Vamos a la playa. Wake up, have some breakfast, put your swim suit on...a la playa! When we woke up around 11am, La Charo had been cooking for 2 hours and was pretty pissed when Bea told her we were going to make some sandwiches and go to the beach. Charo was making me a special paella. I felt bad, but I also really wanted to go to this beach Raul had told me about. Bolonia. So after lots of apologizing, Charo decided the paella fixings would keep for the next day. We packed our beach bag and drove to Bolonia.
Top 5 coolest things about Bolonia:
1) A drop dead gorgeous beach with turquoise clear water
2) Sand dunes that cover a grove of pine trees
3) Roman Ruins
4) Turtles that live in the really dirty water beneath the bridge by the parking lot
5) The hidden forest on the other side of the dunes
Top 5 things that sucks about Bolonia
1) The bees in the hidden forest
2) The fact that the turtles are becoming mutated from living in shitty water
3) El Levante, the wind that blows from Morocco...damn what a force of nature
4) The sand that felt like it was eating me alive when the Levante blew
5) Feeling ridiculously out of shape when climbing the dunes
It was really cool, but when the wind started picking up, we finally decided to head onward to Tarifa. Tarifa is the place in Spain closest to Morocco...only 14km away by Ferry. You can see it from the shore and not like Sara Palin can see Russia...I mean you can actually see it without using a magic telescope.
Though Spain in general is a country filled with hints of Morocco, from the gorgeous tiles found on walls and fountains to the ruins of mosques and even the recent fashion trend of "I Dream of Genie" pants, but Tarifa holds more than a hint. There, amid the windy narrow streets and white buildings, I saw more actual Moroccans than I have seen anywhere else during my trip. Also each little shop we stopped in sold Moroccan goods: jewelry, clothing, and bags. There were even a few popular chain stores like Doner Kebab...a Moroccan staple. Tarifa is a lovely beach town, complete with castles, ruins, and a beautiful antique cathedral. It's definitely on my list for places I could chill in for a while.
On our way home we stopped by Vejer de la Frontera a little pueblo blanco at the top of a cliff...which will be the setting for my second novel. A few of you have asked for a sneak preview of book one...but sorry, not yet. Soon te lo prometo.
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