Merry Christmas

The fire's lit, table set and dinner ready.  I'm sitting on the couch with my mother-in-law watching an uber-dramatic Mexican soap opera and waiting for Angelines to come home for dinner.  Not what you might call a typical Christmas eve... but that's okay.

This year I've been more in the "Christmas Spirit" than other years, streaming the classic carols, painting ornaments, putting lights on my very first tree :), and knitting a surpise christmas scarf for A.  Tonight it's just the three of us (and Bela) eating Christmas dinner... a little sad, but I'm happy to be having dinner at our house--our first Christmas here.

I have so many things I'd like to write.  When I'm walking the dog in the late afternoon with the slanting winter light cutting through olive branches, I think of so many things I'd like to sit down and write here, but when I get a moment to sit down at the computer, my mind goes blank.

... And I was interrupted.

Christmas dinner is being digested--ham hocks with orange sauce in a pastry bowl accompanied with sauteéd zucchinni, onions and peas.  All that preceeded by shrimp, jamón, cheese, and nuts.  Tangerines for dessert.  I'm nearly falling asleep on the couch.  I'm debating simply going to bed.  But first, I have to write a note to Santa Clause.  After coercing Angelines into doing so (I'm planning to leave her scarf in her stocking), she pointed out that I hadn't written one--busted!  This year Santa's getting pestiños and aguardiente. ;)

'Tis the Season

My favorite reindeer!!

I realized today that I haven't even managed to blog about our Thanksgiving ...and here we are mid-December!

The truth is I just haven't been inspired as of late.  Yes, I've been busy, but there have been times when I've had more things to do and still managed to find time to blog.  At least two or three times a week I think to myself, "oh! I've got to blog about this!", but then the inspiration leaves me and another week passes.

Christmas is upon us!  This time of year is always particularly stressful for Angelines--long hours, more days of work, festivities in which she can't take part because of her job...  She doesn't like Christmas.  However, this year we've decided to change things up a bit and make the holiday more fun for both of us.  For the first time in seven years, I have a Christmas tree in my house!!  And despite the lack of evergreen trees here in Sevilla, we did not buy a fake tree--totally against my NorCal upbringing!

Today we went to a nursery and picked out a cute little fir tree: live.  Our plan is to plant it in the patio and we'll have a perennial Christmas tree!  True, if we do ever have a white Christmas (or what's more likely a wet Christmas), we won't be able to put presents under it, but we can still light and deccorate it.  I am please with our purchase and also happy that instead of killing a tree for Christmas, we're planting one!  I spent this evening putting lights on our little fir, pictures tomorrow.  Now I need some ornaments... ;)

And speaking of ornaments, I spent Thursday's English classes (5th and 6th graders) making salt dough ornaments!  We are going to paint them this coming Thursday.  So perhaps I should whip up some more salt dough and make myself some ornaments.  The only catch is the acrylic paint we need to paint them costs a fortune!  The kids made a lot, but I think I'm going to limit painting to just two or three.

Christmas has made it to the bar, too.  We have a tree (fake) put up and decorated, pointsettas behind the bar, and a nativity scene in the window.  Pub California is ready for the holidays. :)  This weekend, we're serving Christmas pancakes and the next two weekends we have music groups coming in to liven up the atmosphere.

Pub California's Christmas tree--just missing the tree skirt!

Light

Life has been stressful lately, but there's always time to enjoy the little things; like the amazing light through storm clouds this afternoon.  

I had to cancel my classes today because I cannot talk above a whisper.  The bad thing about being  my own boss is I haven't got any sick leave; but on the bright side of things, I got to spend a free afternoon with my sweetie.

We took the dog for a bike ride and caught this fantastic evening light.  Unfortunately, I forgot my real camera...but my phone does pretty well I think.  When we got home, we whipped up a delicious variation of banana bread that we'd seen this morning on our favorite TV cooking show.  Cooking together is something we don't do often enough--I love it!  Usually I'm alone in the kitchen and A is busy with other things, so it's a treat when we can test a new recipe together.  Dinner was a big salad with our banana treat for dessert.  Now I've spent the evening sitting by the fire making posters for the bar.  We've got all December's activities planned.  And just to round things off, I decided I'd treat myself to a quick blog. ;)

...So many little things add up to a great day regardless of this persistant cold of mine. 

Success!

All 36 credits of my student teaching have been waived!!! :)  Yippeeee!  Now I just have to fight with the registrar to try and worm my way out of paying all over again.  From my perspective, I've already paid for 18 of the credits with this term's tuition...but I'm afraid they won't see it that way.  In any case, it's only 10 euros per credit so much less than I was expecting.  If I have to pay the full 360 instead of just 180, I'll survive.

