Tarifa: At Life's Crossroads

It was the day before we fly back home after a busy week-long holiday in Southern Spain and Gibraltar, packed with last minute meet-ups, rushed sight-seeing and job interviews in between. It would have been the only day we would be left on our own throughout the trip, when we could finally relax and we decided to spend it in Marbella's Old Town. But when we reached the motorway, instead of the planned right turn, John made a last minute detour and took the road that would lead us to the Spanish port town of Tarifa at the bottom of Andalusia's stunning Costa de la Luz.

Punta de Tarifa is the southernmost point of continental Europe and all that separates it from Africa is the narrow Straits of Gibraltar. Strolling along the walkway with the wind blowing your hair, one is faced with the stark contrasts of the heaving Atlantic Ocean and the calm Mediterranean Sea crashing in its shores. It is no wonder then that this quaint little town attracts a regular flow of surfers throughout the year as well as bird watchers following the steady visible passage of migrating birds during the changing of the seasons.

But for us the lure of Tarifa is due largely because it is a setting of The Alchemist, the only fictional book that I managed to force John (who grew up with an annual subscription of National Geographic) to read. This was where Santiago started his journey to discover his personal legend after meeting with the two people who convinced him to chase after his dreams - the gypsy woman who interpreted his dreams and the King of Salem who told him about Personal Legends and the Soul of the World.

In the early days of our courtship, John has promised to take me there but never had the chance to do it before we moved to the UK. He wasn't to let the opportunity pass that day and perhaps there was no better time. Just like Santiago, we are in an in-between place of choosing what we have dreamt about and something we already have.

As we navigated the narrow alleyways of the charming Old Town where at one point we saw a promising display of street football, I couldn't help but wonder about the conflicting emotions that would have gripped Santiago as he wandered the same streets. He was just about to sell his herd, his loyal companion throughout his travels around Andalusia, to chase after a future that is unclear, a predicament that we also face. But as the book has more than once quoted, the only thing that comes between a dream coming true is the fear of failure.

When we left Tarifa that day, I felt a little bit braver, as some who have visited this place before me have probably experienced. I remembered another quote from the book that I held in my heart (a bit idealistic for his tastes, if you must ask John), one that the Alchemist himself has told the boy:

"Don't think about what you've left behind. If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you have found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing in return."

We can always come back, but we should never wonder what might have been.