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Published: October 26th 2010
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This morning, we left the mountains of Zahara de la Sierra and headed south to the Costa del Sol, or the sun coast. We were headed to Nerja, a tourist destination on the Mediterranean famous for its beaches... but even more famous for its caves.
Exiting the highway and heading into town, I studied the driving directions I had printed off Google Maps, still naively hopeful that they might actually get us to the hotel without incident.
Driving in Spain, Lesson #2:
You know how Colorado Springs has Cheyenne Road and Cheyenne Blvd? Spain does that, too.
I had finally learned how to locate street signs, and was overjoyed when I saw the sign for our street, Calle Gomez. The roads were, of course, ridiculously narrow and jammed with cars that were half in the road and half on the sidewalk. We circled the general area looking for any sign of the hotel for a little while, then I finally told Kevin to park (in front of someone's garage since there was nowhere else to), and I dashed into a pizza parlor to ask for directions.
I summoned all of my skills from my two years
of Spanish in high school, and asked the guy at the counter if he knew where Hotel Puerta del Mar was. He cocked his head, so I said hopefully, "Calle Gomez?" He said, "Balcón de Europa." I said, "Huh?" He whipped out a map from under the cash drawer and pointed.... "Pizzeria." And pointed again, to the other side of the map... "Calle Gomez." Ah. Wrong Calle Gomez.
We finally made it to the underground parking lot, and found our hotel on the "other" Calle Gomez... which by the way is not actually a street, it's an alley that you can't even drive on. The hotel was beautiful, and right on the main square of Nerja, which is called... wait for it... Balcón de Europa.
The Balcony of Europe, as it were, was home to a Moorish castle in the 9th century. Today, it's teeming with activity as tourists pose for photos with the bronzed King Alfonso XII, children play tag in the square, and waiters scuttle between tables at the many cafes.
We wandered down to the beach, and sat on the stone wall enjoying the sound of the waves crashing against the rock. The view
of the town built into the seaside cliff with mountains in the background reminded me a lot of
Sorrento, an Italian town I was lucky enough to visit a couple years ago.
Back in the square, a crowd was gathering in front of the church. We watched with interest, not sure what was going on. Pretty soon, we heard the drums of a band approaching. They marched around the corner and stopped in front of the church. Then we stood around for a lonnnnng time, waiting for... well, we didn't know what. People milled around wearing black clothing and carrying ornate silver staffs. The band members had broken their formation and were lounging around smoking cigarrettes. We started to wonder about Spanish organizational skills because the whole thing looked pretty haphazard.
After a while, the chuch doors opened and we craned our necks to see... whatever it was we had been waiting for. A long line of children filed out carrying candles and marched around the corner out of sight. Surely that can't be it? The band didn't move so we figured we weren't quite there yet. My feet were starting to hurt from standing on the tree
root that I was using as a booster to see over all the heads.
Finally, the band straightened up again, tossed their cigarettes, and started playing a high-pitched melody. We peered into the church to see who was coming out... a priest? A noble person? A really, REALLY big... angel.
The Archangel Gabriel lumbered out of the church on the backs of ten burly Spaniards. They were moving him from one church to another, accompanied by quite a bit of fanfare as it turns out. Fireworks boomed in the sky as the band followed him along... 10 steps at a time because he was so heavy they had to stop and rest. It was actually kind of neat to be in the middle of it all, mingling with the townpeople who had all come out to watch.
The next morning we visited the Caves of Nerja. The caverns stretch for almost 5 km and have a chamber so large that they use it as a natural amphitheater for concerts. The caves actually contain paintings from the Paleolithic and post-Paleolithic eras, though we didn't get to see them because they're in a section that's reserved for spelunking. But
Caves of Nerja
Hall of Phantomsthe formations we did get to see were amazing... the Hall of Phantoms was my favorite, where the rock formations rise eerily out of the floor like ghosts from a long-forgotten past.
We wandered through the chambers for close to an hour, each new shape more interesting than the last... ribbons of rock folded up like an accordion and stalactites cascaded down in muddy waterfalls. Finally, thoroughly spelunked out, we emerged back into daylight and hit the road again... headed north this time to our next adventure.
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Aunt Sandy
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Loved your Pictures Kris, thank's for sharing these.