What a relief!

I promise a real update soon...possibly this afternoon because I've lost my voice and had to cancel classes! :(

Saying No

I really want to write a post about the fantastic BBQ we had two weekends ago... but I haven't done that yet because I want to share the pictures with you and, well, I'm short on time! (surprise, surprise)  I will do it this weekend though.  The short version: it was a more than wonderful get together and I hope we'll have many more in these dark, winter months ahead. :)

Other news:  I began and quit my student teaching this past week.

Tuesday was my first day and this is how it went: I got up at 6:30 in order to shower, had breakfast, and got dressed without having to rush around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I was out the door by 7:30 and arrived at school at 8:30.  I had a coffee to wake me up after the drive in a bar nearby and started my day at Centro el Duende de La Carlota at 8:50.  Classes are from 9-1:45.  The classes were fine, cute kids, dedicated teachers...but I had the sinking feeling that I had done this all before.  Of course, being my first day they weren't just going to let me loose with the kids, but I sat through most of the classes without saying more than "hello"!

My drive home was long and relatively uneventful.  I only got stuck behind one tracktor (but that set me back at least 15 min).  The whole way home I was thinking over and over about how to get out of doing this for the next two months...  The catch has been the tuition money from the beginning.  I've already paid some 1000+ euros for the class and that's non-refundable unless there's some problem with the school.

Still, by the time I got home, at 3:05 I was about to explode.  I scared Angelines as I vented over lunch.  We both agreed this just couldn't go on.  Money aside, I can't afford to spend so much time on this, especially when I've already DONE it for four years!  I gulped down lunch, got my things for class together and then jumped in the car again to go teach four hours with my youngest students from 4-8.

Exhausted doesn't begin to describe how I felt bythe end of the day.  Angelines and I talked about it some more and decided that Wednesday I would go just to tell them I was quitting.  I sat through classes on Wenesday, said my goodbyes, appologized to the directors of the center and got home around 3:45.  My classes on Wednesdays are 5-9, so once again I was completely beat by the time my last students left.

Thursday I spent getting together the paperwork necessary for the university to study the possiblity of applying my experience as a language assistant toward my student teaching credits (cross your fingers).  I spoke with the director at the school where I worked here in La Roda and his first words were, "they'll never waive that."  But after explaining my situation, even he admitted that really I had done everything AND MORE that a student teacher would do at the school.  He has written up a letter accordingly. ;)

This is the only possible way around the stress and gas money involved in student teaching.  I've lost this semester's tuition, but my health and sanity come first.  It seems I've finally learned to say NO!

When You Least Expect It

This is just an example of the random stuff I find when I'm looking for something else: children's song meets euro discotheque music.  Bizzare to say the least, but also kind of catchy. ;)  I came across this accidentally, but I'm planning to use this with my fifth graders who are studying animals and present simple verb structures.

Hope you get a laugh out of it!

...Just Do It!

Ugh!  I hate starting every blog with an appology for not having blogged sooner!  When I get as busy as I've been recently, it's hard to keep you all posted.  But trust me, I miss blogging as much as I know all of you miss reading my updates (ha ha).

...See!  I started this last night.  Okay, so you might imagine that the title of this post isn't a reference to Nike but rather my personal mantra as of late, especially where blogging is concerned: JUST DO IT!

No birthday's complete without cake!

All of my classes are going well.  Last week I came home euforic from my Tuesday classes (the ones with my youngest students--4yrs-3rd grade).  All of them went really well.  I told the mother of the little crier that I thought he was just too young and not ready for classes.  Forcing him to go to English class will only make him hate the language and leave bad memories.  It's far better to wait a year or maybe try again in the Spring.  She was disappointed, but it's really best for everyone involved.  

That class is actually surprisingly well-behaved.  Most of the students are boys who in general tend to be more active and less attentive; but I dare say the class is the best behaved I have ever had at that age.  All things considered, they listen, they follow directions, they participate...  There's one little boy who is a little rebel and likes to push the limits.  Last week he got angry because I scolded him for something and refused to participate for the rest of the class (ha!).  But I'm fine with him scowling at me as the rest of us sing and play. ;)  This weekend the mother of one of the three girls in class told me that her daughter LOVES it and asks her everyday, "Do I have English today?" :)

Angelines and "La Joshua" ;)

In general, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of staying on top of my classes and prep takes less time now that I have a pretty good stock of activities and more experience.  Plus, I can tell that my university classes help me focus and structure my lessons.  It's nice to feel like my studies are paying off.

