ISLS Travel Stories

Malaga, Spain – Friday, October 31, 2008

I just returned form a whirlwind trip to Malaga, the capital of the province and its largest city. Part of what I want to accomplish while we are here is to visit as many Spanish language schools in Andalucía as possible.

I visited Malaga a few weeks ago, but only had time to visit one school, since it takes me 2 to 3 hours by bus to get there from Estepona. I decided to stay the night this time so that I could visit more schools. There are more than 40 schools all told and there is no way I am going to be able to visit them all, but I may go back once more before we leave.

I had a nice visit and met with a number of people and saw some host families, apartments and student residences. I actually stayed in one residence that was quite unique. It is a very large converted house on about two acres with a tennis court and swimming pool that has a small island in the middle of the shallow end. The setting is quite bucolic, with plenty of trees, grass, plants and space.

The owner’s family still lives on the top floor, but the bottom two floors have been turned into a kind of boarding house with 14 bedrooms and 8 baths. The only problem with the place is that it is a 25 minute walk straight up the hill from the beach and the school. Let me tell you how happy I was about that last night late.

After the school visits yesterday I wandered around the beach area. This part of town is about 10 minutes by car from the center of Malaga towards the east. There really are no beaches in the center because of the port. These beaches are not what I would call world class, but they have plenty of bars and restaurants along the boardwalk. There is also a very lovely view looking back at the center of town and the skyline, such as it is.

When I arrived in Malaga before noon, it was another glorious day: Clear and sunny, but again, very windy and cool. When I made my way to a beach front café for lunch at around 3pm, the clouds were starting to roll in. By the time I finished eating, the sky had become ominous and much colder.

Having no more appointments, I took the local bus back to the city center. It cost 1 Euro and took about 20 minutes to get to the historic area. I got off and wondered around for a couple of hours, stopping into different shops and the occasional bar for a libation. I finally happened upon an internet café and checked on the latest news from the election. I can’t seem to get enough of it. I think I am becoming obsessed!

By about 9 pm I made my way back to the east side of the town, again by bus to check out the area at night and have some dinner.

In Spain there is evening life and night life and they are completely different. Evening life takes place from about 5:30 to 8 or 9 and involves families with children coming out to play in the parks and squares or stroll along the walking esplanades. Working folks and young adults meet at local cafes and cafeterias to have a few drinks and eat some tapas. By and large it is a fun and casual time.

The night life in Spain though, even on a Thursday does not really get going until midnight or later and can last until sun up. During in between time people go home and eat dinner and maybe take a nap. Children are put down and parents talk about the day. At this time you can go to a bar and be the only person in there, besides the bartender. Who, by the way, is looking at you and wondering what the hell you are doing there. But, a few hours later, you can’t even move in the place to go the bathroom because there are so damn many people.

I had really no intention of taking part in the night life, but as I am sure many can relate, sometimes things happen. On this note I will stop and continued the recap of my trip to Malaga tomorrow.

Visit to Casares, Andalucía, Spain. Wednesday, October, 28, 2008

 

Marjo, Siena and I traveled from Estepona to Casares for a day trip. Not to be confused with Caseres, which is much farther north and in Extremadura.

We walked from our apartment down to the main bus station, which is about 10 minutes away, but missed the 1pm bus by about five minutes. I have found, much to my chagrin at times, that the buses here in Spain leave pretty much exactly on time, at least from the initial station. There are two daily buses from Estepona to Casares leaving at 1pm and 7pm.

We took a moment to discuss our options, but finally decided to take a taxi to Casares.

This whole outing took place because Marjo’s hair dresser here in Spain said that it was very close and not to be missed. He is originally from Switzerland, but has lived all over the world. He also tried to sell us his used car, so that should tell you the amount of confidence I had in his recommendation.

Regardless of how we started on this journey, today was easily the most spectacularly clear day that we have experienced since we arrived in Spain 6 weeks ago. It was windy and cold, but crystal clear and breathtaking. Spending the afternoon up in the hills, sounded like a pretty good idea.

We flagged down a cab and took the 20 minute ride up to the town. The drive was very enjoyable as the secondary road winds its way up the hills along the coast. We saw numerous small fincas ‘farms’, grazing areas sheep and one section that was quite wooded. In most of Andalusia you do not see a lot of trees, unless they are the endless olive orchards. So, it was a nice change of pace to see full grown trees as we made our way to this striking Pueblo Blanco (white town).

The cost of the taxi was 26 Euros from downtown Estepona. I thought at first that it was a little high, but all of the taxis here have a rate chart. We have taken taxis on a number of occasions since we have been here and every time we go somewhere outside of town, they will check the chart. They don’t really use a meter here, so the rates in the book are all standardized by how many kilometers away the place is.

Anyway, after the ride I felt that 26 Euros was actually quite a bargain. The driver was very personable and he showed us where the bus stop was and pointed out some of the sites in town before dropping us off. I tipped him 2 Euros.

Coming the way we did from Estepona, we approached the town from the back side. So, when we got there, the appearance of the town was quite startling. One minute we were on a windy road with no hint of a town and the next we crested a rise and the town was just there. From what I had read and understood, Casares is quite visible on the approach. It turns out that the most popular way to get from the coast to Casares is further down the main road to Gibraltar and that we had taken a short cut. Thus the surprise materialization.

The setting of the town is quite dramatic. All the buildings are perched on the side or top of cliffs with a rugged mountain backdrop. All are white washed with faded orange tile roofs and narrow cobblestone pathways. It is mind blowing to think that people actually drive motor vehicles on these so called streets, but they do. They bring in the side view mirrors and don’t worry about scratching anything. We would wander down a blind alley, practically sucking in our guts (my gut actually), only to find a car at the end. The only thing you can think is ‘how the hell did they get that in here’.

