We stayed in Cala Joncals. Cala means little beach and we were in a tiny cove in the middle a nature reserve. This photo was taken from a 70 meter hilltop nearby. Notice the lack of any roads, villages, developement. It was stunning.
But to get there requires going on some very interesting roads, like this. When you see a sign like this in Spain, it is getting pretty serious.
And the last 6 km is a terrible, rocky, guard-rail-less, mountain road like this:
Yikes! That last 6 km took almost an hour. The first time down (and the only time we actually drove down it), we were quite "white-knuckled" upon arrival. Ah, but arrival was wonderful.
Here is the backyard of the resort. This is what we saw every day during meals. These trees are olive trees, and the owners said that they got some 4000 kilograms of olives last fall!! They use them solely for the olive oil in the restaurant.
Ah!
If you go for a little walk in the mountains to the next cove, this is what you see:
This is the path up the mountain. We did this several times during the week--nice excercise and a beautiful area (as you'll see).
And now, dear friends, here are some of our favorite photos in the hills of Spain.
Quite the mountain man, eh?
Our resort is in the background in the picture above. And that beautiful blue water is where Sterling got to dive every day! More on that later.
And here you can see the Mediterranean Sea.
One more beauitiful vista along the mountains near the resort. Don't forget, you can click on the picture and see a larger version!
Scuba Diving
"Le raison d'etre" was, technically, scuba diving. Although thge water was very cold (12 to 13 degrees C, about 55 degrees F), Sterling was well prepared and had a wonderful time!
Sterling had the whole place to himself for most of the week. He had two personal guides, Bastien (top) and Martine below. Note the lovely look on the face of the boy who did not want his picture taken! :-)
He couldn't get enough water time so he skipped rocks! The rocks on this beach were the best skipping rocks we've ever seen! Virtually all of them were flat, and most of those were round.
One of Sterling's dives was a night dive. He
really enjoyed that!! This photo has been lightened quite a bit (digitally) so you can see the features. Notice the white line in the sky--an airplane crosses this several-second exposure!
They had powerful lights under water, which you can see in this eerie photo!
The Food
They call her "Mama Ferrari" because the road that took us 45 minutes to traverse takes her less than 30. She drives like a maniac! But she prepared all the food for the resort, and it was wonderful. They say (and they have the photo to prove it) that Salvadore Dali thought Mama Ferrari's paella was the best in the world. It really was very good! She is making some in this photo. Joanne took photo this during a private cooking lesson with Mama.
Quedeques
We took one (and only one) side trip on this vacation: to the nearby town of Quedeques (pronounced KAH-de-kehs, but E often got confused and called it kay-suh-DEE-us). The proprieter of the hotel drove us (very, very slowly) there, and this is one vista along the way.
And here is the village as we go over the top of the mountain.
We visited one of the Dali homes while we were in Quedeques, and here is the view that Salvadore would have from this home. Not bad, eh?
Beautful Scenery and Flowers
And finally, to wrap up this lengthy post, here is the moonrise over the bay one evening.
One of the more impressive aspects of the beauty at this resort were the wild herbs, in bloom! This is a lavendar flower! We took dozens of pictures of these gorgeous blooms!
This is how they grow:
I don't think this is an herb, but it is succulent and beautiful.
One aspect of this vacation that this post does not capture is the people at the resort. As it turns out, we were the only guests for the first four days. They were all so wonderful. We felt like part of a big, Spanish family. (Our close friends and family can ask for photos of these wonderful people--we felt it best to leave those photos off of the blog.)
All in all, a woderful trip!
Sometimes little fingers know just what to do to put a smile on everyone's and anything's face!
And sometimes grown-ups also beautify our surroundings.
The walk back down was through meadows and the sounds of cowbells drifted on the breeze.
But then Elliott got the bright idea to cool his feet in the stream. Uh, where do you think that water comes from, E?
Remember those snowy mountains?
Très très froid!
The scent of wisteria was everywhere in the village.
Ah!
This is the path up the mountain. We did this several times during the week--nice excercise and a beautiful area (as you'll see).
Quite the mountain man, eh?
And finally, to wrap up this lengthy post, here is the moonrise over the bay one evening.
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