And speaking of the university, I'm a little stressed out lately just because it's been a nightmare to find a school where I can do my student teaching.  Since my university is "out of State" the State gov. only allows me to do my student teaching in 100% private schools (not even a charter school will do).  The bad news about that is there are NO private schools near La Roda.  The closest is in Malaga.  I'll save you all the details, but the short version is that unless the school in Malaga doesn't want me or causes a lot of problems, on Nov. 11 I will begin my student teaching: 200 hours to be completed by Feb. 7.  That basically means 5 days a week all day for two months.  With gas prices as they are I am estimating around 800 euros to commute back and forth!  The only good news is that being in Malaga, there will be times when A can come along and do shopping, etc. while I'm at school.

Los Sabineros!

The bar is doing well.  Fall has been full of events.  You remember the 80s party when Sara was here.  Two weekends ago we celebrated our one-year anniversary.  We had cake and party favors and a drag queen show!  It was quite the experience.  This guy got up on the bar and pranced around... I thought for sure the bar would break.  Good thing he probably weighs less than I do!  But cleaning the next day we did find a chip out of the edge--nine-inch heels are hard on a bar.  

And Friday we had two musicians from Granada come play.  They do a tribute concert to a famous folk/rock singer in Spain, Joaquin Sabina.  The singer sounds exactly like Sabina!  And the guitarist is great, too.  They put on a wonderful show.  The people loved it!  We were nervous because we sold tickets to see them play--not the norm in La Roda.  The musicians said they would come with a minimum of 60 tickets sold.  The weekend before the concert we had only sold about 40... but by Friday we were up to 80 (!).  In the end we were turning people away at the door.  

It was a great experience, but also quite stressful.  Angelines had been worring about it for the two months that we'd been advertising and I was starting to get nervous, too when by the weekend before we hadn't hit the 60-ticket-mark for sales.  Things the night of were a little rough too just because we had to close the doors and have a friend taking tickets and controlling who came in, etc.  Angelines was VERY worried about selling too many tickets and made an executive desicion not to sell any at the door (I vetoed that a few times...).  Between the two of us we sold 10 at the door and turned away at least another 10.  At any given time we had about 85 people in the bar and now we know we can definitely fit at least 100-110 and still be comfortable.

We had a full house--it was a great show. :)

The musicians couldn't stop complementing us on the bar, the business, the sound set-up (we had to arrange for the sound and paid a guy from Sierra Yeguas to be there all night working the equipment).  They enjoyed themselves, the audience loved it and despite a few hiccups during the night, we were also quite happy with the turn-out and the show.  We are going to be in touch with these guys for future concerts now that we know how it all goes.  The next one we'll really sell-out. ;)

The most beautiful part: the armrest!

Other news: (what? more?!) we have a new couch.  Well, semi-new.  At the old house the previous owners had build a sort of storage box along one wall of the living room and then made cushions to go on top, a built-in couch.  When they left, they took the cushions, but left the box.  We decided we liked the idea and had cushions made to fit.  Well, when we left that house we took the cushions (they weren't cheap!), but we didn't have any base for them...until now. :)  Our carpenter friend made us a wooden base and the most impressive and beautiful part of the whole thing is the amazing armrest he designed.  He lovingly calls it contemporary art, and I do agree that it's quite artistic.  It's a beautiful combination of rustic and modern and it looks GREAT.  Our living room has had a total make-over and looks so sophisticated now!  We are waiting to have it completely finished because the space in this house is shorter than the other house so we have to cut one of the cushions to fit; but we are still able to enjoy the half-finished couch--what a difference from the other!

...As I was writing that, the man came to deliver the last cushion!  BEAUTIFUL! :)

The weather has finally begun to change; summer is slowly giving over to autumn.  Although some days it's still getting up into the 80s, the night time temperatures are dropping below 50!  And the other day it was cold enough in the morning that we decided to try out the fireplace--cosy, cosy. :)  I can't wait for winter to really set in!

Fall weather also means we've had a few storms and some amazing sunsets and sunrises.  I've got at least 20 pictures of gorgeous clouds on my cell phone from  my walks with the dog.  One morning a few weeks ago I had to stop my bike and just marvel: the sun was rising on my left--burning its way through pink and orange clouds; and to my right, a full moon was setting like a giant pearl on the horizon.  Spectacular.  Unfortunatly the pictures that I got were only with my phone camera and don't do justice to the moment at all.

