Saturday, August 06, 2011

Zahara de los Atunes, Cadiz, Spain - Week One

Dear Lisa,
It's Saturday and we've been here in Zahara de Los Atunes for almost a week. The apartment is lovely. We have plenty of space, two different balconies with views of the sea. We are slowly settling in to the pace of life in southern Spain. That means you get up late - nobody moves much 'til about 11 in the morning. This makes sense when you see that nobody goes to bed until after mid-night. You won't get food in a decent restaurant until after 9 in the evening and even then you will dine alone! Everything happens later. Lunchtime starts around 3pm - at least that's when people leave the pool or the beach. They return around 5 or 6 until sometime after 8 when they start to get ready to go out.


Zahara de los Atunes, Uploaded by M+MD.

So we have been trying to settle into the same rhythm. There are benefits - it is too hot to sit in the sun in the afternoon, so it makes sense to go to the beach at 5. Even then it is still very warm - but the burning sun is less intense, the water is still warm and by 7 it is still very pleasant - even with a breeze. By 8 the breeze makes it cooler and it's time to put onn a tee-shirt or go home.


We have managed to settle into this pattern - getting up about 11; wandering down to the pool around 12.30; heading back for lunch around 3; heading for the beach around 4.30, finally we have managed to wait until after 9 to head out to eat. Though by the time we hit the restaurants we are ready to eat and we are usually leaving the restaurant as the local holiday makers are beginning to fill the tables.


The Pool

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On the Roof

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This is a very Spanish resort. We have heard English, German and French voices just once or twice. Even in the supermarket we only hear Spanish voices. Of course, we have no Spanish worth talking about - though we manage through this handicap. The younger Spanish will speak some English - but others have had no need to learn or use it. What are we like! It's hard to believe that someone would come to Ireland on holidays without a word of English - they certainly couldn't rely on much help in their native tongue from the locals! But we have managed to do the equivalent. It is all part of the adventure!


Zahara Sunset, Uploaded by M+MD.

Yesterday we had our first real day trip. We headed 30 kilometres down the road to Tarifa - the bottom of Europe. Africa is just 35 minutes away across the very narrow Straits of Gibraltar. We might take the ferry to Tangiers next week. Tarifa is the kite-surfing capital of Europe. It was quite a sight to see the hundreds of kite-surfers on the beach. The old town of Tarifa is charming to walk around and we found a good restaurant in the middle of it.



Tarifa

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Lunchtime Tarifa

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On the way home we called into Bolonia beach which is famous for it's sand dune - just a little too famous because after waiting in a queue for the car park for 15 minutes it was clear that we weren't going to get in! So we went home to our own beach instead - just as good even if there is no sand dune. Anyway it's much to warm to be climbing sand dunes.


Sunset behind Trafalgar from Zahara Beach, Uploaded by M+MD

To-morrow we will drive the four hours to Quinita de Lago in Portugal and stay the night with Gerry and Cath. More about that later.

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