Well its been a while since the last posting, simply because late evening blogging has been regularly displaced by late evening/early morning socializing with Toni & Ralph (Jerseyen's) and Marie & Paul (cousins)... At any rate, this posting does not cover any of our sojourn's activities over the past several weeks (which hopefully will be posted shortly, say the next week or so), but focuses on the first half of August.
1 August: Firstly, just to provide some appreciation of the traditional construction of the casa (house) of the La Alpujurra, a view of the ceiling above our bed. So those are major wood beams (say 10 cm, 4 inches in diameter) with smaller transverse wood pieces mortared above them, and then flat slate rock laid on top of that (when you walk on the roof it looks like a rock, pebble, sand landscape sort of thing). This can be disconcerting for a civil engineer when analyzing the structural integrity of these edifices! Best not to over-analyse it I found after several nights of wakefulness!
There was a mulberry bush in full bloom above the casita (remembering it is on a steep slope that the village resides upon). Here is Frankie and Luca getting good ole red hands from attempting to pick these extremely ripe berries.
2 August: After a rather longish car trip to check out the eastern Alpujarra, we finally made it down to the major river (Rio Guadalfeo) near the town of Orgiva, which is below the confluence of the two major rivers of the southern Sierra Nevada (Rio Poquiera and Rio Trevelez). First up was crossing the river that did require the use of the support branches for younger members of the party. Shortly after this picture was taken I saw a rather large trout, which excited me greatly, but alas with no fly fishing apparatus I could only ponder the great battles that may have taken place with the plethora of likely 3-4 kg brown trout in this stream. By the way, there are no fish in the Rio Poquiera as there is way too much vertical gradient.
Luca contemplating the interaction between solid objects and fast moving water on a bridge footing.
Illustration of a regular occurrence in the lower elevations of being somewhere and all of a sudden a shepherd and his flock suddenly appearing. In this case a mob (flock) of sheep along the Rio Guadalfeo.
3 August: The Griswold family pact during the Spain portion of our holiday was for each of us to choose one activity each and everyone had to participate eagerly. Today was Robsie's day (first of the cab rank) and it was off for a cultural experience to check out the Alhambra palace in nearby Granada. We were quite fascinated by the history, architecture and vibe of the Alhambra, but reluctantly I have not provided any of that info to y'all here (I'm sure you are appreciative). First picture is in the gardens (jardines) called Generalife just outside of the Alhambra proper. By the way, getting any pictures was difficult as this place is tourist central, elbow to elbow sort of stuff.
Luca being a good sport and posing for 'Chevy Chase - Clark Griswold - Jose Romero' within the Alhambra. Somehow I managed a David Copperfield (US) - Dynamo (UK) sort of illusion with the number of tourists in this picture.
Sam illustrating his photography talents by taking this quick snap of us in the famous courtyard of the lions, and showing his illusionary prowess with the camera.
A miraculous image of three Moorish royalty standing in the intricately carved doors of the one of the mini-palaces of the Alhambra 600 years ago.
After the Alhambra, we took in a bit of Granada, which was one of Robsie's and my favorite cities during our 2004 European tour. Here's Frankie interacting with one of the many street performers in the city.
The old Moorish quarter of the city is full of activities for shopping enthusiasts, food for culinary senses, and plenty of bars for those of us who fall in neither of the previous activities. Here is the family settling on what the price target is for negotiating/bargaining with the vendor for several items.
A view of the Alhambra battlements and palace from the Rio Darro district, where we were having dinner. This is a particularly nice spot during the night when the Alhambra is lit up.
Waiting for dinner and filling the time by examining our purchases in the Moorish quarter (Luca and Frankie), affixing La Liga soccer cards to the sports album (Sam) or having a refreshing drink (me).
4 August: We re-visited our river spot on La Cebidilla (16 July) as we felt there was more to offer at this location that we had not explored previously, we were right. About 100-200 m above the furthest point we got to on 16 July, we happened upon a very nice spot with a great swimming hole (no pics as 'natural' swimming occurred) with a nice waterfall on a side tributary, and a fallen tree across the river that provided an arboreal activity setting for the kids. First, a nice shot of the kids in front of the waterfall, very nice spot.
Luca shimmying across the tree across the river.
Sammy celebrating after mastering the tree bridge across the river.
Frankie enjoying being suspended about 2.5 m above this stream in the tree.
5 August: On this day we re-visited the small pueblo (no stores) of Fondales in the region of small pueblos below Pitres (in area on 25 July) to attempt to find a swimming hole on the Rio Trevelez. This area has a lot of gradient and the river goes through a gorge, so no pools were to be found reasonably safely as getting the young ones down to the river was risky. It was a very hot day, but we managed to find a tributary to the Rio Trevelez in this area with a pool to cool down. Here are the two sisters trying to get dry and be 'sun smart' at the same time (there is a big drop off on the other side of the rock, this spot had both parents on full alert, not particularly relaxing!).
Then lo and behold we were accosted by goats and the attending goat herder. Timing could have not been better as our 'natural swimming' formalities had come to an end a mere 5 minutes prior to the invasion. Luca amazed by the ability of these split hooved animals to seamlessly navigate amongst the cliffs of this area.
OK goats, y'all take the high road and we'll take the low road.
