CABO SAN LUCAS ... Since I was already in LA, William bought two tickets to go to the Mexican city with the most party in the world, where all the Angels go every weekend to surf the best waves and eat luxuriously. It is a paradise of whales, sea lions, manta rays flying in the water and where they meet in the arch of love, the Sea of Cortes, which was me, the Dancer since it is a very flamenco name, and the Pacific Ocean, which was William the Diplomat more “giri “.
Next to Los Angeles, Baja California where the Mexicans serve you and make sure that during your stay you drink as much tequila as possible, you get on the podiums to dance and sing as if there were no tomorrow, in bars full of posters of famous rock artists bands, with thousands of bras hanging from the bar and partying until 6 in the morning. It was like being in Spain!
William's flirtations with the American women were to despair but I decided to ignore him and start flirting with Daniel, a waiter who was, as we say in Spain, like a cheese! And on top of that, the way I like them, dark-haired with green eyes, a toy boy who never stopped putting shots of tequila at me with my favorite beer, Negra Modelo, with lime and without salt, which is how it is really drunk in Mexico. Meanwhile, William flirted with everyone he could, and didn't realize that I was having a better time than with him. Every time I went to the bathroom… with so much beer…. I asked Daniel to escort me so I could saw his whole body and I had him closer to hug him and say things to his ear, but the worst temptation was his fleshy mouth, with the lips that seemed to have been painted, white teeth and to finish falling in love, surfer and super tall, unlike the diplomat. With that accent that drove me crazy for minutes, I couldn't take it anymore, I took a risk and took him out of William's visibility, and gave him a tequila and beer kiss ... then at the bar again, I told him about my fascinating travels and my life as a dancer. He was in love with my accent pronouncing the zeta of Madriz, with my body, with my eyes ... I was pointing at my web page on a napkin, when William came into action and realizing what was happening between us..I escaped like a girl running as far as I could, without thinking I got on a podium, next to incredible blondes with blue eyes and many boobs, but surely none of them danced like me ... I started to dance super sensual possessed by the aphrodisiac effect of tequila and when I caught everyone's attention and had the whole bar hanging on me I screamed with all my soul; - Long live Spain! Long live the tequila! And long live Daniel! They all shouted with me Viva la Española ! William grabbed my arm and pulled me off the podium. So the night ended in a fight. Guilty? Wiliam for leaving me alone, that's what happens. My mother said that I was worth much more as a woman than he was as a man and that I would never stop valuing me and that way he would realize the woman next to him.
The Surf Hotel was right in front of the ocean, the room's terrace had a huge Jacuzzi from where, having a margarita, I watched William surfing with my binoculars ... and he kept flirting with surfing young girls , but from the terrace I could not control the situation, although some scream that another I hit him raising my arms so that he could see me. We went surfing at Cerritos and passed the famous hotel in Todos Santos from the Eagles, Hotel California song. It was one of my favorite songs and it was a dream to be right there. To get to Cerritos, we passed hundreds of kilometers full of huge cactus , some were Mexican Saguaros, which are up to 20 meters high. The surf was wild, a wild place away from everything, while eating on the sand in the only beach bar the best Spanish omelette with red chorizo like in Spain . I bought in Punta Lobos, two huge mirrors carved in silver painted by hand and as always, without remembering that I had to return by plane. Luckily William was getting used to my luggage and since it was time to go back to Iraq, he allowed me everything.

WASHINGTON D.C ... many months had passed, every so often, William had to spend two weeks in Washington and since I had never been, it was the perfect time to visit the capital of the United States.
The hotel room was big and comfortable enough to spent time waiting for William to return from work, after sightseeing alone and taking a bath with a glass of Champagne, strawberries, and chocolate.
Political capital , glamorous bars, spectacular parties in luxury hotels, having drinks in the attic in front of the White House were worth experiencing but using the Spanish proverb; one and no more Santo Tomas ... you could smell the CIA agents from the league and the diplomats who all gathered together, you saw them overwhelmed with super shiny shoes trying to understand why they were gray like politics and trying by all means, enjoy black and white to the fullest and uncontrollably outside of office hours. While they wanted to receive the news of their next destination on the best island or in Rome, and if it was in a troubled country, much better, more to talk about and more money.
The last night, we had dinner at a restaurant that William frequented a lot and he told me that there was a bar right in front where the protagonists were black leather, whips and handcuffs, and that he accidentally entered one day ... I didn't give him time to continue talking because I didn't want to know more about the subject and imagining him inside that den was making me sick. I just wanted to get to the hotel, go to bed, get some sleep, and dream of my birthday in Venice.

