Just watching the sea

Ted. You may think that Judy and I are busy with adventures every day. The fact is that most of our time is taken up with the same mundane activities regardless of where in the world we happen to be living. Most of our waking hours are spent cooking, cleaning, exercising, reading, shopping for groceries, texting, emailing and playing games. 

For the first time, in my recollection, we are living in a place with a sea view so I have a new activity; watching the sea. With four large windows we can watch the sea from every room (yep – even the bathroom!). 

Our living room window

It turns out that our local sea is technically the Alboran Sea, which is one of 15 marginal seas that make up the Mediterranean (visit Wikipedia if that sounds confusing). 

Take a look at this map. Our apartment is the blue dot in the upper right hand corner. The beach is about 600 feet south of us as the seagull flies. The center of town is about a mile west of us and the airport (see the blue circle with the plane in it?) is about 6 miles southwest of us. 

Sunrise - out our window to the left

Sunset out our window to the right

We can watch all of the ships visiting the port. I have found a website called marinevesseltraffic.com, which shows the exact location of every ship in the world, along with a detailed description. Along our coast I see tankers, container ships, ferries, more specialized vessels and cruise ships. I love being able to tell Judy the name of the ship anchored off shore. Today it’s a container ship called the Alana (she’s thrilled!). 

We can also see the planes as they approach the airport from the sea. Thanks to buddy, Walt, I have an app called Flightradar24 and can simply point my phone at a plane on the horizon to see what it is (Judy - that one is an Easy Jet from Birmingham, UK! Was that a snicker?)  There are lots of local pleasure craft, sailboats and fishing boats. There must be a rowing club here because a group racing shells comes by every afternoon. 

And then there’s the water itself. It's different every hour. The color changes from aqua blue to steel grey. One day it’s a millpond and the paddleboards come out. The next day, there are five foot waves pounding the shore. 

Heavy surf pounding the jetty

I just can’t stop watching the sea. And with all of the horrors underway in Ukraine right now, watching the sea is probably the healthiest thing I can do.

Quote du Jour

 "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

    - Martin Buber

Cave of Ardales

Ted. While Ben and I walked the Caminito del Rey, Judy spent the morning exploring the village of Ardales.  She found it to be a typical charming, whitewashed, hilltop Andalusian village.

In the afternoon, the  three of us met for lunch and then drove to the local Prehistory Museum to take a tour of a nearby cave. 

The Cave of Ardales is protected and only 1,000 visitors are allowed to enter each year so there were only 10 of us in the group. We formed a small caravan and drove out into the country, past beautiful blooming almond trees to the cave entrance. 

After an earthquake in 1821 caused a crack in the earth on the hillside, humans entered the cave for the first time in more  8,000 years. Apparently the cave had been occupied continually for tens of thousands of years prior to that. At times, it was a living space and at other times it may have been a sacred space. Roughly a thousand drawings still decorate the walls; petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings). They are mostly animals but there are some random colorings and several stylized depictions of women (none of men). Debate continues as to the age of the oldest markings and whether or not they were done by Neanderthals. Recent studies indicate that the oldest paintings may be 65,000 years old! 

We were not permitted to take any photos in the cave but I located a video in which the director of the cave wanders around, describing some of the artworks. It’s in Spanish but the images are exactly what we experienced. There are no electric lights. We were each handed a little flashlight to find our footing. Everyone but our guide had to turn off our flashlights when we looked at a drawing. Here’s the link to "The Time Machine":

 

I have never seen Paleolithic cave art before and the intimacy of our group made the space even more magical; like an ancient cathedral. When Ben, Judy and I finally emerged into the light, we were breathless from the wonder of it all. It seemed to me that the current problems facing our world were a little bit less significant having just witnessed artwork produced over much of the history of our species.

A rendezvous with Ben

Ted. By the end of our first week in Málaga, Judy and I had settled into a routine. Walks, cafes, stocking our kitchen with groceries, reading, and card games filled much of our days. We were warmly welcomed back at St George’s Anglican church. And then Ben arrived. 

While Judy and I had were living in Oaxaca, Mexico in late 2019, we once again volunteered at a wonderful NGO called Envia (see Envia.org). Judy worked in the office and I joined a team giving after school English lessons to middle schoolers in the village of Teotitlán. I was asked to team teach with a digital nomad named Ben and we immediately hit it off. He is a true world citizen and, though much younger than I, has visited far more places around the globe and is fluent in 7 or 8 languages. Ben currently lives in Prague, enjoying multiple streams of revenue; consulting, updating guidebooks and leading tours. We have kept in touch and often spoke of getting together again so it was great to learn that he wanted to fly down to Málaga for a week. 

Ben had to work a good bit during his visit but we were able to take walks and meet for some meals. One day he came to our apartment to enjoy some of Judy’s “soon to be world famous” ratatouille. 