Today we're having friends over for paella and a BBQ.  I'm frantically typing before they arrive.  ...Off to entertain! ;)

Year's first fire!!!!  

Dawn from our upstairs terrace--Beautiful!

About Time!

Sara's visit was a whirlwind of vino, tapas, long walks with the dog, talking into the wee hours... you know, the usual. ;)  And of course, I had purposely put off beginning my private classes until the week after her visit so the weekend immediately following her departure was spent madly prepping classes--all my dreams of planning and prepping throughout the summer were for naught!

Monday, is a day I've intentionally left open and we made an emergency run to Ikea to buy a table and chairs for my classes here at home.  It turns out the little round table that was such a pain to get into that upstairs room in the first place, is just too small so we bought an extendible table for 100 bucks at Ikea and four folding chairs for 10 each.  A good investment in my mind.

Tuesday is my most stressful day: classes from 4-8 all with children eight years and under.  From 5-7 I have (almost) exclusively pre-schoolers ages 3-6.  I have eleven new students this year, nine of whom are four-year-olds.  The first day was a bit like herding cats.  Spanish children have the world's shortest attention span!  And one little boy spend at least half the class screaming and crying for his mommy.  The only reason he stopped was because he'd completely worn himself out and fell alseep at the table!  I let him sleep through class.  He slept so soundly I had to shake him awake at the end of the hour and for a split second thought maybe I'd been terribly negligent and the little guy had died on me--scary!  The other classes were relatively speaking uneventful.

I am very happy with the rest of the week's schedule: all classes in my home (with my newly aquired Ikea furniture).  The classes have no more than three students in each one and all of them are kids who are excited about English and learning in general--a teacher's dream.  I'm looking forward to spending the year with them.

My own classes have also started this past week and at this very moment I should be doing some reading.  This semester I've got "didactics of plastic and visual arts", "didactics of mathematics" and "legislations and organization of educational centers" (yuck!).  I also will be doing my first 200hrs of student teaching if all goes according to plan.  I have to solicit a placement in a private school so I am looking in Antequera (about 25 min away).  Working out all the paperwork, etc, will take some time, so the soonest I can be in the classroom will be Nov. 11.  I'll keep you all posted.

I know this has been a boring post...  I'll leave you with some pictures to make up for it! :)

The Saturday after Sara's arrival we had an 80's party at the bar...

Sara and I were the only ones dressed for the occasion! :(  ...It was a blast, all the same, although Sara was a complete creeper magnent--the guys wouldn't leave her alone!

Deccorations and our brandnew spotlights over the stage. :)

The laser light is also a new addition--very modern.

Sara brought Wet-n-Wild hot pink lipstick... Guess who put some on? 

Estepa with Sarita.  Unfortunately, she didn't get very good weather on her short visit.

I introduced her to mantecados, a traditional Spanish Christmas treat famous in Estepa.  She bought a 1 kilo bag. ;)

On one of our many walks with Belita.

We did get good weather the day before Sara had to leave!  We siezed the moment and headed to the beach--grilled sardienes.  Yum!

It was hot enough to swim even.  This was October 2nd. 

We ordered this HUGE 3 litter thing of tinto de verano...and promptly emptied it. ;)

...Finally, my Ikea table and chairs.  Look good?

Visitors

I know I've been bad about blogging lately.  Sorry.  Things have been busy around here and yet I can't exactly even explain all we've been up to.  Some how the day-to-day ends up taking over and Monday suddenly becomes Friday and...another week without a blog post!

This evening I had a lovely surprise.  A "cousin" of mine (a cousin of my host family in Granada) dropped by to say hi!  It was wonderful. :)  She strolled into the bar, introduced herself to Angelines and proceeded to get directions to my house.  I was walking the dog at the time and so wasn't answering my phone.  She and her boyfriend (from a neighboring town and the "real" reason for being in my area) got a bit lost and had to call me for directions.  Luckily I had arrived home from my walk just minutes before they called.  I showed them the house and we chatted briefly.

