Cabo de Gata

Last weekend we took a road trip down to the coast with some of our friends from Ciudad Real. We went down to Cabo de Gata (Cape of the Cat), a big national park in the south of Spain near Almería. We had perfect weather (80+ degrees Fahrenheit everyday) and we were traveling with such a fun crew. Some highlights include Wii Just Dance marathons two nights in a row, screaming every time the sea came into view (except for Will, who was driving at the time), and lots of Spanglish. 

Will found us an awesome Airbnb house to stay in with four bedrooms and three bathrooms for the six of us; it was great! The back door didn't exactly lock, but we kept the irrational ax-murderer fears to a minimum. Plus the four girls we were with were sleeping upstairs and WP and I were downstairs, so they figured Will could fight off intruders! But actually, the landlord lived right next door to our house and Níjar is a sleepy little town, so we felt pretty safe.  

Here's our house as seen from across a small canyon in the town of Níjar with Jenna, Jessica, Marie and Mariana:  

In addition to all those bedrooms and bathrooms, the house had a cute mini-pool. It was pretty cold in there, but that didn't stop us from using it! 

While hanging out in our pool we got to see a herd of goats and sheep! The old goat herder was a little taken aback by us, I don't think Níjar sees a lot of tourists come through. 

In order to get to the house we had to drive through some pretty tiny streets in our "minivan" (one seat was a pop-up in the trunk). Since it was so hot outside, many people had their doors open with just the small curtains covering the entryway. Kind of makes you feel like you're driving through someone's living room... especially when everyone stops what they're doing to stare with a confused expression as you go past: 

View through the front windshield (these are all two-way streets, amazingly enough): 

This part got particularly gnarly, with cacti sticking out, stray dogs in the road who were too hot to move, and people's front steps jutting out into the road. WP did all the tiny road driving up to the house and successfully got us in and out many times! 

We also got to see this little pile of cuteness every time we came back to the house and had to slowly drive by her domain so as not to scrape the car. She was one of the neighboring houses' pets we think: 

Here's a view of the town Níjar, looking almost Moroccan instead of Spanish with its white houses surrounded by desert and mountains: 

In the three days we were in Cabo de Gata we went to five different beaches. They were all pretty different from one another, and for the sake of remembering where we went so we can go back someday (which we would love to do), I'm going to attempt to remember the names. 

On the 15-minute drive to the beach we had to go through a bunch of extremely arid land with a sea of greenhouses. See all those shiny white buildings? All greenhouses! This one's for you Papa Barham: 

The first day we went to the beautiful Playa de los Genoveses. It was pretty windy at this almost completely unpopulated beach and I think it made us feel cool enough that we forgot to reapply sunscreen. Oops!  

Will and Jenna went on a short hike from this beach up to this cliff: 

Here's Jenna lying down to take a look over the edge: 

From their hike they got a pretty good view of the beach where we were hanging out (as you can see, it's a far cry from the overdeveloped miles and miles of resorts on much of the Spanish coast): 

In the afternoon we went to eat lunch and ice cream in San José and stopped by the beach there called Cala Higuera: 

On day two of the trip we started out in Agua Amarga, where we were lucky enough to find this free umbrella to huddle beneath. We all got at least some part of us sunburned on the first day, so the shade was welcome relief! Agua Amarga is a really cute beachside town, and is definitely a place to come back to! 

This beach was a fun one for swimming, though it wasn't until after this photo was taken that we realized there was a sign that said "No Swimming: Detachments", meaning that pieces of these rocks fall off frequently. Good thing that didn't happen to us! The four people in this picture actually jumped off this rock into the water several times, brave souls. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue color at this beach and even I got over the coldness of the water to take a dip! 

After lunch on the second day we went down the coast a little to another beach located next to some campsites, Las Negras. Part of our group did a hike up this hill, and Will was able to take this photo of the beach:

Later on the hike they found these bright white rocks, reminding us of some of the eroded rock formations in the Grand Canyon:

On our last day of our beach weekend, we stopped at this vista point to get stunning views of the rocky desert terrain and the blue Mediterranean Sea. The desert in this area looks so much like Arizona or New Mexico, and a few miles inland from Níjar over the mountains is where they filmed a bunch of the old Westerns that are supposed to be set in the US (most famously the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone series including "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"). This area is also the driest and sunniest place in all of Europe!

From the mirador we made our way to Playa del Playazo, where Jessica ended up with pieces of sea urchin in her foot (after a long swim out to the end of that big point on the left of the picture below with Will and Jenna) but still claims that it was the best beach day ever. That's saying something: 

On Sunday we drove the four hours back to Ciudad Real and when we arrived it was 11pm and 80 degrees outside. I think CR skipped spring this year and went straight to summer! This week and weekend we're expecting sunny, hot weather and have no real plans. We'll probably be eating a lot of frozen yogurt and hanging out with friends before we all part ways in a couple weeks. Next weekend WP and I will be flying up to Bilbao and San Sebastián to check out Basque country!