Linares

This a is a very pretty little town between Alajar and Aracena that we have decide that we might like to live in. They have the most beautiful cobblestone work outside their front doors and the biggest collection of very friendly cats

Aracena photos

Tavira

Last Sunday we got up nice and early, made a huge fried breakfast and headed off to Tavra in Portugal. Mum and Dad have been there several times and it is a lovely little town that we had really been looking forward to seeing. It takes about 3 hours to get there from the Sierra, going past Huelva and over the bridge at Ayamonte. We left Cortegana in a howling gale which had been blasting all night long. The storm had hit almost all of Spain and caused havoc further north in Barcelona and Madrid. We had had crazy wuthering winds blasting down our little street and sounding like it was ready to pull the roof off. Thankfully they make rooves by laying a concrete pad and sticking tiles into it, so the chances of that are nonexistant. By the time we arrived in Tavira the sun had come out and it was suprisingly warm. We stopped and had coffee and pastries in a lovely little cafe on the main square. We had a good giggle that except for one table of germans the entire clientel was english. The Algarve is a very popular place with the Brits in the winter as the weather is usually nice, and so the place is swarming with middle aged english people.
div>We then walked up to see the local castle. It was originally built by the Phonecians on the site of a neolithic fortification, so is almost 2000 years old in bits. It is now the most beautiful enclosed garden with some of the most frightening stairs Fran has ever climbed up. They go straight up the castle wall, get very narrow at the top and have no railing what so ever. In a very strong wind it was rather hair raising.

The view was well worth the climb though and you can see all of Tavira laid out below you, also the little old man grilling up his fish in the back garden right below the castle wall. We could also see a rather intersting looking dome over the other side of town, that we decided to check out.

Turned out to be an old Carmelite monastery from 1737 that had been converted into a life sciences institute. We found a nice big supermarket on our walk back towards the car that sold Casal Garcia, our favourite vino verde and bought some delicious portuguese buns. If there is one thing the Portuguese do incredibly well it is bread. We have yet to meet a bun we didn´t like. We got hit by a rather nasty little squall on the walk back to the car and so headed off to have lunch the same restuarant that Mum and Dad ate at last time they were in town. It is a must do if you are ever in Tavira. Called Las Tes Palmeras, it is a mostly, outdoor retuarant with a huge open bbq in the middle. we sat down and they brought us fresh tomato salad, bread and boiled potatoes and a litre of most excellent, cheap house wine. As it comes off the bbq they bring you fresh, catch of the day fish, and keep bringing it till you can eat no more. It is also accompanied dripping garlic bread straight from the grill. The fish comes complete with eyes, fins and bones, but we have never had such fresh, succulent seafood. And for having lived on the West Coast for 15 years that is saying something. When you have had your fill they bring along the fruit basket, and you can eat fresh fruit till you are well fat. The whole meal cost 46euros for 4 0f us and was more than worth every penny. The fact that the 2 guys running the grill get to drink beer and smoke while they work shows the difference in attitude between the europeans and north americans too. After fixing a flat tire in the garage next door, we set off back towards Spain. We had seen a postcard to a place called Pego do Inferno whilein town, so when we passed the sign to it on the road, we thought a side trip was worth it.

We wound our way down a tiny little road through pretty little villages and orange trees and ended up on a dirt track, with quite a few Portuguese people. Ater a nice 10 minute walk through the countryside along a little stream we came out at a gorgeous water hole with a waterfall cascading over the side. It appears to be a local swimming hole and must be hugely busy in the summer time.

After that nice break we set off for Isla Christina, a beach resort on the Spanish side of the border to get our toes wet, grab some seashells and watch a little of the Huelva Betis ( Seville) match in a rather dingy little pb that served most excellent coffee and rather good 1 euro wine. All that left was for Mum to stay awake as she drove us all home, for another 2 hours, to a dinner of bread and cheese.

