Gibraltar Apes

This is a picture of one of the Barbary Apes in Gibraltar. He is a young male that I took several pictures of. He never moved once, except his eyes which followed me as I walked in the area taking pictures of some of the other apes. Maybe it's not a bad life - sun yourself on the rock, eat some fruit, check out the tourists, have a nap, steal an ice cream bar...
While we were waiting for some of the others on our tour, a lady went into a little pub to get an ice cream bar. The shop lady took it out, set it on the counter, took her money, and one of the apes jumped on the counter, grabbed the ice cream and ran off. Not her first ice cream bar! The taxi driver told us the apes get all the ice cream they want - they know just when to make the move on the unsuspecting tourists.
M

Ronda

The mountain road to Ronda, looking back toward the coast.

A little roadside cafe on the side of a mountain on the way to Ronda.

Our first look at Ronda from where we parked the car.

This is the main part of the castle, that is now a seminary school.

Matt testing his vertigo!

We are standing on a balcony beside a hotel by the bridge. The valley is a long ways below as you can see by the previous pics of the town.

The church was an amazing site to see, it was beautiful! The architecture inside was unbelievable! We took so many more pics than I am putting on the blog.

The streets in Ronda, the ones that allow vehicles are not much bigger, there is usually room for one car to be parked and one to just pass by. The church is in the background.

Lunch at a little cafe!

The bridge at Ronda. It was built in 1750 to 1783.

This is the bridge that connects the two sides of the town. It has been rebuilt several times throughout its history and keep in mind that when it was initially built, there were no cars. However, you can travel from side to side by vehicle now. Scary! We walked!

A view of the old town from the middle of the bridge.
Lanaia standing on a landing by a restaurant right by the bridge. It is about 300 feet down to the river.

Plaza del Toros

Ha! Ha!

Matt's version of Running of the Bulls!

One of the oldest Bull Rings is here in Ronda, underneath half the seating in the ring is a museum showing history of costumes, guns, famous matadors, etc. Underneath the other half of seating is the stock yards.

The new town square.

Ronda is a village built on a mountain plateau. Our trip to this village was amazing! The history and the scenery made my trip to Spain worth it alone. I could spend weeks here, I hope to get back for the shopping one more day while Matt is at work. It is about an hours drive up a windy mountain road but it will be worth it!

Dona Julia Golf Course

I think this is the longest Par 5 we have ever seen or played!

Golfing at Dona Julia Golf Course. Very nice! Great view!

These are the construction cranes working at Finca Cortesin GC we found out later. You can see the construction in my pic at Finca Cortesin GC.

Marbella

This was our afternoon in Pt. Banus earlier in November. A little slow to get pics posted. This is the marina in the town of Marbella where many huge yachts and famous people come to holiday in Spain.

The yacht on the right (the big one) is SHAF, Sean Connery's according to the locals.

My dream boat! (Anyone is fine)

Matt's dream sailboat!

Many designer shops and restaurants along the marina. Big Bucks! Expensive cars parked too!

Matt can fill you in more about that.

Sahara Golf and Country Club

The plant is in the background of a couple of the pictures. The dunes you see are very tall, 400 to 600 feet or so. It is 300 km of this kind of country to the nearest town.

Matt, from Calgary, Canada. Trying so hard his head is on fire!

Neil, from Johannesburg, South Africa. Great swing, never satisfied with that little fade. Holds the world record for consecutive practice sessios with at least one shank.

The Mosque is in the background.

Paul, from Aberdeen, Scotland. A solid 6 hdcp and a smooth swing.

A picture from the front of the tee box. You can see the pvc pipe outlining the "greens" and the tubing flagsticks.

Our Golf club has three active members with an international flavour. We were remarking the other day - three guys, three continents, hitting golf balls in the depths of the Sahara. Go figure.

This is a picture of the pool in the camp, in front of my room. The dune we climb is in the background.
The beach volleyball court. Tennis court below.

We have some recreation facilities here at the camp.

There is a swimming pool, tennis courts, beach volleyball, basketball hoop, a gym, billiards and foosball table, ping pong table, and a huge beach. One of my favorite activities here are the dune climb and the golf driving range.

We moved the driving range from the east side of the camp to the north side when the camp extension construction started. The new site is from an elevated concrete slab hitting into a small bowl backed by a dune ridge. We have three target greens made of 2" pvc pipe in a ring and flags sticks are 1/2" scrap stainless steel tubing at distances of 40, 125 and 165 yards. Our high quality improvised hitting mats are 1/2" rubber matting covered with a section of astroturf. Nothing is fancy but it works. There are a few of us that like to practice, we go out at lunchtime and hit our bucket of 80 balls or so then walk out and pick them up. It's a great incentive to hit them straight!

Fuengirola

When the market was short lived I decided to continue my shopping at the Miramar mall in Fuengirola. There was a bad accident on the highway half way between Miraflores and Fuengirola so it took a little longer than the usual 10 minutes to get there. On the way, there is a great view point of the sea and the town coastline just on the outskirts of Fuengirola. People usually enjoy this small secluded beach area. Today the area looked a lot different than it had a few weeks ago. The waves were crashing against the rocks and the beach area was covered with surf. The site was pretty amazing and several tourists had also stopped to enjoy the scenery, hence my pic. Pretty cool!

Shopping at the mall was fun, let the Christmas chaos begin! Malls are all the same, shopping during the Xmas season creates that same crazy hustle and bustle, it felt very similar (smaller) to West Ed... It seems funny to hear Christmas music (in Spanish) and see the towns decorated; it doesn’t feel like it is the festive season yet.