We wandered up the main street of town, which is all of 15 feet wide and runs from the bus station as you enter town, about 200 yards through the center before it breaks off into smaller byways. There are two town plazas or ‘squares’ on this stretch of boulevard. The first is pretty much just a place to park your car with a great view of the surrounding valleys and hills. The other, Plaza Espana is in the center of town with a fountain and is surrounded by a number of restaurants and shops.

Casares is a small town of about 3000 residents. There is no industry to speak of other than tourism. It is a very old town, one whose history goes back at least to Roman times and before. The name of the town comes from its most famous visitor, Julius Caesar. He was stationed in this once roman outpost in a precursor to the castle that sits atop the highest point in town, a craggy outcropping of rock. The sign as you mount the final stage of the climb to the top states that you ‘walk on the same ground that Julius Caesar once walked. I am a pretty big ancient Roman fan, so I have to admit to having a few goose bumps appear. There are nearby Roman baths that he supposedly used to heal his battle wounds, or so the sign states.

In fact, Casares has played a part in many other battles and wars. It was one of the last Moorish citadels to surrender to the Spanish in 1492, lasting longer than Granada by a few days. It even kept out Napoleon’s army at the beginning of the 19^th century and was involved in the Spanish Civil war of the 1930’s. When you see the sheer cliffs and limited approaches, you can’t believe that it ever fell to anyone.

We wandered around town, such as the limited space allows and made our way up towards the castle ruins. We took a more winding than direct path up and passed down some tight, charming streets. We just kept moving up and figured that eventually we would get to the top. We didn’t have a map and didn’t need one.

Towards the end of our trek, as we left most of the town behinds us, the buildings got older and the way narrower. The higher you go the more you feel the history of the place. It’s not as well kept, there are more deserted buildings and it has a wilder vibe.

At last we made it to the mirador ‘lookout point’ and beheld one spectacular view. We could see the foothills below us all the way to the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. We could see the Rock of Gibraltar and even to the north coast of Africa and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. As we stood there taking in the stark contrasts of colors: the brilliant white of the town, the green foothills and the two shades of vivid blue sky and sea, we saw a couple who had brought a picnic lunch up. Marjo and I looked at each other and said, ‘why didn’t we think of that’. Bottle of wine in the backpack with a blanket, some cheese and bread. Next time.

After taking in the view and kicking ourselves for not thinking ahead, we made our way back along the ridge. Not far along the trail we encountered the Iglasia de la Encarnacion and the adjacent cemetery. The church, built in 1505, is impressive and is in the middle of a major restoration, so we could not go inside. We did however enter the cemetery that is essentially cut out of the side of the cliff. As with everything else, it is completely whitewashed. As cemeteries go, it is quite unique and worth a stroll. There were a number of townspeople there tending to the graves and touching up the paint job.

We then made our way to the ruins of the castle. Very little remains of the fortification, but you get the general impression and feel of what it must have looked like in former times. It also has a great view looking back down at the rest of town below.

On our descent, we came down the front way and with a few minor detours ended up back at the Plaza Espana. We stopped in the restaurant Mason Los Claveles on a side street just before the plaza to have lunch. It was a cozy little place with about 8 tables, one of which was free.

Now I don’t need to tell those of you who are parents what it can be like to travel with a baby. Pretty much like clockwork they get tired, hungry and cranky. Siena is no exception. Generally she is a real trooper with just about any situation we put her in. But, when she has hit her limit, we need to stop and take care of business. When we reached the restaurant, she had just about hit the wall.

Luckily, no one was smoking when we got in and the place was relatively warm. We got settled in and Marjo began nursing right away. Seems we were just in time and Siena settled down right away, which was lucky for us and everyone else in the place. There is nothing worse than a screaming baby when you are trying to have a relaxing meal in close quarters.

We didn’t have a long time to linger over lunch as we planned to get the 4pm bus back to Estepona. While we ate we met a nice older British couple who were holidaying in the area. I never realized before we had Siena, how having a baby with you is the ultimate conversation starter. People just seem drawn to her. I am sure that this is true of all babies. Of course I am biased, so I will say that it is because she just so damn cute!

After lunch we walked back through town and got to the bus with about 5 minutes to spare. We left on time at 4pm and proceeded down the main road to the coast. The cost of the bus was 2 Euros each for Marjo and me and 1.10 Euro for Siena.

Spain is strange in that it almost invariably charges for babies. On every public bus that we have been on and the Iberia flight we took to Madrid they have made us pay for taking her. Buses charge about 50% of the adult fare and the airline charged us 10%.

Along the way down the hill our bus stopped twice in Manilva pueblo, which is another white town. It is not as striking as Casares, but does have a wonderful view up and down the Costa del Sol. After that we made our way through Sabinillas, which is on the coast and then to Estepona. Once we were traveling along the main coastal road we stopped fairly often at the bus stops along the way. We made it back to Estepona at about 4.45pm, so the trip was not that long, only twice what the cab took.

I have to say that I was more than a little impressed by the visit to Casares. I have been to a number of the white towns before, such as Ronda and Vejer de la Frontera. They are all lovely in their own ways, but I would have to say that the cliff top location of Casares sets it apart.

Not a lot of people visit the place, at least by Spanish standards. So it is not mobbed by tourist and tour busses. I am glad that it seems that most people don’t have such a knowledgeable and well informed hairstylist.