It's been at least three years since I've seen her; but somehow I still had a picture of her in my mind as the ten-year-old she was way back when I studied abroad!  ...That's changed.  Unfortunately, she has classes tomorrow and had to be getting back to Malaga but now that she knows where I live and has seen my guest room(s) she promises another, longer visit soon. :)

And on a similar note, tomorrow my good friend, Sara from Portland is coming to visit!!  I can't wait.  Today I was cleaning the upstairs, making her bed and setting out fresh towels for her.  It will be a too-short visit (six days only), I can tell already, but I am thrilled all the same.  It's been 6.5 years since she's been here to La Roda.  She was the first friend to visit me here...  Last time she came, I was living alone in the piso (nearly alone) and the two of us shared my tiny twin bed!!!  Now she'll have the entire upstairs of my house to herself--my how things have changed. :)

A Piece of History

Francisco Franco Caudillo de España por la Gracia de Dios. 1959

We've been slowly but surely organizing the upstairs in preparation for my classes this Fall.  After three coats of white, the lime-green room is bareable. ;)  That blinding green just wasn't condusive to studying!  We've hung a shelf for my books and I've begun moving things like flashcards and copies of worksheets out of the office and into the closet upstairs.

Among the things to be moved was a small, round table that we'd placed temporarily in the office.  This summer I've been giving a few classes here downstairs.

The table is nothing special.  It's very old and not necesarily well-made.  It was left in our first piso (remember when we lived in the city's teacher housing?) and for lack of furniture, we've carried it with us ever since.  It's just a crumby plywood table top that screws into an iron frame.  My suspicions that it was a throw-back from the dictatorship were all but confirmed when we had to disassemble it to get it through the doorframe of the upstairs bedroom--two 1959, 50 peseta pieces (about 30 euro cents) had been used as washers to screw the table top down!

Of course, it is likely that such creativity was a product of the currency change in 2000 when the euro came into the picture and pesetas became obsolete.  In any case, I was thrilled to uncover a little piece of history in our efforts to get the table top unscrewed!

The pesetas that went out in 2000 with the euro all had King Juan Carlos I's profile on them, since Spain had been a democratic monarchy since 1978 (although Franco died in 1975, there was a transition period during which the government was an absolute monarchy).  So perhaps we can assume this was a quiet act of retribution: it seems that someone made the concious decision not to drill a hole through the King's head...

Another Year

Heading out of town "hydrating" ;)

The last days of summer are rolling by too quickly to keep track of!  My recuperation exam was this morning.  I definitely felt better prepared, but I know that I made a few mistakes so my dreams of redeeming my failure with a perfect 10 are out.  Still, I think I can pull a 7 or 8.  Doing a make up exam at the end of summer has been the worst part of this last month of vacation.  I did wake up every day through August to study, just like I promised on my blog... and I think it paid off today.  But believe me it was NOT easy; if I suffer from lack of motivation at the end of a semester, there's even less in the middle of summer with good weather, no classes and so many other (more fun) things to do!

Today is also the beginning of the local festivities for the Patroness of La Roda, La Virgen de los Llanos.  I'm dressing in my flamenco dress to carry San Pancracio's flower offering to the church--another one of those yearly activities that begins to mark the time I've spent here.

The tratidional "We made it" photo. :)

Coinciding with La Roda's Patronal celebrations, in the neighboring town of Corcoya they also celebrate their Patroness the Virgen de la Fuensanta.  Wednesday, I made the yearly night-time pilgrimage to visit her.  Every year some combination of my friends get together to walk the 12 kilometers along the winding country road from La Roda to Corcoya.  This year there were fewer of us than in past years (only five); but we made record time--a little over 2 hours.  We left La Roda just after 8:30 pm and were entering Corcoya a little before eleven.  The walk flew by... unlike some past years when the mile markers have seemed to get further and further apart the longer we walk. ;)

Fewer people meant fewer bathroom stops, and fewer stops to rest or smoke.  We loaded up with gummy treats, sunflower seeds, potato chips and a cold beer each (except for me, of course!) before leaving town so we spent the walk snacking and chatting.  What could be better?  In Corcoya a friend came with her son (and her car!) and after visiting the Fuensanta and having a cold one with our dinner sandwiches, we piled in the car and headed home.  

Another year has come and gone.

The church in Corcoya.

New Toys

Angelines had a birthday last week and much to my mother-in-law's shagrin, I gave her money to buy some completely "unnecessary" new toys. ;)  My plan was to buy the stuff ahead of time and to a propper birthday surprise, but that's hard to do when the stores you need to shop at are an hour's drive away and there's no way to take the car on your own without raising suspicions!  Anyway, I figure since we never even give each other Christmas presents, once a year we're allowed to spend money on something just for fun, right?  I mean, what are birthdays for, anyway?   Both of us are penny pinching lately and so even A., who's been dying for a work bench/table and also decided that our garage was the perfect place to hang a basketball hoop (I love this girl!), was reluctant to spend the money from my piggy bank on such whims.  I conviced her. ;)

We headed to Málaga, did the shopping and then spent the early afternoon at the beach--our first time in the sea all summer (!).  It was a splendid day.  Angelines immediately set up her new work bench when we got home from the beach...in fact, we left earlier than I would have liked just so she could start playing with her new toys!  And today we finally got around to hanging the basketball hoop.  I'm not sure who likes it more, Angelines, the neighbor boy (about ten years old), or Bela!