moving back into town

Well the Boxing Day viewing went very well so unfortuntley for us, the finca has been sold to a vet and his wife from Seville. So we heaved all our stuff up the track to the car and moved back into town with Mum and Dad Light. We were very sad to leave the constant baaing off all the new baby lambs, but it does mean that we will concentrate more on learning spanish and hopefuly getting some gainful employment. We did get to watch our local flock gain 13 new lambs before we left which was great fun and they made the most incredible amount of noise, as did their dog who went crazy every time we did anything in the house. We have been hanging out with David and Christine at the Trueco a lot too, playing lots of backgammon, occasional music and watching terrible american tv on Portuguese channels. So life is really not too hard. Well except for having been tken for the ride of our live by the moving company. Never ever ever trust some one that you have to give a large amount of money to and then they take everything that you own hostage. We had asked all the right questions, thought we had checked out all the important facts, and then we get a call saying unless we pay $2000 they will not deliver our stuff to Spain . Aaargh, so we go and pay it. Then a week later we get a call from Barcelona saying our stuff is at the dock, we have to pay the dock fees and hire a customs agent and then pay for the stuff to go to Huelva. What do you mean the stuff is in Barcelona, the deal was that it was to go to Huelva! Well the shipping company has dumped the stuff at the dock with a COD on it and if we want to see our stuff they want another 1500 euros. So in all we have ended up paying over $6000 and still didn´t have our stuff. The nice man in Barcelona said that this is the most common thing that happens to foreigners bringing stuff into Spain and that the moving companies screw people over all the time with it. Finally a month after the original bastards said we would have our belongings, a guy with a pallet jack delivered our stuff into the street outside the ´rents house and we had to haul it up the stairs. At least we now have it and are never ever going to trust any of it to a shipping company ever again!

random photos

As we were away from town and easy access to the web we were very slack about filling in the blog. So here are pictures of what we did for that month and hopefully now we will keep up with things on a more regular basis. In December we palyed music, ate way too much good food, got to hang out with the sibs, which was most excellent and they spoiled us rotten. All in all it was a great month.

Sheep on la Finca a ala Maida

Simon and the Cortegana Castle

Verve Cliquot and hibiscus flowers

aroche

christmas

apologies more is coming really!

to all of you who keep checking up on us and we have been SLACK! we apologise. as we have been mostly at the finca, we have no electricity, borehole water and no access to any kind of computer, internet tv, or really what is going on in the outside world. We have lots of notes as to everything that has happened over the last few weeks, but had no time to get it all uploaded so you can see it. christmas and new year were a blast. it did snow for a whole evening last week, in aracena thankfully not here, althoug it has been freezing! we have gone though a ridiculous amount of woo at the farm and it is very vey hard to get out of bed when you create a cloud everyime you breathe. we have decided toupload the photos that we have for the blog and will then add writing as fast as we can. Unfortunatley for usthe finca has been sold so e are having to move back i to town sometime nextweek, so will have to do all theupdating at that time. Till then w love you all and miss you and please be patient with us!

Seville

So we went into the big city for the first time in what feels like ages. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Seville from the Sierra. We awoke to foggy foggy skies but the drive out was beautiful and y the time we arrived it had mostly cleared up. Seville is surrounded by the most awful ring road system you can imagine, which has a huge collection of ´big box´stores. We headed into PC City first to get Mum Light a new keyoard, as hers is the worst one imagineable. We also got her a new mouse as part of her christmas present. Luckily there was a very nice Austrian girl who spoke very good english working there so we could ask all our questions without resorting to the precious little book. We then hit Leroy Merlin, the home repair geeks best friend in Huelva Province. Basically it is a giant Home Depot. After much ogaling of tools, axe heads, and seeds we managed to find a pressie for Dad Manley, Bosch drill bits, who could ask for more, and seeds for our garden. Have to love a place were you can plant crops in December. Next stop was Le Corte Ingles and Hipacore. Huge department store and supermarket. Oh the cheese aisle, oh the meats, ooh and mustard too. We are a little limited on what we can get out in the Sierra for food type things, so have to stock up on the condiments when in the big town. You get so used to having access to just about anything you could imagine in the supermarket in Vancouver, so its taking some getting used to that only one store in town has soy sauce, and decent mustard is very very hard to find. We also hit Lidl, the german grocer that is the place for cheap wine. .99 will get yo a good bottle of Navarra, 2€ wil get you a bottle of sherry, and2.50€ a brut Cava. Civilised country. (more to come)