Spanish Vignettes 2020-Then The Virus -Chapter 1

Spain 2020-The Story

Chapter 1 Travel and New Friends!

Jan and I left for Spain on a typical wintry cold January 14th in Ottawa. Dave, my much older Bro-in-law, kindly drove us to meet the Air France bus at the Ottawa Train Station. The bus dropped us off at Dorval Airport (the new name does not resonate with me), where Air France/Air Europa took us to Malaga Spain. We arrived around noon local time, January 15.

Montse (pronounced Monya), our ever lovely Nerja 21 Taxi Driver, was waiting to take us to our rented abode at the eastern end of Nerja. Next morning:

Typical sunny, cool (10-15C) weather in the Costa del Sol. It is quiet, since this is "low" season. Immediaterly, I started my "Birds of Spain" refresher, while recovering from "jet lag".

Taking a walk later that day, we meet another couple on a path and he asked what I have seen. It turned out that he is an Irish professional birding guide. We decide on a hike to Maro (nearby coastal town) to be capped off with a shared Menu del Dia meal. Below, in Maro.

Jan's selfie of Sue and Mike Cobley, from Cork County, Ireland. Photo bombing by me.

January 19: What a pleasure to be sharing our love of nature and birds! At the Balcon de Maro, looking out onto the Mediterranean Sea.

The aqueduct was not flowing. The farms in the Barrancos (gullies) were sooo dry. Then, Storm Gloria dropped 5 months supply of water over the next 5 days.

Blooms, even in January. Above, an Almond (Prunus dulcis), and below Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum). Later, on a trip to a mountain village, we took ripe almonds off a tree and ate them in the field. The taste surpassed all previous almonds, and proved the species name, "dulcis", is well deserved.

Another walk up towards the Tejeda Parque National. Looking back, a view of the brand new Nerja Sewage Treatment plant, and the Mediterranean. The sewage treatment plant pump stations, and pipeline infrastructure were being installed this winter.  Looking closer, the Rosemary (Romero en Espanol), Salvia rosmarinus, was blooming away on the rocky slopes (below).

On January 27th, our date with old (OLD) friend Marc and Marie...follow the M's...in Malaga. We did not tour Malaga much the winter previous. Walking with Marc and Marie, we found so much about this historic Mediterranean city. Like most Spanish cities, it has a market where purveyors of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish provide opportunity to shoppers to buy very high quality local nutritious food, like this giant tomato, wearing sunglasses.

Above, the Roman theatre. We knew the Romans built this city. What we didn't know is that it was during the reign of Emperor Augustus. The theatre is 2000 years old, and still operates. I was told that the Romans did NOT install the lighting. If you look up the cliff, you can see the Malaga Moorish Alcazaba, which would have rivalled the Alhambra for intricate architectural splendour. It was built on top of Roman fortifications a mere 1000 years ago.

http://www.malagaturismo.com/es/recursos-turisticos/detalle/alcazaba/6

We KNEW that, notwithstanding all of the history and culture of Malaga, most people would adore the above photo. This classic pose by a Eurasian Collared Dove ( Streptopelia decaocto), takes advantage, in traditional pigeon/dove style, of the statue as toilet facility.

The background: Recognition of injustices of Spain's colonial and authoritarian past has become de rigeur in modern Spain. José Rizal was a proponent of peaceful reform of Spain's rule in Philippines.

Read the tragic story here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal

Road trip!
Mike and Sue invited us to join them on a tour of some of the oldest structures in Europe, the Antequera Dolmens (Unesco World Heritage Site). Antequera is a small city in the mountains of Malaga province. The Dolmens were built by local cutlures between 4000-6000 years ago as both burial chambers and spiritual/gathering sites. The features echo some of the same building knowledge and philosophy of ancient cultures elsewhere in Europe (think Stonehenge, Celtic Stone circles).

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1501/

Mike, contemplative in burial chamber.

Entrance.

Jan demonstrates one of the dolmen site features accented by Peña de las Enamorados, the "sleeping giant" in the background. The dolmens were also oriented towards the unique El Torcal Mountains, which we visited later in the same day. In addition, these people oriented their buildings to align with the sun during the Equinoxes, creating magical patterns inside one of the dolmens. The Moors, also,  took advantage of natural orientations of their buildings to capture light, and, in the case of the Alhambra Summer Palace (Generalife) provide natural air conditioning in summer (more on this later).

The scale caused me to take umbrage. Here, Sue, Jan and Mike rest on some of the giant rocks used in construction of the dolmens.

Built on top of a hill, this dolmen is a very large building, with most of it buried.

After a FINE Spanish lunch in Antequera, we left to tour El Torcal National Park, yet another large mountain park in Andalucia. The Limestone, Dolomite and Dolomitic Limestone makes for a stunning landscape.

We stopped to permit a large herd of sheep to cross the road. While they crossed, we took photos of the surrounding landscape. Yes, readers, there IS snow in Spain.

Since we were just above 1000 metres, there was no snow around us, and the tiny mountain irises were blooming: Wide-leaved Iris, Iris planifolia, the earliest flowering wild Iris in Andalucia.

When in the El Torcal Park, one must be on the lookout for wildlife, especially the Spanish Ibex, Capra pyrenaica. The is the closest I have ever been to a herd of Ibex, and I took photographic advantage. These wild goats are sure-footed, like our own North American wild goats.

Above, a juvenile finds some sweet new growth, while the dominant male stares me down.

The juvenile's mom wasn't comfy with me being close to her offspring, so she came down to escort her offspring up the cliff, then SHE stared me down.

Next: Chapter 3: Plants, Critters, and  then Chapter 4: Lunch in a House in the Mountains