My puppy's love of all things round and bouncey knows no size limit.  The neighbor gave her a golf ball a few weeks ago that she adores and today she was going CRAZY (jumping several feet in the air) to catch the basketball between her paws!  It's pretty hillarious.  This evening I had a good time playing a variation of "Around The World" with Angelines and Sergio (neighbor boy), but it was almost more fun watching my perra loca jumping around like mad.  When we finally forced her to take a break and locked her in the patio, she cried the whole time.

Here are a few pics of Angelines's birthday spoils:

My Tree-climbing dog

Last Sunday we made another trip to el chorro.  This time it was just the three of us.  Unfortunately, August is everyone's vacation month and so even on a Sunday evening (we didn't get there until around 7pm), the lake was teaming with people.  They've hung up new signs saying that dogs can't swim in the lake or be off a leash... as you can see from the video below, we decided we didn't see those signs.  I think it's mostly an August precaution because there are just too many people to have your dog running around.  And of course there's always the posibilty that your dog isn't as friendly or harmless as my Bela. ;)

Anyway, she's a water dog and didn't stray from the semi-hidden beach  we found the whole time we were there.  The willows blocked us from view somewhat so we weren't bothering anyone (nor were we too visibly breaking the rules).  My pup had a blast digging up roots, fetching sticks and even trying to fetch low-lying branches.  She looked like a monkey as she wrestled with this bush.  I nearly died laughing.  Thankfully, she continued once we jumped out of the water and grabbed the camera. :)

Enjoy!

El Valle del Jerte

This was to be our most favorite day of the entire trip.  We woke up early and piled into the car sans suitcases (a relief for my poor parents) and took a windy, narrow mountain road up over the ridge and down into the Jerte valley.  Those of you who have visited me in Andalucia know that the landscape is pretty monotonous--dominated nearly entirely by rows upon rows of olive trees.  In the Jerte valley, the same is true of cherry trees.  The hillsides are completely covered!  It must be a fabulous place to visit in Spring when all the trees are in bloom.  But I was thankful to be there when we were: cherry season. :)

The boughs were drooping from the weight of the ruby-red fruits.  The cherries were so perfectly round and red it looked as though the trees were hung with Christmas ornaments.  When we stopped for gas just outside the small town of El Torno (some prankster changed the "T" on the sign to a "P"), we picked a handful from a nearby tree--delicious!

So beautiful...and so delicious!

We had a rough idea for an itenerary, since Juani had equipped us with a guide book and also recommended a hike to some natural swimming pools.  Somehow, throughout our whole trip, the heat was following us!  The day we left Lisbon, the temperatures dropped.  The morning we pulled out of Logrosa, Galicia, it was foggy and cool.  And of course we arrived in Extremadura when the day's temperatures weren't expected to drop below 38º C (roughly 99F).  Swimming was exactly the kind of activity that all of us (even Bela) could agree was a good idea.  So we wound our way down into the valley planning to ask some locals how to get to the "Garganta de los infiernos" y "los pilones".

...before the cops came.

11:30 (coffee time) caught us in Cabezuela del Valle and so we pulled over at a little restaurant overlooking the Jerte river.  Our guide book mentioned that all through the valley, but especially in this town, people had build small dams along the river to create artificial swimming holes.  Sure enough, just below us on the river was a little slat-board dam with a very inviting pool built up behind it.  After coffee, we decided a swim was in order... especially in light of just how much my puppy loves the water!  Unfortunately, we didn't notice the "No Dogs" sign and only about twenty minutes after getting in, the local police showed up to kick us out. :(

picture break

There was an information center right near the restaurant where we'd had our coffee, so while Bela was drying off some and my dad was changing his clothes, I poped in to see if I could get a map or directions to these natural swimming holes we'd heard of.  Success!  Just 3km. up the road was the turn-off for the trail head.  Refreshed and caffeinated, we got back in Pata Negra, grateful to have a short drive since our wet dog was smelling up the car!