During my great trek to the top of the Pampa ridge on 23 July I did spot a number of Ibex. Ever since that day Frankie had been regularly asking to go on a hike to see if we could spot them again. Well this was the evening that the moon and stars aligned, and off Frankie and I went in search of the elusive Ibex. After about 20 min of hiking up the mountain to the area where I saw some previously (without a camera), Frankie spotted two of them. Here's an iconic picture of one of them about 50 m from where Frankie and I were. Note Frankie also spotted a large male Ibex near the summit of Mulhacen on 31 July, pointed it out to Robsie who had the camera, and as luck would have it, the camera jammed! At least we got a picture for the archives of an Ibex Frankie on this outing!
6 August: Today involved a change of venue from the mountain redoubt of the Sierra Nevada to the spectacular coastal arid region of Cabo de Gato (apparently the driest place in Europe, many spaghetti westerns made here in the day). We tried to get accommodation on/near the beach, but August is holiday time in Europe so the best we could manage was to secure a traditional house in the old part of a desert pueblo called Nijar at the base of some arid mountains, about 20 minutes from the beach (actually a great place). The motivation for this transition from mountain to 'nearer to sea' was that our good friends from Jersey (Toni & Ralph) and their two kids (Tess & Herbie) were rolling into southern Spain (hereafter referred to as Jerseyen's). Well we arrived at Nijar first, Luca was plumb tuckered out so she just fell asleep on the cool marble floor.
All of a sudden instead of 3 kids their were 5. Water guns are always a good ice breaker!
Lots of energy here! Best to just take them to the local plaza, give them a big ole feed, and then tucker them out playing games in the plaza with 1 of the 4 parents (how did I draw the short straw?).
Well the end result was good with 5 tired kids sleeping blissfully so that the rather late-ish initial proper catch up (actually all of the nights were pretty late) between Toni, Ralph Robsie and myself could ensue.
7 August: Well the next day it was off to the beach, namely to Las Negras. Toni and Robsie comfortable on the beach under the umbrella, perhaps a bit more than the rest of us ;} as seen in the next shot.
Well the beach was not optimal (hot, black sand, quite a bit of reef), so we stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to head back to Nijar. Found the local municipal pool and that was just fine, kids having a few helados and the parents had a few cervecas at the bar.
Kids evening dinner on the Terrace of the Nijar house.
8 August: The next day we decided to give San Jose, the major town in the area a go. It was a very busy beach, but Toni used her experience in such Mediterranean beach circumstances to secure a bit of real estate along the front row with our toes in the water. Robsie and I were suitably impressed, and thereafter quickly adopted her antics. Here's a shot to give an indication of the beach goer density.
Also had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach.
9 August: Next morning (after another rather late-ish night), we took the kids up to a old tower above town, on the way up we came across this interesting hobbit-ish door.
And the view of Nijar spilling down the slopes of the arid mountains behind was well worth it. In the distance you can see the coast and a lot of white in the valley between. This white phenomena is somewhat of an aesthetic blight on the landscape, these are actually greenhouses that grow a significant portion of the veggies for Europe during the winter months, recalling that this region is extremely arid with high proportion of cloudless winter days, that makes it suitable for this type of endeavor (though again a mega-eye sore!).
Luca well and truly did not have ample opportunity during dedicated sleep periods, so she often got in a kip-nap-siesta when possible, as in this case on the beach sleeping under the beach umbrella with Robsie.
Helados in the shade next to the beach, what more could you ask for...
10 August: Well today was a travel day with the Jerseyen's from Nijar to Pampa. We found a beach about halfway to spend a couple of hours to cool down via swimming and to have lunch. There was actually a bit of wave action on this rocky beach with a steep dropoff, which provided somewhat of a challenge for the younger members of the party.
This nearby dingy converted into a outdoor bbq, was used to cook a variety of seafood. This convinced us to have lunch at the restaurant that the bbq was servicing.
11 August: Back at Pampa all the kids spent a significant amount of time at the cat terraza (several 10's of metres from the Casita Alpajurra), obligatory portrait pictures of all the kids with a cat follow.
We then decided to head up to the same swimming hole that we went with the cousins (Francisco, Marie Angel, Hugo and Luca) on 21 July. Here is the same mirador (lookout) with the high Sierra Nevada in the background above Capeliera that we had a previous shot with the familia on 21 July with all the kids and the adults this time around.
Back to that lovely pool on a small stream above Pitres, the water was substantially warmer this time around with the decreased flow and high country snowmelt. Enticement for Sammy into the pool was procured by offering to get him 3 packs of La Liga cards (Spanish League Soccer Cards) if he made the plunge. He did it.
Everyone chilling out on the rocks after swimming, i.e. being lizards on hot rocks.
We also spent a bit of time on this stream that was several 100 m below the stream we swam in. Substantially more flow and colder. I actually slid down all of these slides but it was the wrong type of rock, ended up with a number of lacerations and was bleeding all over the place like a stuck pig! Doh! Ralph and I hiked up this tributary to a couple of wonder waterfalls, unfortunately Ralph took his camera and I didn't take ours so no pics (you could send me a couple Ralph!).
12 August: The goodbye picture just before the Jerseyen's departure as they start their journey back to their lovely island home. It was a shame that we only got to spend 1 week with them. Ralph and Toni you could meet us in Ischia or Greece perhaps in September?
