui takes me on a walk, by many places I passed earlier but in a different light now. The citadel, off the entry road into town, surrounds the ancient Greek city of Roses, named after Rodos (Rhodes), and a chapel…and we enter for free.
At Paqui’s home, I learn that she is from Alburquerque, in the west of Spain. This is awesome to me as many in the USA think only of Albuquerque in New Mexico, and she explains that her home town gave the USA city an R to make up for the missing letter in their name. Also, we made dinner of lentils, bread and olives and drank Cava from Catalunya. What a blessing.
Next morning, Paqui and I ride in her car over the hills to Cadaqués, a beautiful old town on the Mediterranean. It is Easter Monday, a holiday for many Catalonians, so the streets and restaurants are busy. We have coffee in an old Casino by the shore. Then we drives us to Dalí’s house museum, just outside of town on a small bay, and have picnic lunch by the water. The artist’s house is very easy to identify by the eggs and heads on top. We don’t go inside as reservations are necessary. But now I see this place, this scene, in so much of his work.
More inspiration for Dalí’s art can be found in the rock formations at nearby Cap de Creus natural park, at the eastern tip of this peninsula. The awesome rocks carry shapes like gods and goddesses and a shape Dalí used in his painting “The Great Masturbator.” Other rocks have holes similar to open mouths. Paqui says I remind her of Botticelli’s Venus as I channel Ariadne on the craggy shore.
As go the rocks
Shaped by the sea
So they all shape me
Dalí described this fragile coastal landscape as “where gods and humans meet.” This has been overwhelmingly my experience also.
The next day, Paqui drives me to Figueres train station, just in time for the train to Barcelona. On the train, tears of gratitude, frustration, sentiment…from leaving a good soul connected friend and place of power. In these sacred spaces, you meet people, soul travelers on the same path, and you manifest the path with them.
Paqui wrote a blog story immediately about our encounter:
http://vivirdesdelcorazon.blogspot.com/2017/04/arianna-y-la-mariposa-azul.html?spref=fb&m=1
arianna's creative travels 