VENICE… as a birthday present, William reserved the room where Hemingway lived for a while, at the Gritti Palace in Venice. From their terrace on the water, they greet guests in gondolas and sometimes in taxis from the airport. And they don't go up to the room without first having a glass of the best Bellini. The rest of us watched the movie from our chairs. The Cosmopolitans, which each cost 45 euros, were like drinking gold. The price makes you control and be realistic that it is 12 noon and it is your birthday. I traveled from Spain and William from America and we met in Venice. On the plane, my Guardian Angel , who never leaves me, put me next to an Italian guy who lived in a spectacular loft right next to the Gritti Palace, and who had worked for Versace for 40 years. We were talking about the dress that I was going to wear to see my favorite opera "La Traviata" at the La Fenice theater, and that we designed together during the flight, he asked me about my favorite color for the stage and my favorite fabric. He was in first class and I, with the rat that was William, in tourist. But when I sat in my place, I had a two-meter Nigerian next to me, dressed as if he belonged to another era, with a gaudy blue and green tunic, a super broken neck of gold thread and smells so bad, so strong ! I almost vomited the orange juice that I had taken so comfortable with my Iberian ham sandwich that I could not miss on my travels. That I got up and without him hearing me, I told the stewardess that I urgently needed to sit somewhere else and the further away the better. The plane was complete, except for a seat in first class, which of course is where my Guardian Angel , sat me. I kept the card he gave me and we became friends. He invited me to the party he was giving the next day on his yacht for the Venice Film Festival, which always coincides with my birthday on August 28th . For a moment I thought about screwing around the situation, changing the ticket, I was going back to Madrid alone anyway, and having stayed at the festival. My mother, who was like my manager and very commercial, told me that I was stupid, that this party would have opened doors for me to have contacts and continue to grow as an artist. And I, as a girlfriend in love, when I saw Wiliam with his bouquet of roses that he always brought me to the airport, I forgot everything. And I thought that I could use the card at another time and if it were with Sofia my “Bandolera”much better.
It was so hot and the sun reflected so much on the floor of San Marcos Square that not even my cap protected me. And I had forgotten to add sunscreen cocoa for my lips, it was time to buy an umbrella that are beautiful and super romantic. I didn't even carry a bag, we had the hotel very close and I asked William for 20 euros to buy an umbrella to protect me from the sun and my surprise is when he says no, that I didn't need it. It touched my soul and I continued walking reluctantly until we went to eat on the terrace of the Hotel Danieli. A wonderful restaurant in front of the lagoon, the luxury suites taken out of a story and the bill of 485 euros that William paid, made me react and that's when I said to myself; "This men is going to find out who I am when we go down!" I removed a 20 euro bill from the tip plate and stuffed it into his jacket as Rita would have done at Gilda.
As I passed the umbrella stand again, William, who was already happy and with a full belly, gave me the 20 euros and told me to buy it. But since it was 20 euros for the tip and I don't accept tips, I bought myself; the white one, the green one, the green one with white, the white one with green that was a little different and bigger, the brown one, the beige one and when the Italian told William; —Il conto Signore e 120 euros. William looked at me and had no choice but to laugh and bend, but when William was going to give him the money, I told the Italian; —- My scusi signore, puó darmi anche quello nero per favor? At 18 I had learned Italian in Milan when I was working at the Duomo theater and an Italian guy came to congratulate me in my dressing room and we have no separate to each other for 5 months. The company returned to Madrid and I stayed in Milan. I told my parents that I had stayed to study Italian but in a school, and that was the school of life, the one that books do not teach you. William didn't understand Italian, but he did understand that I had also asked for the black umbrella. And William, with fewer smiles, asked me why I also wanted the black one; — For when I have to go to your funeral, I told him. William learned his lesson once and for all and never again denied me anything.
We arrived in a Gondola to dinner, on a mini terrace above the water with only our table, the others where inside at covered restaurant, all so romantic with the moonlight and candles and I with the huge Dior model sunglasses aviator, because I had been bitten by a mosquito in the room and my eye was super swollen. But I was having a great time, when I got to the room I lit the candles that I had bought in Greece, they were squares like giant dice and in each one painted in pink a letter, the candle at the beginning and the one at the end were a heart and the LOVE letters. I put them on top of Heminway's desk and turned them on. They brought us a bottle of Champagne with strawberries and chocolate and we went out onto the balcony. Within ten minutes, they were calling from the lobby, that they had received a call from the hotel gondola, advising them that they had seen me on the balcony sitting on the railing with half my body thrown back, one leg raised with the heels that could falling onto the terrace awning with a glass of champagne in hand, and it was dangerous because I could fall. What they didn't see was William who had me by the waist and hooked in such a way that we both fell. The next morning I told William about the mysterious dream I had; —Hemingway introduced himself to me sitting in his desk chair! He took a candle, the one with the letter E, from the verb Escribir… to write, and told me that some day in the future, this dream that I had lived with him would write. William looked at me with a hungover face and I swore him that it was real that it was not the result of alcohol, and that when he left the balcony, it seemed to me that Hemingway was taking the bottle and William said that since he liked drinking and the shows he put on in that same room drunk, he wouldn't be surprised at all. The most surreal of all was when we looked for the bottle and it was not in the room . And we had not left the room at all and no one had entered. It was incredible and it was true, because here I am, 15 years later writing that dream.