The hike was short, but very vertical.  It was just over two miles, but virtually all climbing.  Bela had a blast.  My parents were lagging a little behind on the way up.  It seems that being Rotary District Governor isn't very compatible with an active lifestyle.  So after nearly a year of sitting in front of the computer and sitting in the car driving between meetings and other Big Cheese functions, but dad was huffing and puffing.

Thankfully, most of the trail was shaded.  It was a beautiful hike, really.

However brutal the walk up to los pilones, it was well worth it.  They were amazing!  Unfortunately, I think because we'd dallied in the river after coffee, we arrived at the pilones just about "rush hour".  There were quite a lot of people and sadly we had to keep our Bela on the leash.  Everyone else was fully prepared with picnic lunches and at about 2 o'clock we realized that as much as we'd like to stay, we needed to hurry down the hill if we wanted to have any hope of having lunch!  If we'd thought ahead a bit more we would have brought sandwiches with us...because none of us wanted to leave.  We took one last dip in the cool, crystal water and then headed down the trail as fast as we could in the 40º sun.

Los pilones!!!

Angelines jumps in after me. :)

Mom enjoys the "king's throne"

My dessert! :)

We made it into the town of Jerte just in time for lunch.  A woman sorting cherries on the restaurant terraza assured us that we weren't too late for the menu del dia.  And so we enjoyed yet another fantastic meal and made plans for the afternoon.  Originally we had wanted to make a circle all the way through the valley and back around to Villar de Plascencia, but it seemed as though that would be too much driving considering how late in the day it was already.  We decided to head up to the northern-most town in the valley, Tornavacas, because it was supposedly very well "preserved" (?) and then wind our way back home the way we'd come.  After my postre of (you guessed it!) cherries and a shot of cherry liquour each, we headed up the road to Tornavacas.

The facade of the house.  You can see the date over the window: 1655.

In Tornavacas as we were looking for a place to get a post-lunch coffee, a local man approached us and offered to give us a tour of his house (?!).  I guess we stuck out as tourists. ;) He claimed it was the oldest house in the villiage and "filled with old things".  He assured us that there was no charge...but they did ask that you leave a tip if you liked it.  We agreed to see the house...and we were not disappointed.  This man and his wife had basically made a museum out of the house.  It was brimming with antiques of all sorts.  The house itself was incredible--built in 1655!  Only 135 years after Cortés participated in the fall of Tetnochilán (Mexico City), and just 34 years after the First Thanksgiving.  The house had been in his wife's family since its construction.  Amazing.  It was like stepping back in time.

The wooden staircase.

Mom models the cherry picking basket.  A wooden hook goes over the shoulder to hold the basket freeing both hands for picking.

This is the kitchen.  The haning pot is above the fire pit.

This picture looks like something from Gulliver's Travels!

My dad had to bend over to fit into most of the rooms.  The ceilings were only about 5.5 ft!  When I commented that he was the tallest man ever to enter the house, our hosts, laughing, immediately agreed with me.  The staircase was a narrow wooden affair, similar to the stairs in the casa rural where we were staying.  The "kitchen" was an open room, the ceiling black with centuries of soot from the fire.  There was a hole cut in the roof for ventilation...but it didn't seem to have helped a whole lot.  The rafters above the kitchen were exposed so that you could see into the attic space.  This is where they dried chestnuts and cured meats.  We spent about 30 minutes with this man and his wife on the house tour.  It was pretty incredible.  More than anything, it was wonderful to see how passionate this couple was about preserving their own history.

After our tour, we thanked our hosts, made our way to a little café for coffee and then headed back to Tia Emilia's.  It was a fantastic day.

Extremadura

We left Santiago with no reservations for the night...and the only goals of having a glass of wine in Toro , getting as close as possible to home, and finding a place with availability for two nights.  At this point we had learned that the only way to see ANYTHING is to stay at least two nights in one place.  That gives you a full day in situ to explore the area.  I Googled "casas rurales extremadura"  on my smart phone and came up with a list of places to begin calling.  After our experience in Monchique, Portugal, Angelines had made it clear that she didn't want to stay anywhere too far from the freeway: possibly a tall order to fill given that casas rurales tend to be hidden away from civilization; but first on my list of places to call was a house which according to GoogleMaps was in a small town just off the main freeway through Extremadura.  I made the call and not only was there availability for two nights, but they also allowed dogs!  ¡Qué suerte!  We agreed to meet around 6:30 and proceeded to make our way through the end of Galicia and into Castilla León for our lunch in Toro.

The "toro" in Toro dates to the Neolithic period.

