Advertisement
We have just spent the past two and a half weeks traveling around the countryside in Southern Spain (Andalucia province). Before we left Malaga we sent the last night enjoying the atmosphere of the Festival de Malaga which was a week long multicultural festival. There was also an international film festival on at the same time. We enjoyed a variety of tapa dishes from around the region, and also many varieties of beer and wine.
Our next stop was a little town called Tolox, which is a small town situated at the foot of the Sierra De La Nieves (a large national park mountain range). We caught a local bus to the town (we weren´t exactly sure where we were going as no one spoke any English but we managed to get there ok!) We had booked into a hotel above the town called Hotel Cerro de Hijar, up the mountain about 580 metres above sea level. The view was quite magnificant from this ascent, we could see many of the towns in the area and out to the ocean from our balcony.
Aside from the amazing views, the main reason for staying there was because we were doing
Festival de Malaga
Enjoying the food at the festivala Spanish course for the week. We had a 2 hour class each day with our teacher Silvia. Our Spanish has improved somewhat however we still have a long way to go before we will be able to make conversation with the locals (the local dialect here makes it even more challenging for us as they pronounce everything differently to the Spanish spoken within cities).
While we were staying in Tolox, we went hiking to Cerro Corona (Cerro meaning mountain, however there was no beer there unfortunately!) which was around 1200 metres above sea level, and at the base of Torrecilla which is the largest mountain in the region. The hike was quite amazing, with no other people in sight, except for a couple of mountain goats that we disturbed along the way!
Apart from our Spanish lessons and some hiking, we spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet (and also sampling the delicious cuisine in the hotel restaurant!)
From here, we were invited to stay with our new Spanish friends who we met at the retreat (Krishna and Aaron, the hiking extraodinaires!) They live on a beautiful farm situated about 6km
Nightlife in Malaga
Enjoying a few cervezas at a bar in Malaga from Tolox in a valley. Here we really got accustomed to the Spanish way of life, which mostly revolves around La Almuerza (also called La Comida), which is their lunch and the most important meal of the day. We tried to make ourselves useful around the farm, Ali helping out in the kitchen and even cooking Anzac biscuits on Anzac day! And Stu demonstrating his skills at working the land! He helped plant some new crops, and helped replace some pipes to provide water from the spring.
Their farm is also quite close to a town called Coin (pronounced Co-en) which the boys and their family visit frequently to run errands, visit friends etc. We decided to spend our last few nights staying at the local hostel as Coin is currently celebrating Fiestas de Primevera, a three day long festival where everyone seems to consume copious amounts of food and alcohol! The whole town comes alive and all the shops close while the celebrations are on.
Our travels have come to a close again as we have another week working at the retreat from tomorrow.
Until next time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0428s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
