A sweet pueblo situated above the Mediterranean Sea tucked at the base of the mountains. It has been voted “the prettiest white village in Andalucia” multiple times and it comes by this award honestly. The old town maintains its traditional moorish layout with maze like streets and stairwells that are the width of one car or less. This town has plants and flowers all around adding to it’s charm. There is even a resident donkey WAY up at the top of the village hanging out in his white washed stall. We settled in here for our last 5 days in Spain.

Our resident donkey friend.
Aqueduct built hundreds of years ago that still transports the towns water.
Green lizard – unsure of the species

It dawned on us the other day that we have been here to pass through a season. True, we’ve been chasing the sun and warm temperatures. Our choice to focus on Andalucia was purposeful, and we are finally watching flowers and trees begin to bloom! Especially after the rain. It poured a few nights ago and I heard the earth give a great sigh of relief. It’s been a drought winter and farmers are worried about crops. Everywhere our travels have taken us the locals say the same thing: Dry year. So we did a joyful dance when the drops started hitting the balcony. The hiking was lovely with views from both the top of El Fuerte and the vally in the dry river bed.

Avocado trees laden with fruirt, ready for harvest.

A major crop grown in this area are avocados. We had a chance to talk with a young man harvesting the trees. They pick them long before the fruit is ripe, as they ship all over the world and ripen on the way. We saw boxes at all the local veggie stands with costs of 2 kilos for 4 euros. Thats about 1$ a pound! If we could, we would have stuffed our luggage to return home with them!

We have enjoyed cooking and embraced the “spanish style”. Everything tastes great when enough good olive oil is drizzled on it accompanied by salt and pepper! This meal was a step out to try callos y garbanzos, which is tripe (or cow stomach lining) and garbanzo beans. While it may sound tough if you aren’t used to the idea of eating all of the animal, it’s quite good. It certainly is in line with my environmental values. Meat is an expensive commodity to raise, let’s make good use of the entire animal! I’m curious to see if I embrace this philosophy when I settle back into cooking at home. Dinner guests be warned!

Pretty good meal: raw zuchinne with olive oil, olives, callos y garbanzos, bread and red wine!

And so we enjoy our last 5 days in Spain before turning our thoughts towards returning to America…..