A case for learning Spanish

It's been a really busy month since we returned from Belize. We got reaquainted with that white stuff that we abhor - snow; had three visits with Brad and Anette in Edmonton; and had a great time seeing family and friends.

Roger spent 3 weeks in Spain in order to prepare a drill for shipment to Albania. While he was there, we accepted an offer on our condo, so I spent the time packing up the remaining things we wanted in storage, and sold the rest.

Brad and I received an email one day from Roger, and we've been laughing ever since.

Roger said he ran out of peanut butter, and didn't have time to go to the store in Seville (a 3 hour round trip). So, he thought he would try some of the ham pate that he saw people spreading on toast in restaurants. He went to the section of a small store that had spreads, jams, etc., and bought 3 cans.

A couple of days later he invited an Australian from the mine over to our apartment for a beer. He showed a can to the Aussie, mentioning that it was pretty good on toast and not a bad substitute for peanut butter.

The Aussie gasped, "That's cat food, mate"!!!

Roger replied, "Well, the first can tasted a little too much like liver, but the second can was better"! And as Roger said to Brad and me in the email, "They didn't even have a picture of a cat on the can to help us poor Gringos"!

Poor Roger. We try not to make "catty" remarks, but there are times we just can't help ourselves!

Roger returned to Calgary on April 12th and left for Panama on April 18th for a few weeks with the company he worked for in Spain. I hope to join him, but if it doesn't work out, I'll head to Idaho.

In the meantime, I've told Roger to stay away from cans with "comida para gatos" on the label!

Wow.....Ronda

“You desperately have to go to Ronda”. Brad and Anette wrote those words in their blog more than 3 years ago when they traveled through Ronda on their European odyssey. Their pictures and enthusiasm for this blanco pueblo in the mountains south of Seville made this one of our ‘must go to’ places. We were not disappointed.

It just took a 2-1/2 hour drive from Valverde, on a beautiful fall day to arrive at this spectacular village. The village is known as being the birthplace of bullfighting, and home to El Tajo –a 330 ft gorge spanned by the dramatic 18th century Puente Nuevo bridge.

We would love to return and see more of it, but while we were there, we had an incredible lunch, poked around shops and kept gazing at the jaw dropping scenery.

Once once again stumbled upon an unexpected treasure – a market that had the air of a medieval fair.

There were stalls with spices, candy, tea and chocolate....delicacies of north African cooking....

...a tarot card reader that I saw reading a newspaper article about Obama....

...and an eco-friendly merry-go-round (the horses were made from recycled tires, and it was powered by a court jester riding a bike!).

The sights, sounds and aromas were intoxicating and a fabulous place to people watch.

As in most towns, the church is the focal point. Once the Sunday service was over, we toured through the beautiful and ornate 13th century mosque – the Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor.

Ronda wins top spot for me of the places we’ve gone to while in Spain --- Roger said it was a “very close second to being around boats” – which we all know is very high praise!

Show and Tell

Roger and I became tour guides when our friends of almost 30 years, Kathy and Randy Cardon, came to visit us for 4 days during their whirlwind trip of Europe.

We had a great time showing some of our favourite spots, and exploring those on our “must go see” list. As in most things, some of the best things in life have been those we just stumbled upon.

After spending a day where I showed Kathy around Valverde, and Roger took Randy to the mine, we had a wonderful dinner in a restaurant just down the road from our apartment.

The next day we started off by going to see Grutas des Maravillas in Aracena, the caves we had seen when we first arrived. Kathy and Randy were as awestruck as we were of the deep caverns, lakes and formations that we explored on our tour.

Afterwards, we drove to Alamonster la Real where we hiked to a 10th century mosque and got a great view of the picturesque village below. Roger gave me a boost so I could see over the wall!

Although we’ve driven to Sevilla a few times, we have never walked around the city and had always been told it was one of the most beautiful in Spain. We were not disappointed and it held up to its top billing. After reading guidebooks, we thought Toro del Oro, the Cathedral and Plaza de Espana would be the highlights, but instead, our favourite places were those we didn’t plan to see.

We were walking by the Plaza del Toro, the bullring that took 100 years to build and by chance saw it had a museum. We checked it out and decided to take a tour which was incredibly informative and gave us all a new appreciation of this part of Spanish culture.

The guide told us how there are several staffed operating rooms within the complex ready to care for injured matadors and that bulls that fight the perfect fight are spared by the matador and then used for breeding.

The bullfighter’s chapel is very beautiful and the bullring itself seats 14,000 spectators.

