June 22nd, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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June 16th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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June 13th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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Kate knew I was having a pretty rough week and suprised me with a
weekend cabin rental on the Cartecay River. The whole family is in
heaven!
June 8th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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June 6th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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June 6th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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June 4th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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I started to panic a little bit when I didn’t see Winston in the front yard. I called and called but nothing. I ran to the side yard sure that I would find a hole under the fence. All of that hollerin and nothing. He could at least have given a little grunt to let me know that he was just maxin in the love seat.
I guess he was working off that chip and a half he scored a Willy’s.
June 3rd, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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April 9th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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| Nerja kicks off Semana Santa with a parade from Iglesia El Salvador at the Balcon. Here, Kate and I had been waiting about 20 minutes for ?The Main Event.? |
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| We showed up to the Balcon de Europa around nine excited to see what was going on. The dusky blue sky and yellow street lights gave the event a very cool lighting backdrop. |
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| There was a pretty big crowd of mostly non Spanish onlookers. Later we figured out that all of the locals who were not in the parade were in bars watching the FC Barcelona football match. |
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| We had a few minutes to goof off waiting the show to start. |
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| Yes, that is me in the same brown jacket that I wear in all of our pictures. I don’t have that many choices here so lay off! |
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| The moon was almost full. |
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| OK, finally under way! Believe it or not, this is not Alabama in 1968. It is hard to believe that something so deeply religious for Spanish Catholics has such an evil reputation in the U.S. |
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| Seriously, if you didn’t know what was going on, this could be a pretty scarry sight. |
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| Kate is pimping her cute new pink Euro-scarf. |
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| Hey Honey! |
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| Finally, The Man, The Myth, The Legend made an appearance. The crowd wooped it up. |
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| The traffic jam was to severe not even for God himself could get the tourists out of the way and J.C. was stalled out for a good 10 minutes. |
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| Considering the size of Nerja, there were actually a ton of participants in the parade. Forgetting all of the Klan’s Men and children carrying crosses, they had to convince a heck of a lot of teenage boys that it would be cool to carry Jesus around all night. That certainly must have been a miracle. |
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| Finally, Jesus is on the march. |
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| I left this shot in to show the rest of the crow at the opposite end of the Balcon square. Kate is a big fan of Geraniums on the white arched wall in the background. |
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| Jesus’ ride had quite a posse of cherubs. |
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| Since I was raised Presbyterian, I’m used to seeing Jesus depicted with half a doze adoring children a couple of baby lambs and a big smile on his face. This is no Easter Bunny celebration! |
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| A protestant just doesn’t know what to make of all this Catholic idolatry. |
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| I should look up the symbolism of the different waves, but a group of blue hats streamd out of the church next. |
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| The parade was an impressive show of religious conviction. Unfortunately the pace of the parade didn’t match the participant’s entheusiam and about this time Kate and I decide to have a look around for a new tapas joint. |
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| I couldn’t resist taking this picture of Kate becuase the scene so accurately sums up the Spanish tapas bar experience. Hams hanging in the background, tapas in the cold case with queso rounds on top, vino tinto de la casa and boogerie olives on the bar. This little place had some killer mushrooms. Two tapas, olives, a glass of wine, and a coke for three Euros. Awesome. |
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April 6th, 2009 | by admin | Posted in
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| We planned on making the Navachica hike two weeks ago but Kate and I had to cancel last second becuase my leg was busted up with shin splints. Fortunately for us, weather canceled the hike for everyone else and we got to try the whole thing again today. |
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| The day started out cold with a serious hazy fog hanging over the entire cost. After about an hour we hiked up above what had not burned off. You can just make out the leftover fog behind the tree in the center. |
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| Navachica is the hightest peak in the area at 1800 Meters. Almost the entire approach runs up this dried river bed. A few years ago massive rains filled the entire bed with rocks. I’m not talking about one section, I’m talking about 3 hours of gully washed rock slide debris. It must have been a hell of a rain storm. |
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| The lower appraoch was really spectacular becuase of the size of the surrounding mountain/cliff walls framing the freequent views back to the sea. Every kilometer brought an amazing new vista. |
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| The camera could not capture all of the light range in this picture, but the overexposed background is actually a fabulous steep mountain face drenched in the morning sunlight. Not to mention it was towering above us and since we were on our way to the hightest point around, we had to go even higher. |
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| Did I mention the river of rocks? It was not bad on the way up but on the 8th hour on the way down, we were ready for some stable ground. |
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| Steve, Ruth, and James were super fun on the hike. The Brits and the Yanks made a great team. |
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| Our first rest stop about 2 hours into the climb. |
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| It doesn’t look like it in the pictures, but the sky was as blue as it could be. A heat haze hung low over the entire coast all day but by the time we reach the top we could still see Nerja and the Mediterranean. |
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| With about an hour to the top we were finally out of the river bed and the views really opened up. Over my righ ear, you can just make out the forest service road at the base of the hike. |
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| The last half hour was all above the tree line. In this picture we are about two minutes from cresting the ridge… |
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| …opening up an amzaing view of the Sierra Nevada. And wow, the wind really started whipping around up here. |
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| A few minutes and couple of false peaks later and… |
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| Finally! We made it to the top. 8:50AM – 1:30 – All up hill. |
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| The geography on the opposite side of the ridge is completely different. The Granada planes appear dead flat and are covered with olive orchards that create perfectly symetrical black polka dot patterns. You can just make out a beautiful lake in the bottom right. |
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| James made sure he was the first out of our entire hiking group to the top. The youngest and the first, as he pointed out. Good job James! We all had lunch huddled against a low rise rock wall to try and keep out of the wind. A serano and Havarti baguette with fresh alvocado. Delicious! |
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| Flowers were in bloom all over the hike, not to mention the endless expanses of lavander blanketing the sides of the trail. |
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| I think the hike down afforded the best views of the day. The steep rocky slopes are amazing and completely diffrent from our Appalachian hikes. A few hours later and we were back to the car by 6:20. A fantastic nine and a half hour day with amazing scenery, and no accidents, pop outs, or blisters. This is one that won’t soon be forgotten. |
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