We have been having a brilliant time house sitting here in Jimena de la Frontera, one of hundreds of little Pueblos Blancos (white villages) in Andalucía Spain. Peta and Edwin, our new friends living on the hill, have kept us busy. They introduced us to other friends of theirs. Who have invited us to their homes and introduced to more of Andalucía: more people, more experiences. The hiking and horseback riding are yielding incredible views. The geology here is magnificent: rock faces completely shear at about an 80 degree angle, stacked up like potato chips. And often a house or castle perched on top or in between. Caves, rivers, most dry currently, but every time it rains we go out to see if it is flowing yet. Sometimes we see Gibraltar, sometimes Africa. Either ocean is only 30-45 minutes away (Atlantic or Med), so from the mountain tops we can see sea and tankers moored before docking. Pine forests, cork forests (aka trees without pants); goat and cattle herds with lots of babies, mules of all colors, pigs grazing free (don’t know if it is correct to say grazing, maybe rooting).
The other day, the woman that is taking care of Penny (called Kaya now) until they find her a home brought her over for a visit. She is a cute little thing (the dog) and regaining some confidence and less fear of people. This woman is half Cesar Milan and half yoga teacher. Looks wise, she’s all yoga teacher. Nuri (the gal) was late because she was given an injured puppy she was taking to the vet. She sent a pic of the puppy. Mark would not even let me see it, the wound was so gruesome. Later we had to take one of our little fragile wimpy dogs to the vet. She broke a toenail (it was pretty bad for a broken toenail). And we saw the puppy. About 12 weeks old, mostly white with a couple tan patches. Probably part pit bull. Now with only one eye.
We hiked to a cave that has ancient (15,000 yr old) cave paintings. I can’t believe we found it and it included near rock climbing. The paintings were meh, but finding them was fun. They were perched on a huge rock embankment about 30 meters high. We were with 2 other ladies in their 60’s. We hiked past groups of pigs, I thought they were wild pigs, but it turns out they were farmed. Literally free range, Iberian ham in the making. And hundreds of goats. We found a large goat caught up, hanging by her back legs, in a fence she had tried to jump. It took 3 of us to get her untangled and free. She couldn’t walk for a minute or so. Then the dogs ran off and one came back bloody (the toe nail incident). Never a dull moment.
We are almost done with the first dry creek (arroyo as that is called here) succulent and cactus garden in Andalucia, courtesy of me. Surprisingly, succulents and drought-resistant landscaping is not common here. Despite the fact that the climate is dry, soil is clay and water is expensive. It looks like it might catch on. I have already been asked by a local landscaper to collaborate. Fat chance, I’m retired – I only work for free now.
Our stay here is almost over. Mark has already flown the coop. He left early to meet another homeowner where we will be next. On his way to the airport there was a little accident. He is fine. And the car will be after it gets pulled out of the ditch and fixed. We fly out of Gibraltar. That airport is so cool. The runway is right between the airport and the rock. So the view from the airport across the tarmac is all Rock-of-Gibraltar; pretty cool. Next we are back to Oxfordshire to care for Peggy (bull mastiff) and Tommy (Choc Lab), and 3 cats. But we have already made plans to return to Jimena for another stay with Inka and Indy.
Pingback: Halloween in Andalucía - Humming Along