One of the great things about Spain is that everybody speaks Mexican. But there are differences. Baños in Mexico means the toilet, but in Spain it means a bath/bathhouse. We got some funny looks.
Imagine if someone came up to you in Canada, looking for a bathhouse. That’s a different connotation.
Abandoned mines in Canada are very different from Spain. Canada is so vast, it’s not worth recovering equipment or scrap metal. In Spain, unless it’s encased in cement, everything has been hauled off.Spaniards like their pork. There is a saying – “Del cerdo, hasta los andares”. “From the pig, I like even the way it walks.” The mountain village of Trevelez really takes this to the extreme – almost every business in the town is pig-related.We struggle to buy milk and bread in Trevelez.
This thing could have been one of Hobart’s FunniesWonder where your honey is from? One nice thing about Spain is not being nickled-and-dimed. Parking is almost always free. Free showers on the beaches. Toll roads are rare, and cheap enough not to worry about.
The downside is service is often not great. Business hours are unpredictable, and I still don’t understand the logic behind who stays open during siesta and who closes.
Fortunately our mobile house makes us quite independent, so we keep the gas tank full, and the fridge full of beer and cheese.
These nice looking huts are actually a movie set from a show called “Exodus”.
The area around Almeria is is famous for movie making, starting with some Spaghetti westerns in the 1970s.
As flimsy as possible. I’m impressed they haven’t blown over in the last decade.Mesa Roldàn on the Cabo de Gata has this lovely tower, where Khaleesi “negotiated” with the slavers in Game of Thrones.We meet very few locals in Spain, so when Kevin and Troy invite us for tea, we make time. There are many retired Brits in southern Spain.
Kevin was a geography teacher and he gives us a copy of the book he wrote about the local area. (Flamingos in the Desert)
Down this ridge, we see the village of Palomares, which has the distinction of being accidentally nuked. It’s remarkable humans have survived this long.Spain is full of marble quarries. Sometimes, it feels like I’m back in China, in some city that only makes bolts. We go see this 1000+ year old olive tree, a quiet giant that has seen so many armies go marching by.We now have a better understanding of the crazy interplay of volcanic eruptions and ocean levels going up and down that has happened over the last 10 million years in the Cabo de Gata area.
Having the entire Mediterranean evaporate dry must have raised hell on real estate prices.
As we travel, we find lots of these signs explaining the geology of Andalucia. It’s a skill, to translate text to English while ensuring that no one can comprehend anything.This mining infrastructure could have been an Aztec temple.Camping is prohibited almost everywhere in Spain. Big signs, huge fines. Fortunately, sleeping in your car counts as Parking, which is free and allowed everywhere.Caves are everywhere, and pique my curiosity. Fortunately, they produce the same feeling as snakes and spiders. The lizard brain knows some things are dangerous.Spaniards love their bulldozers. This little cutie was whacking down the brush on a fire break.Van life has its inconveniences. Still, it beats working for a living.As soon as we park in Cartagena, these incredulous Calgarians shout at us. I guess they haven’t seen too many Alberta plates on their cruise.
Cartagena literally means New Carthage. This is where Hannibal started out with his elephants. It’s interesting that Rome ruthlessly crushed the Carthaginians, and couldn’t be bothered to rename the town.
I guess when your empire lasts for 2200 years, you learn to focus on what’s important…
Cartagena is under heavy renovation. I love how they are completely replacing the building behind the facade.This is a Roman theater. Spain does a great job of renovating, and leaving some obvious details old. 2000 years is a long time.I tend to ignore the unfamiliar punctuation marks on foreign languages. I learned 25 years ago that the tilda on Años is important.This isn’t the biggest cruise ship, but it’s close. After a few more stops, they sail across the Atlantic. Cartagena’s harbour is deep and well sheltered, no wonder people have been killing for it for thousands of years.I thought this was a swimming hole, and the Cueva del Agua turned out to be a cave full of water. For kilometers. In case spelunking isn’t dangerous enough.These psychos are going cave diving. I try to convince them that gliding is safer. After all, in the last 90 years, we’ve never left a sailplane up there. Hard to argue with a safety record like that.Cartagena harbour was defended by these battleship-sized gun emplacements. I understand installing these guns in a shipyard, but how did they get them onto this lonely ridge?For some reason, all the support buildings for the guns are made to look medieval. “Don’t shoot at that, it’s historical”Someone has turned this military observation post into their own bouldering gym.Agriculture in Southern Spain is interesting. Clearly, water is a precious resource. No evidence of flood irrigation here.Spain is so full of caves and history, that it feels like every valley has some Neanderthal art to advertise.One more week to go in Spain. We ferry to Morocco on November 10th.The nights are getting longer, and colder.Still, not getting too much sympathy from the folks back in Canada.
