Senor Matador

We woke up in Arcos and did not have breakfast at the hotel. We went to the pool, to see how warm it was, but it was too cold to swim. While we were there, we had a really good view of the city, because we were at the very bottom and we could see everything up to the top. Arcos de la Frontera is at the top of a very big hill, so that's why we could see it so well. Then we drove into the very old part of the city and got lost. We parked in a very small parking lot and walked through the city. It had all narrow streets and white houses. We also saw a really big church. We were almost at the very top of Arcos then, and could see all the way down the cliffs. Lindsay and I thought that they looked like the Cliffs of Insanity in the movie "Princess Bride"!

We found a really, really good breakfast place that made "REAL" hot chocolate, in other words, melted chocolate with milk. We also found the mercado, which is the market. There, we got mandarines, and pestinos, which are little cookies shaped like a bowtie and covered in honey. They are very old Moorish cookies. We went into a church that was supposed to be very nice, but ended up being very bad, and it had real mummies with bones that had a little bit of skin on them. It almost made me throw up. Then we got our luggage from the hotel and drove to Ubrique. We were going to spend the whole day driving through very old white villages called pueblos blancos. They are all white because that way it does not get too hot. Most of them have big walls and were protected by hills. They have very very narrow streets.

Ubrique turned out to be very boring so we took a few pictures and left. We drove to Benaocas, then to Villaluenga del Rosario, where we walked around. We went into the plaza de toros, which is the bullfighting arena. Nobody was there, so I jumped from the stands and went into the middle. It was really cool and you could still see bull footprints. I took the pose of a matador, which is the person who takes place in the bullfight. To get back out, I had to climb over a fence then jump back into the stands. We also got some really good cheese and meat, and a knife to go with it. Then we went to Grazalema and got lost. One guy who we asked directions to we saw about five more times, for instance when we were going through the high mountain pass called Puerto de las Palomas.

Then we drove to Zahara de la Sierra. We stopped and walked around, and saw a very big tower and castle at the very top of the hill, above the town. Then, for the whole rest of the time, we were trying to get to Grenada. On the way we got lost into Algodonales. Then, when we finally found our way, we raced the evening light to the freeway, and lost. We arrived in Granada, and got lost walking. It took half an hour of walking to finally get to our hotel. My dad went out to eat while everybody else went to sleep.