hangin out with the expats

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Hola!!!

Hope everyone is well back at home. We have been spending sometime on the coast (Costa Del Sol). Spent sometime in the mountains near Granada but the temp was droppng to 1/2 degrees at night. Bought a big quilt from Carrefour and some warm p.js for James then came down to coast and haven't used them! Temp rose to 25 deg in the day, not falling below 15 at night!

Spent sometime looking at the Casa Ceuvos (cave houses) of Grananda. These houses are abundant in this region and quite fascinating. Some look like proper houses with extensions on the front, others are literally a rock with a couple of doors and windows at the front but inside can contain 14 or 15 rooms, dug out from the mountain they sit in. They are ecologically sound with the temperature inside remaining the temp of the rock (17 - 20 deg) all year round, so not much need for air con in Summer or heating in Winter, although they do have open fireplaces. During the 50's and 60's people left thier cave houses to migrate to the coast and cities for work and now they are becoming popular again as holiday homes. The great thing about them is that you can literally just dig yourself a new room whenever you like! Need some shelves or a wardrobe? Just dig one. why build out when you can build in!!!

We then spent a just over a week in Calahonda which is on the coast between Fuengirola and Marbella. At first this was quite a culture shock for us because the area is so British. Outside the campsite a street of British shops, fish and chips, British papers, hairdressers, supermarket etc. Good bus service to Fuengirola and Marbella, both of which we visited. Lots of friendly expats living here, they have caravans with awnings with 3 piece suites, washing machines plumbed in, a very low cost of living and almost permanent sun!! A great bar on site where everything costs 1 euro (large glass of wine, beer, coke, bottle of water, crisps) not bad for 67p! James spent time playing pool with the residents, mainly Brits, Spanish and Fins (who are apparently given a subsidy from thier government to spend the Winter here). He also won the pot of money in the weekly quiz by correctly answering a question about Pirates of the Carribean (he won 19 euros which goes quite far here!!!)

Spent a day in Gibraltar which again was very interesting, weird to see the Britishness out here in Spain, red phone boxes and British bobbies. We took the cable car up the rock and really enjoyed seeing the famous Barbary Ape inhabitants! You are warned not to carry plastic bags because the apes associate them with food, we saw one sneak up to a man who was looking through the telescope, rifle through his rucksask and then pinch his sandwich! The families are lovely to watch, the mum and dad cuddling and preening the little babies (I'm still talking about the apes by the way not the tousists).

We are now staying in Tafira which is famous for wind/kite surfing and is also where you can catch the high speed ferry to Tangiers an Morocco which we will probably visit. On our way to Portugal. Will attempt to load pics now -

Adios!

Catherine, Ian and James xxx

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Photos

Lake Negratin
Beautiful lake in the area of Baza, about 100kms from Granada

Sun farm
lots of sun and wind farms here

casa cuevo
One of the cave houses of Granada, there not all as grand as this one, but "No two cave houses are the same!"

The Local
The bar in the campsite, where James and Ian would hang out and play pool with the locals

Yum
Cooking sardines on the beach, we liked Marbella, especially the old town

The Rock of Gibraltar
Wild camping with the Rock behind us. It was free but it was also a Friday night and there was a disco nearby, noisy!

Cable car and Ape!
The apes come and have a nose at who is getting off the cable car, they look at us like we look at them

Bread pincher
The bread pinching ape who rifled through the rucksack.

Our favourite
This monkey sat in a very dignified way on a little ledge like a seat, thier "humaness" was unnerving

Comments

[Barbara]

Wonderful
Glad to hear you are all still enjoying yourselves. The caves sound facinating. I'd love to see them. Best wishes, B X