The first thing that struck me about this area was that all the buildings are white or pastel colours. This was done because the temperatures can reach 57 degrees Celsius in the summer! We drove briefly through this city of 150,000 people and then into the countryside, in the Costa de la Luz area. Everything was quite green, and we saw olive trees and umbrella pines. It was neat to see storks sitting in huge nests, and bulls not far from the road, the latter being groomed for bull fighting. We did a photo stop near the Cape Trafalgar lighthouse, which marks the site of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Finally we had some free time in the seaside village of Conil de la Frontera. It has narrow cobbled streets, lined with souvenir, clothing and jewelry shops, which were open even though it was Palm Sunday. The area relies heavily on tourism, with the only other industries being agriculture (including sunflowers, olive oil and vineyards) and fishing (tuna and anchovies). We ate some amazing ice cream and drank some Horchata, which is much less sweet than ours at home. There was an excellent flamenco guitarist busking and selling CD’s, and although I briefly considered getting one, his music sounded the same after a few minutes. On the way back Michael spotted flamingos standing in a pool of water! And we drove over the second highest bridge in the world, built to mark the 200th anniversary of their constitution. Unfortunately they ran out of money, and it was completed three years late!
After returning to the ship, we heard marching bands commemorating Palm Sunday, which were loud and seemed to play forever! I fought having an afternoon nap, as it interfered with my sleeping last night, but in the end had to give in. I was pleased at being able to walk, albeit slowly and with stops, in the village for close to an hour. Having just more or less abandoned my air cast, and not being able to walk for months from spinal stenosis, I guess I should be pleased with the progress so far.
This evening we saw an amazing flamenco dancer accompanied by a superb violinist, in what they described as flamenco fushion with classical violin music. When we’re in Barcelona we’ll be attending a flamenco dinner/dance, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more of that style of music and dance. But for now I’m packing it in early, as I have rarely felt so tired, and am hoping that my body will be better adjusted (and rested) by tomorrow when we’ll be in Morocco.
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