Daytripping on the Costa del Sol...

Buenos dias!  Well... it's the weekend, so it's time for another update from Estepona :-)  This week has passed by quickly, with both Norma and I settling into daily routines, as well as a couple of days out to travel along the coast to see something new or interesting.  Most days start later than at home in Caz, as the sun doesn't even rise until nearly 8:30 (a quirk of being on the far west of the single European time zone!).  With our generally good weather holding here (dry, with morning clouds, & afternoon sun), I've taken to walking into town to look for something to sketch in the mid-morning, while Norma works remotely on her SU development stuff.  Then I've taken several bike rides mid-afternoon to take advantage of the warmest part of the day--- usually with temps in the high 50's or low 60's. I did one long loop up into the mountains last week of about 100km, but with the amount of climbing thaty entails (8,800'), BIG rides are the exception, not the rule for getting exercise :-) 

 Norma gets out daily for a walk, either a longer one along the beach boardwalk, or shorter and up & down the hills in our neighborhood.  

We also took a couple of day-trips to get out and see a few new things and places.  Top of the list was a day out to Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. 

There is a really cool set of Roman ruins Baela Claudia) nearby that we visited in the morning, before having lunch in the old Moorish section of Tarifa.  Baela Claudia has been extensively excavated by archeaologists over the past 50 years or so, and there is a really nice museum on site that supplements the opportunity to walk around the ruins. 

Tarifa is also very well know for it's gorgeous beaches, and it's kite-surfing.  With it's location just out into the Atlantic beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, the wind blows pretty consistently year round--- and particularly well in the winter months... and the wind-surfers and kite-surfers really take advantage!

Yesterday afternoon we also drove east onlong the coast past Malaga to visit Nerja.   It's a small city about the size of Estepona, and sounded interesting from what we could see on line.   It turned out to be not too different from Esterpona, aside from being set on cliffs along the beach--- kind of reminiscent of Laguna Beach in California... a nice outing with a good walk & a little sktching thrown in :-)

On one of my afternoon bike rides this week, I drove 20 minutes down the coast to try a "re-do" of the loop that I got lost on last week.  This time I loaded the course onto my Garmin, and immediately figured out where my path got off xourse last week!  Most roads are very well marked here in Spain, with directional and distance signs posted regularly and in logical locations; but every now and then, particularly within a village or small town, they completely miss one, and that was the case last week ;-)  This week's ride ran up the Guadiano river valley from San Martin through orange & avocado groves to a "pueblo blanco" named Jimena de la Frontera, and then looped back down a second river valley to return to where I parked the car. 

 A beautiful ride with a bit more like what I'm used to in terms of climbing back in central New York (34 miles, 1500' of climbing :-)

The big "happening" this week in Estepona occured on Friday, when a HUGE dead whale washed up on the beach in the middle of town.  It was identified as a "Fin Whale" and measured about 12 meteres long (about 40'). 

Several hundred curious bystanders (Norma & I included :-) hung around while the local emergency services folks tried to figure out how to remove the whale from the beach, including a crane to load the beast onto a flatbed truck!  It was a miracle the bloated whale didn't burst while hanging in the air above the truck, while all the emergency crews tried to figure out how to best balance a load that was essentailly a giant bag of jello.  Yesterday we read in the local news that after getting the carcasse loaded and moved, it was refused at the landfill, so they ultimately brought it back to the beach, and dragged it back out to the water, and towed it well off-shore there they weighted it down and sank it... "concrete shoes... or fins in this case I guess?" ;-)

That's about it for week three in Spain... we hear it's a bit on the chilly side at home in Cazenovia, but not much snow, so hopefully folks are keeping warm!

Cheers