We are very happy with pet sitting and house sitting in Andalucia at a villa with an iconic view of one of the famous Pueblos Blancos. There has been time to take in Gibraltar and Marbella.
There has been a stretch of rainy weather so it is a good time to put together another postcard and organize my pictures. We moved the horses closer to the house in order to keep them from destroying the pasture grass in this soggy condition. It is nice being able to see them from the house. They are in the sacrifice pen. I asked, why that name. It is the ground that gets sacrificed in the rain to save the pastures. It is getting mucky. Once it stops raining, the horses will be moved to the picadillo. They did not know how to translate that name, but I think it is like a riding ring. It is sandy. Then hopefully, the rain gets the grass growing and the horses go back to fresh grass once it dries out enough. We are still spending our days caring for the menagerie of farm animals, hiking with the dogs and enjoying the views. The name of this house is Cortijo El Aguila. It means the eagle farmhouse. Aptly named, we have seen at least 3 different species of eagles soaring over or at eye level near the house.
Yesterday a Griffon Vulture soared by, at eye level, right out the kitchen window. It is a little wild to see a bird with a 10 ft wingspan flying below eye level, not 50 ft away. But they love using the updraft of this hill. We have also seen a couple “phalanx” of migrating storks (flying group of storks, I had to look it up). And since I was googling, a flying group of vultures is called a “kettle”, not flying, they are a “committee”. The Griffon vulture is a beautiful golden bird that is easily mistaken for a golden eagle. We have both here, but a lot of the griffons; they are the biggest bird here. Although the storks are pretty big too. I will post some pictures of stork nests. They are about 8 ft across and they love to put them in telecommunication poles. And the storks have such long legs, they tower over the top of the nests.
Marbella
Enough wildlife, I promised to tell you about Marbella. Marbella is like Beverly Hills, if Beverly Hills was on a marina. The cars! The yachts! We wondered: do the people with the yachts live here full time and have these cars? Or do they dock their yachts here for a stay and rent the hot cars? I think both. The yachts are big, but I don’t think big enough to carry the other watercraft they do, and the cars (well some of them were). Some of them were 4 stories and the size of small cruise ships, probably slept 100. Marbella attracts uber wealthy foreigners. A lot of Russians. We spent some time at a hospital here (that is why we’ve been here) and the magazines in the waiting room were local, but in Russian. Let me sneak this in: Mark had his annual cancer check (on his birthday). And he is cancer free. So we celebrated a little in Marbella with the yachters.
Gibralter
Another day trip was to Gibraltar. A few times we have been driving along and got a glimpse of Gibraltar. It takes your breath away. It is such a big rock! We had to check it
out up close. It is a big hard rock, with a little city around the base. But it is probably the most important strategic piece of land in the world. Guarding the straight between the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic, and between Europe and Africa. There is an airport with one runway right at the border. People and cars have to cross the runway to get to Gibraltar city. When a plane needs to take off, the road closes. It is still British, they use pounds, we could find British products. Good thing to, because I have finally succumbed to the current fad of G&T’s. I mean, in Scotland, we wanted to drink Scotch, but they were drinking G&T. Everywhere in the UK, in Europe, and in the US too, everyone is drinking different G&T’s. We have resisted. But here Corky, was making them with her homegrown citrus, including kumquats, and sugar free tonic. Okay, that is what got me, the sugar free tonic. So I have had a few. And then couldn’t find the tonic to replace her stock. But we found it in Gibraltar. Check that off my to-do list.
Back to the subject of Gibraltar. It is a big rock, but it must be completely hollow by now. It has some natural caves, and it has more made by the military over the centuries. We took a tour of a lot of these, I’ll post some pictures. Another oddity, there are wild monkeys all over the top. When we were driven up, a monkey jumped on to the van. And then another, hanging on to the open-a-crack drivers window. It was a fun diversion going to Gibraltar.
This house sit ends in a week and we will be heading out of the Schengen countries to Croatia. Croatia is part of the EU, but not the Schengen, For the time being anyway, they want to change that. We have rented an apartment for a month on (and I mean on) a bay just outside Dubrovnik. If we wanted, we would will be able to dive straight into the bay from our balcony. Also in the itinerary will be be a 4 day sailboat cruise. We have some more fun planned. Mark and I have been working out, trying to get some endurance and muscle tone back, or else we are going to be sorry after the first day of kayaking.
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