Days 13 & 14

Days 13 & 14

On Saturday we took an early bus to Nerja, which is a coastal city about an hour and a half from Granada. It was very beautiful, and on the way there we passed by parts of the Sierra Nevadas and the closer to the coast we got the more agriculture it got… I learned that Spain produces something like 70% of the world’s avocados… isn’t that crazy? Anyway, when we got there we dropped our stuff off at our hotel and then walked into the downtown area. The area of beach we were going to was a ways away, but the walk was beautiful so it was okay J The water was a lighter blue than the pacific… not SUPER light blue… but more of a medium color, and for the most part it was transparent. Also, there was no sand, just rocks, but many of them were super pretty.

The beach was definitely a spot for tourism, and was very crowded. Germán told me that you can tell who is a tourist because the genuine Spaniards don’t wear hats or sunglasses when they are in the water… so he was pointing them out, “There’s a tourist. And there…” haha so of course I didn’t wear my hat or sunglasses in the water! Also, it is very common for women to walk around topless at the beach but MORE common for older women to do it… My host mom said the older the woman, the more likely she is to walk around half naked at the beach… which I found funny, because I would think it would be the opposite.

The weather was perfect, in the mid-80s, and the water was probably around 70… it was slightly cold at first but then you got used to it super quickly… SO much better than the Pacific! For lunch we went to a restaurant that is known for its paella and of course, had paella. It was pretty good… I really liked the rice… but not so much the prawns that were still fully intact… One of my group members said you just have to pull their heads of and then all the little legs and everything… I tried, but when the prawn started squirting blood onto me, I couldn’t do it… :P

We stayed at the beach most of the day, and later returned to our hotel for dinner… I think that hotel food is universally “hotel” food… if you know what I mean. Not too great, not too bad… Then my whole group went out for the night in the downtown area where I discovered that sales people are REALLY annoying in Spain. No matter how much you say no thank you to someone offering you “free shots” they just WON’T leave you alone! And another thing which I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before—people try and sell you things WHILE YOU’RE IN A RESTAURANT. The waiters move out of their way so they can come up to you and try and sell you watches and purses and stuff… it’s kind of annoying, but definitely different than California.

The next day we went to a different beach about a half hour away which was much less crowded. It had sand for most of the shore, but the part directly touching water was rocks once again. I went swimming again because it was just so nice, and then we spent the day at the beach again. We ate lunch at a little restaurant and then we all got to go on a Catamaran (no idea how to spell that) and to go kayaking. However, we were all kind of freaked out because a guy in our group had been in the water earlier and had been hit by what he thought was a jellyfish but then turned out to be a spine fish… he had to go to the hospital and everything, so none of us wanted to touch the water. The Catamaran was pretty awesome… it was kind of like sailing I guess, but the water looked really beautiful and from the boat you had a great view of the white town on the hill near the beach. All of the buildings were solid white, which is SO pretty from a distance! It reminds me of Gondor (sp?) from Lord of the Rings. We also went to a little pueblo before the beach on the second day (I don’t know the name of it) but it was also all white buildings, and it was very old. There was a building from 1600 something there… pretty awesome. It also had some pretty spectacular views…

Overall, it was awesome to see the beach! I definitely like the warmth here better than in Santa Cruz… but I’m happy to not be in the sun today J it’s exhausting!