We arrived just barely in time for luch (about 3:30) and so we sat down at the first bar we found and ordered from the menú del día.  Lunch was great and my parents marvelled at how we hadn't had a bad meal our entire trip, yet we hadn't been eating anywhere exceptional.  They couldn't believe that even the funkiest, divey looking places on the outside served up great meals.

And the wine didn't disappoint either. ;)  After asking our waitress for directions to a bodega where we could buy a few bottles for ourselves, we were disappointed to discover that there were no tours offered.  I suppose that we didn't have time to tour anyway, but I had hoped that they would have a tasting bar available or something of the sort.  Nothing.  We purchased a few bottles from their store and hit the road again.  We were running a little behind schedule for "La Casa de Tía Emilia".

(A small parenthetical: at this point in our trip, unbeknownst to us, we had received TWO speeding tickets...damned sneaky radars!  We're only just now getting them in the mail.  The first was leaving La Roda passing Huelva and the second was this long day's drive to Extremadura through León.  Poo.)

...bored in the backseat...

A post-lunch coffee break was in order around 5ish, so we pulled off the road pehaps an hour from our destination.  The road into town was lined with large industrial buildings, nothing abnormal.  Many times entering towns right along the freeway you pass through the industrial area of the city: olive oil factories, fiberglass tank factories, tractor dealerships, etc.  However, I noticed in this particular town that all the warehouses we passed were meat processing plants: productos ibéricos--venta al público.

Pata Negra: before the butcher's...

Not until this trip had I ever noticed that the best Iberian cured ham you can buy--pata negra--nearly always comes from Extremadura.  We were in ham-land!  What a happy surprise.  Of course, now we had a double purpose to our stop: café, and jamón!

Only in Spain will you find first-class cured meats (pork loin, whole hams, salami, chorizo, blood sausage...) in a coffee shop. :)  We actually ended up buying from a place right next door, but there were meats on display in the coffee place.  The facade of our coffee stop was covered with a giant picture of black pigs grazing amidst scrubby oak trees.  These are the famous, Iberian, black-footed pigs.  They eat wild acorns from the native encinas and graze over acres and acres of land--they were "free-range" before that became a buzz-word!  The meat from these pigs is often refered to as pata negra (black hoof) and is known to be the best quality.  However, in some places you can find "normal" hams with black nail polish applied to the hoof...  So the terms "Iberian ham" or "Acorn ham" are also used as synonyms.  It was at this point in the trip, that we dubbed our rental car "Pata Negra"...although, I'm not sure it really reached those high quality standards. ;)

Of course my mom wanted a picture with the woman selling the meat...

Look at the amazing archway! (Not Tia Emilia)

Around seven, we finally made it to La Casa de Tía Emilia: wonderful!  I think it was a very close second to the great place we found our last night in Portugal.  The house itself was a wonderfully maintained, very big, old home.  There were four bedrooms and three bathrooms, a living room an ample landing at the top of the stairs, a kitchen and a washroom!  The staircase was the made of chestnut (traditional in the region) and the steps were bowed from use of the many years.  The ceilings downstairs had a few dangerously low beams (also chestnut)--beautiful.

Our hostess, who was not Emilia, was an ebullient elderly woman named Juana who insisted on making us a huge cake for the next day's breakfast and bringing us fresh lettuce from her garden!  She also had a great guidebook for the region and pointed out some of her favorite places to visit.  We had no idea about anything in the area, of course, because we hadn't planned to stay there.  As it turns out, it was our very favorite part of the trip.

Lettuce from "Juani's" garden.

We were staying just on the other side of the ridge from the Jerte river and the Valle del Jerte (Jerte Valley), famous for cherries and alabaster carvings (!?).  Several months before our trip, Angelines and I had been watching a documentary on television about the Jerte Valley and it struck me as an incredibly beautiful area.  Both of us agreed that we wanted to visit some day... and suddenly here we were without having even planned it!

Our first evening we strolled through the little villiage of Villar de Plasencia and were struck by how much history was conserved in this tiny town.  Villar de Plasencia conserves a portion of the ancient Ruta de la Plata, a Roman highway connecting Seville in the south with Gijón in the north.  Some of the homes with stone facades reminded me of villiages we'd seen in Southern France.  One home even conserved a stone archway over the front door that surely dated from at least the Middle Ages.  It was impressive to say the least.  We strolled out of town along the roman road for a bit and took in a spectacular sunset.
 

La Ruta de la Plata: Roman road

Stone wall at sunset.

My super driver...tired from a day on the road.