We are in another hilltop village, similar to Frigiliana, but in so many ways very different. Benalauria is a small village of 300 (mostly farmers we think), and couldn't be further away from the tourist centres if it tried. They grow olives, walnuts, grapes and citrus, and farm sheep and goats. They also have some of the best cork forest remaining in Europe. I think the b & b we are staying in is the only accomodation in town! We certainly get some odd looks from the locals, who can't work out if we are English or American.Living here is very cheap. Tonight we had a 2 course meal ( which was delicious) with beer, wine, sangria and coffee for 14 euro ($20 roughly). If they had AFL on the telly I could stay here indefinitely!
We went to Gibraltar today, it's just down the road from here. An incredible geological and historical place, but what a mess they have made of it. The only purpose of The Rock is to get as much cash from your pocket as possible. We bought breakfast from a cockney waitress (hello love, can I get you sumfing to eat?) and a book for Rhonda and finished up with a visit to the museum, an almost empty treasure house of Gibraltar's history, including a Neanderthal skull, an Egyptian mummy that washed up on the beach one day, and Lord Horatio Nelson's handkerchief. I can only give the island 2 stars, very disappointing.
The other photos today are from Ronda, just north of here. It was after seeing some brilliant photos of the hotel perched on the edge of a gorge that we started to seriously think about travelling to Europe again. The gorge features in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, chapter 10 if you are interested (but not for the kiddies!) We found it very crowded, and to top it off the long-awaited rain began!Easy day tomorrow, I plan to swim in a mountain pool, and visit the only tourist attraction in town, an old olive oil museum.
Adios, mi amigos!
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