Ronda and Tarifa

This weekend I flirted with the idea of heading to Sevilla to explore a bit there, but in the end of it all I decided to stay in La Linea to explore from here. Friday however, was a day reserved for working off a tremendous hangover from the night before. Thankfully I am not a real teacher so I don’t work on Friday, thus I wasn’t one of the many teachers I went out with on Thursday night that stumbled into work Friday morning quite the worse for wear. The culture at schools here surrounding teachers is quite a bit more relaxed than in the US. For example it is acceptable for teachers to come to school wearing jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, t-shirts with political messages on them, unshaven, etc. All my worry about shaping up to looking very professional was not really necessary. Although I will say that looking nice gives more confidence going into a new job. On Saturday, Hilaire (my roommate from NY), Gonzalo, Rocio (both math teachers at my school) and I piled into Rocio’s car and headed to Ronda, an hour and a halfish drive North from La Linea into the mountains. The gorgeous views as we wound upward were accompanied by a very, very, very winding road that left us all feeling pretty carsick. There was enough altitude gain that our ears were popping and the air became noticeable crisper, colder and cleaner. (In La Linea there is an oil refinery that brings down air quality a bit). There were enormous rock formations that looked like the backs of armadillos emerging from the mountains, and the rock of Gibraltar came in and out of view as we twisted around and up. Ronda is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain that I have seen so far. It was built on either side of a huge old bridge that spans a canyon carved out by a river. When we were there the river was pretty pathetic looking, but I would have liked to see it during the floods that happened because of the downpour that happened as I arrived in Spain. It has the small winding streets typical of cities that were built/occupied by the Arabs, who were in charge of the Iberian Peninsula for about 700 years until the Catholic King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabel got married to join the two large kingdoms of Castilla and Leon. With their combined powers the ‘Reyes Catolicos’ led the Reconquista and kicked them and all of the Jewish people out in the 1400s. Andalucia was the last place the Arabs held onto). There were beautiful old buildings and arches galore, and best of all great walkways along the cliffs, which offered stunning views. About 15 minutes outside of Ronda was the small town of Cetenil, which we also visited. It is built around the Caves of Sun and Shadow, which made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings or something equally epic.



Sunday we went to Tarifa, a much closer destination with fewer but equally potent twists in the road. Carsickness is a lovely feeling. For those of you who are curious, no I did not puke, but I felt bad enough that I am going to go to the pharmacy and get some anti-nausea pills for next time. Tarifa is famous for its Kite Surfing and great beaches-the sad was white and oh so fun to play in. We didn’t swim because it was not really beach weather; windy and cloudy, and it had rained a bit earlier in the day. We did meet up with the auxiliar de conversacion posted there, Bree, who we met at our orientation. Bree looks/smiles/moves exactly like my friend Caitlin Ochs, enough so that I inquired about any possible relation to Caitlin, but no dice. But I wish I could put them in the same room, and maybe the similarities wouldn’t hold up to close scrutiny, but here there is no one to contradict me so I say they are twins separated at birth, case closed. Back to Tarifa-a mix of international Roxy/Billabong wearing kitesurfers sipping Cañas at the Chiringuitos (sp?) (cafés/bars/restaurants that are on the beaches themselves) in flip flops with anklets, and hippies wearing the typical hippy clothing that you can find anywhere in the world, like at the Bellingham Farmers Market, for example. Hippy shops full of hippy clothes and woven necklaces, necklaces with a polished rock on a leather cord, braided bracelets and feather earrings abound. It is a surfer town set in an Arab medina; the entire center of the city is pedestrian only because the ‘streets’ are not wide enough for more than 2 or 3 people to walk side by side. It was great, and so drastically different from La Linea in terms of atmosphere. This place could have been in Southern California, whereas La Linea is absolutely a Spanish city. Overall impression: I will have to go back there again on a nice day, if not for kite surfing than for the great beaches.