NEW ORLEANS… it had been only a year since Hurricane Katrina shattered the soul of the jazz city, and the greatest civil engineering disaster in American history was still being discussed with the failure of the levee system. But the city was resurrected and everything was ready for the official Hallowen parade, the Krewe of Boo. My older brother, who graduated from private university in Saint Louis, Missouri, with a degree in business studies and an hour and a half away, had already told me about Krewe of Boo .. Alex's mother, my American brother, lived in New Orleans in a typical southern house where many movies were filmed and where my brother lived for a while and that's how they met.
In the morning it was a "must" to go for breakfast beignets and coffee with milk at the famous Café Du Monde in the French Quarter. I loved the mix of French, Spanish and American culture. But really the historical buildings of the late 18th century are Spanish and I was proud. I was fascinated to try the typical black olive cream sandwich with a lot of mortadella known to those who have already traveled a lot to New Orleans like William, who had a good “friend” who lived there, who visited frequently but he said not to worry for nothing since she was married, and when a man makes such a cheap excuse, that's just when you have to start worrying.
Another dream come true was to cruise the Mississippi River by steamboat watching the sunset and going back in time thinking about my favorite Mark Twain book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Dice la leyenda que la «Reina Bruja” Marie Laveau, católica , que se casó en la Catedral de San Luis, hechizó a todos sus habitantes con su magia y yo, como buena Xana percibía enseguida las energías en las tiendas , la mayoría dedicadas al tema de la misteriosa religión traída a America por los esclavos procedentes de Africa, que mezcla ritos del cristianismo, el Vudú. Y lo primero que se me vino a la cabeza fue el puñal que me clavaron por la espalda en casa de William en Madrid y la cara de su madre.
The disappearance of the two daughters of the "Witch Queen" and shortly after the mysterious disappearance of her husband without any record of her death, turned her into the "Widow Paris". Plus her new relationship with a white millionaire with whom she had 15 children, and who also died under strange circumstances, it inspired me so much that a new choreography had been born in my mind. The fused music of flamenco and blues was already in my head and I was looking forward to getting into my studio, dancing and creating.
We had dinner at a restaurant frequented by high society, where prices of $ 20,000 a bottle appeared on the wine list, I couldn't resist and played a joke on William and very seriously in front of the owner who received us with a big smile, I asked for one bottle of $ 15,000 just to see his scared face.
The best Hallowen of my life ... the most brutal party I can remember. I was so tired of walking around in my 6-inch high-heeled brown leather pirate boots and time bomb cocktails that I asked one of the hundreds of police officers who controlled the parade on top of their horses , to please climb on the rump and take me to the hotel. Telling him that my brother, I called him like that to completely disengage myself from any intimate relationship with him and have a free way to flirt ... and how he was disguised as a pilot, who had crashed the plane in the Mississippi and could not take me. I was lucky and they didn't arrest me.

Then we traveled to NICE and MONACO… I had a great time at the Monte Carlo casino, the game has never caught my attention, but that night it was for fun and William bet the fair share while the glass lasted. On the entrance terraces we had a drink while we watched the ambulances go by as if it were a hospital, and it was because of the heart attacks of the clients that they lost millions. When we got to the room they were broadcasting the news of the death of Luciano Pavarotti live and they put a mini tribute with his concerts that lasted about an hour, just the time necessary for our soundtrack where I took advantage of the treble of the tenor to ... another refrán ; To the good listener a few words are enough.

We continue our holidays in SICILA specifically in CATANIA, FLORENCE, until we reach ROME… one of my favorite capitals. We met for dinner with my first cousin who lived there and worked at the Spanish Consulate. There it was living the Ambassador of Spain, the Los Angeles consul who helped me so much and I greeted him by phone. From the balcony of our hotel room that was a palace, worthy of kings, you could see the Embassy of the United States of America located neither more nor less than in the Palazzo Margherita, a luxury to behold from the moment you entered the hotel decorated with works of art, sculptures and antiques that turned it into a museum.
One of the smells that I like the most is that of coffee, but I have never been able to drink it because it gives me a cold sweat and I get nervous and in a bad mood. However, something unexpected happened to me in Rome. We went to the well-known Café di Roma cafeteria where they put the best cappuccino I have ever tasted in my life, and we had them with a Canoli sweet, that sweet was out of the ordinary. We had already been lucky enough to try them in Sicily, which is where they come from. It is a joint made of butter, flour, sugar, egg, vanilla and fried in extra virgin olive oil, filled with jam of orange and lemon peel, cherry, pineapple and fig, covered with fresh ricotta cheese and chocolate. It was such a delicacy for the palate.. that coffee did not get me cold sweats, nor did I get nervous, nor did I get in a bad mood. I have never been able to drink coffee in another country other than at the Cafe di Roma in Rome.
We were super relaxed, at night we would go to dinner in Trastevere, an area with centuries of history, medieval streets, the construction of the first churches of the IV century and the worst stone floor to go in heels ... after dinner we went to smoking shisha and drinking tea. We never argued and William was watching me all the time. I think he knew that as soon as he left me alone for a minute, I would be surrounded by several beautiful, bohemian and super elegant Italians with whom I would practice my Italian and I would no longer pay any attention to him, taking revenge on him of course ...