La Cala Market

I went shopping on Saturday at the local La Cala market which is usually a flurry of activity. However, the weather was rainy so the number of vendors and shoppers were less in number than usual but I still had fun. Sorry but I could not help thinking that at home there was snow with temperatures probably below zero and here I was out shopping in the warm rain trying to pick a knock-off designer purse.

The funny thing is that when it rains really hard here it is similar to having bad snow conditions at home. The highways here become very slippery and more accidents tend to happen, so it is advisable to avoid the roads in Spain when it is pouring out. Drainage plans for the roads do not seem to be a priority, the roads can become mini rivers and you can feel the vehicle tires slipping on the roads when accelerating from a stop. The good news is that the bad weather never lasts long.

You can buy almost anything at the markets, right from food to shoes to Xmas decorations!

The Neighbourhood

On my walk about today! I thought I would show you some of the neighbourhood around Miraflores. I was out and about today for a walk and hitting balls at the driving range. It was a beautiful afternoon! Most of the pics are on the main road we travel a lot, Avenida de Golf. This runs right by the driving range and down to the coast road and shops where we do a lot of our grocery shopping and rent movies. There is a little bar and restaurant on the corner called George’s and we have been there several times. The café sombras are great! Our caretakers Daisy and John put me onto these the first day we arrived and I’ve been hooked ever since. It is a small amount of strong coffee and the rest steamed milk, add sugar, it’s all good! A coffee lover can find a fix no matter where you go.

This is looking back towards our apartment building and over the Driving range. Our apartment is approximately under the right mountain peak.

This is looking back up the street, George's Bar is on the right street corner.

Looking down towards the sea, George's on the left corner.

Here is my little red Mercedes!!!

These two pics are the view everytime we turn the corner to go downtown. The driving range is just to the right of the road.

Work Trip to London

I went to London for four days for a set of business meetings. The travel is a major part of the trip. We start at the camp with a 10km ride in the Toyota Landcruiser Desert Edition units to the airstrip. Our crew plane is a Let 210. They are Russian made and build tough! The flight back to Hassi Messaoud is about 45 minutes. This time of year the temperature is perfect - about 15-20 C on average. We do get some flies...but more about that later. At the Hassi airport, we have to go through some superficial security then wait for the Airbus 320 ride to London Gatwick.
It takes around 3.5 hours to get to London. The only real snag in the trip up was passport control in Gatwick. There are two lines, one for UK and European Union residents, and one for the rest of us. I was in line with a bunch of ladies from Russia, about 10th in line or so - looking like a quick trip through Customs. The UK/EU line was stupid long... Well, there is some kind of crack-down on Eastern Europeans coming into the UK, those ladies took 5 to 15 minutes each to get through! I walked up, they went STAMP, STAMP and off I went in 15 seconds. We should appreciate the strength of our Canadian passports!
I had to go to our offices in Canary Wharf, in East London, or the Dccklands. I took a train to London Bridge (It's falling down! Not really, the new one is in good shape) then the subway or Underground as it is called there, or The Tube which is more common. There are a dozen routes covering the city. After I had completed my work at the office, another tube ride to the Hyatt Regency in Portman Square near our other offices for the meetings the next day. The Hyatt is the old Churchill Hotel, build post war and named for Winston Churchill. Pretty cool old hotel with a very nice restaurant and pub.
The meetings were meetings, no need to discuss that here.
The ride home was similar to coming out, with one exception. I was fleeced by a London Cab driver! I was going to take a cab to Victoria Station to take the Gatwick Express train out to the airport. It was Raining very hard and didn't want to walk the six blocks to Bond Street tube station. I thought a cab ride to Victoria would be about £10, then the £16 ticket to Gatwick. The cabbie told be that the rain had caused the low areas for the tracks to flood, so I would have to go by road. He took me to Heathrow, so I could take the National Bus to Gatwick. I realized about two thirds of the way there that I had been had. The fare was at £30 and climbing. The final fare bill was £53! We haggled, I refused to pay the full rate and we settled at £30. I added an hour cab ride to the 1.5 hour bus ride instead of a 15 minute cab ride and a 35 minute train ride and paid £50 instead of £26. I checked at Gatwick airport - "what flooding?". Nice. There is a sucker born every minute...

Spanish Lessons

I started my spanish lessons today at the Calahonda Language Center. The school is only a short drive down the coast and I was learning the alphabet today. They have supplied me with a workbook and CD so I have homework to do. I plan on taking a couple lessons a week until we go to Portugal. The pronunciations are already different than I thought, some things are hard to get out of a book. The lessons are going to be great!

I also had a golf lesson today with the Head Teaching professional at the local Miraflores Driving Range. He has been a golf coach in the UK for 20 years and moved to Spain to slow down a bit. However, he is very busy with lessons here already and it is only his first year. He is currently working with a young guy trying to qualify for the European tour. I think I can learn a lot from him and look forward to some good practice sessions.

The weather is cooler this week, I am wearing a couple layers now but no complaints. We got a little rain today and may get a thunderstorm tonight. The wind is picking up a lot tonight but this is the first time we have had normal fall weather so far, it has been unusually warm according to the locals. Now I have an excuse to go shopping, need more layers.

Our Last Golfing Day Together

Matt and I had the pleasure of playing the Finca Cortesin golf course near Estepona for our last round of golf together in Spain. The course was great and the service outstanding. We were the last group to go out at 11:40 and it felt like we had the course to ourselves. As you can see in the pictures the area is developing very quickly into a top resort area. The few pictures we took does not do the course layout justice. It was one of the nicest courses we have played so far in Spain. It came highly recommended and we saved the best for last!