We then came across a plaza that was teeming with families out for a Sunday walk and checking out the Salvador Dali sculptures. The atmosphere was so vibrant, we enjoyed just sitting on some steps, listening to music, having a beer and eating chips, olives and almonds sold by street vendors.

Sevilla’s Cathedral was breathtaking – not only because of its sheer size, but for the beautiful stained glass windows and towering ceilings.

We strolled to Plaza de Espana where a Star Wars movie was filmed – the plaza was built 80 years ago and relatively speaking seems like it’s a “youngster” in terms European architecture but it was still beautiful to walk around and the tiles are incredibly intricate.

Sevilla really is a beautiful city – there is still a lot to see, but it was special seeing it for the first time with good friends.

Hasta luego.

Nuestra casa es Su casa

After a month in the hotel, and eating late at night – we were more than ready to move into our furnished apartment in Valverde del Camino. It is brand new and in a great location that allows me to walk anywhere I need to go – plus it has good parking (which is very important here). Our landlord is a very nice man, whose daughter speaks English and has been a huge help to us and acts as her father’s interpreter. The only drawback is that we still don’t have phone, cable or internet as this block hasn’t been wired and we have decided that “manana” does not mean tomorrow – it means next month!

We have 2 bedrooms with 2 small enclosed patios (emphasis on small) but large enough where I can dry laundry in the patio off the bedroom, and BBQ in the one off the kitchen and living room.

Some of you have heard about our hot pink kitchen and it has been fun trying to decorate without having our place look like my Barbie playhouse from the ‘60s!

Note we don’t have an oven (which isn’t too unusual I’ve heard) and our washing machine is in the kitchen. (Good thing I learned how to cook without an oven while living on our boat, and in the Kalahari!)

Spanish tortillas are similar to a potato frittata and muy delicioso! I decided to give it a try, and even managed to flip it onto a plate and back into the fry pan without having it break apart!

Not sure what the proper etiquette is, but on a very windy day this week, a woman’s thong, with its clothes pin still attached, landed in our patio.....Unsure who it belonged to, and certainly not prepared to knock on all my neighbour’s doors like Prince Charming trying to find the owner of the glass slipper, I ended up putting it in a bag and attached it to the railing in the hallway with the clothes pin hoping the owner would recognize the clothes pin..... Just hope that one of the little kids that live in the building doesn’t find it first and use it as a slingshot!

Here are some pictures taken within a stone’s throw of our apartment to give you an idea of what our neighbourhood is like. We live right across the street from Casa Direccion (you can find it on Google maps) which is the former mansion of a mine owner, and is now a museum surrounded by beautiful grounds. As in virtually all the apartments in Spain (and many parts of Europe) the sidewalks are right up against the buildings so everyone has bars on their windows.



Orange trees line the streets, and there is a park across the street from us where at night you can hear a multitude of birds while they feed.

I’ve taken the cue from many and have terracotta plant pots in the window sills which make them seem less “jail-like”. Even buying the plants and pots was a great “Spanish” experience. I went to a small gardening store and over the course of purchasing everything managed to speak some stilted Spanish with the shop owner. By the time I left, we had introduced ourselves and she had come around from the counter and gave me a hug and kiss on each cheek. Muy sympatica!


The supermarket is great and only about 50 yards from the apartment. I use what Roger has dubbed, “my granny wagon” to carry groceries home.

As you can see from the picture taken inside the store, there is an area set aside for these carts as most people use them, and they can even be locked up if you want. Mine is the stylish blue striped one!

I found this church while on one of my walks – it is really beautiful and sits high on a hill so you can see the town below.

Many towns commemorate their unique characteristics by erecting beautiful sculptures. We’ve seen monuments depicting everything from pigs, to mining, to Virgins, and to Valverde’s leather shown in this photo.

Bullfights are still very much a part of Spanish culture and most towns have a bull ring. We haven’t been to one and doubt if we will. In my early 20s I saw bullfights in Barcelona and Mazatlan - I think that’s more than enough and Roger isn’t keen on it either.

Our friends Kathy and Randy Cardon are going to be our first visitors, and we’re looking forward to seeing them. We plan to show them some of the favourite sights we’ve seen so far, and hopefully discover some new places as well.

Please consider this an open invitation to visit a part of Spain that doesn’t get a lot of attention, has lots of character and is definitely not a tourist trap. And unlike our last “home” in the desert – there are no snakes to worry about!

Nuestra casa es Su Casa (our home is your home).