Spain and Beyond

Daily Drena: Jumping, Climbing, Skipping

We continue to relax, hike, and work. Today we drive to hike around some beaches that are popular in the summer, but they are empty now, and very pretty. The Playa Monsul beach is famous for its beauty and has starred in many films and commercials, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Unique lava formations have eroded to create a picturesque cove, and the sand is fine, and the water, crystal clear.

Other parts of the coast are very rocky, perfect for skipping stones. Diego is still the master. I sometimes get a couple to skip.

Daily Drena: Memories of Portugal

Today we take a short drive to a short walk along the coast (between Escullos and Isleta del Moro). It feels a bit like Portugal, because of the beautiful rugged terrain and because we have the place almost to ourselves. The coast is very rocky with ancient volcanic action, but turn 180 degrees to the inland view and it looks a bit like Utah, very desert-ish.

San Jose is quiet and sleepy in the winter. It’s nice.

Except when we arrive at the grocery store at 3 in the afternoon, only to remember that darn siesta time fooled us again!

Daily Drena: No smoke alarms anywhere!

This place feels like vacation, and we are making our best attempts to unwind. This means sleeping in and trying not to feel too much pressure to explore everything all at once.

We are excited to have an oven again, the first one so far in Spain, so we immediately try to cook a pizza the proper way. Our Granada way was to cut it up into pieces to heat in the microwave, then put it on a pan on the stove for final crisping. Diego presses a lot of buttons on the oven, and when we open it, waves of billowing smoke spews out. We turn it off and actually find the oven manual in a drawer, but pressing the buttons again only produces more smoke. We start the self-clean operation, but after looking around our smoke-filled condo, we decide we would rather not use the oven than set the place on fire or breathe it in all week, so we bail and take the microwave-to-pan approach once more. (Where’s that Calle Horno when we need it?) We spend the rest of the day finding a balance between airing out the place and trying not to freeze the place. Later, we take a drive to a nearby beach to explore a bit.

The coast is so beautiful and our view from our smoky condo is amazing!