This past Friday, Ben rented a car so that the three of us could head into the nearby mountains for adventures. He and I were interested in taking a walk along the Caminito del Rey (the Little Path of the King). After seeing photos of a suspension bridge over a gorge, Judy opted to explore the nearby village of Ardales instead. Years ago, the Caminito had the reputation of being the most deadly hike in the world. Here’s a link to a video showing what folks encountered along the way: 

In 2015, a new path was constructed and it is now much safer. Today, folks of every age can enjoy the majestic views, if they aren’t bothered by heights. Here’s another video I found which shows what Ben and I experienced: 

Here's a couple of my snapshots along the way:

We celebrated a wonderful morning with a mediocre lunch in a glorious setting and then prepared ourselves for another adventure. But then, that will need to be another post. So, stay tuned...

Back on the Road

Judy. After a week of last minute family hugs, doctor visits, and scurrying around the house making sure we'd packed everything, we took the transport to the airport to head to Málaga via London. We've done this so often now that it's definitely easier, but still exhausting.

We'd booked our flight to Málaga separately from our flight to London, but didn't think twice about that till we'd checked in and were on our way to security. Suddenly Ted stopped, looked at our boarding passes and luggage claims, and did a complete turnaround. We forgot to make sure all was checked through to Spain! Dashing back to the counter, we explained our situation, and the wonderful gate agents moved all kinds of heaven and hell to change things and catch our luggage in time. Whew! With only two hours in London, we'd never have been able to get the luggage onto the next flight--or worse--have it stranded in London while we tried to figure it out! It was our gaffe, but British Airways took care of us in a heartbeat. Love that airline.

Since we were so early, we headed up to the lounge for a snack and drink before our 10PM flight. While sitting there, we got into a conversation with a British family sitting next to us. Of course we had travel as a mutual interest, and one of the adult sons, Jack, is an engineer, so he and Ted had lots to talk about. The second son, James, is studying graphic arts, so since Stefan is a graphic designer, we had lots to talk about. The whole family was into rugby, one of Ted's interests, so while we intermittently watched the football playoffs, we enjoyed talking to them. Turns out they have a second home not too far from Málaga! We gave them our contact info, and before we parted ways after the flight, Sandra, the mom, said, "I have a feeling we'll meet up again!" Boy, I hope so.

The flight--at least business class--was pretty empty, so it was easy to pull out the lie-flat beds, watch a movie, and catch a snooze. We had enough time when we arrived in London to go through security again, walk around a bit, and hop on the super crowded flight to Málaga. This time we'd chosen to save money and sit in regular coach. I guess I hadn't realized how spoiled we'd become! In the first row of coach, the curtain separating us from extra comfort kept hitting me in the arm, and the rather large gentleman next to me kept me pulling tightly into myself. It was a great reminder of how fortunate we are. We've come a long way from the days when we didn't fly often. Now we're much pickier, and, with the help of frequent flyer miles, can usually fly much more comfortably.

But on the flight to Spain, I got a huge gift. I never learned the name of the gentleman sitting next to me, but he shared his story--something I will never forget. He had flown coach from Nova Scotia (we chatted a lot about Halifax, where he grew up, and which we really enjoyed), but was too excited to sleep. 

It seems his wife died last year. They had planned to do lots of travel, and she was the one who did all the internet planning, just as Ted does for us. At the urging of friends who spend the winter every year on the Costa del Sol, he had decided to go to the town where they stay and spend a month. He said he had a hard time figuring out all the online paperwork for travel, booking the appropriate tickets, and finding an apartment, but had finally done it. He seemed to alternate between being thrilled and terrified, saying, "I'm so excited I can't sleep," and "What if I hate it? Well, I guess at least I'll hate life in southern Spain, and not in the snow." I told him he had wonderful friends who would make sure he DIDN'T hate it, and I hoped it would be the first of several trips. Every now and then he'd turn to me and talk more about it. My dear friend Patty who is from Alberta, says that in her experience, the Canadians who live in the Maritimes wear their hearts on their sleeves. He was so dear and so vulnerable that my heart really went out to him. His friends were to pick him up at the airport, and the last I saw of him he was standing by the baggage carousel. I so hope he's having the time of his life. 

Arrival in Málaga and the taxi to our little apartment overlooking the Mediterranean was a breeze, and our landlord took lots of time to explain things to us. Although we walk out to a street and have a beautiful view from every room, we are actually the basement of their home above us, which is accessed via another street. Later they lowered paperwork and a bottle of wine from their terrace to our window via a basket on a rope. Well done!

Good  morning, Mediterranean!

This visit we moved from the center of the old town to further up the beach. The weather is warm (70 degrees today for my US friends, 20 for the rest of the world), Málaga is masked and not as busy as last time, and we've had time to walk the beach, go through town to get a coffee, and see how the Christmas decorations are being repurposed for Carnaval later this month. We found a little snack bar nearby for coffee or a light lunch, and a grocery store that's a bit of a disappointment. Better to walk to the Mercado and take the bus back. Our friend Ben, whom we met in Oaxaca, is flying in from Prague later this week for a visit. We're settling in for a long stay!

Coffee away from the tourist area

Málaga prepares for Carnaval!