Feb 12- 13

Sat Feb 12 – Driving through the mountains of Andalucía

We had a lovely breakfast in a brilliantly lit central atrium above our cave. As I said before, I fixed their computer so we could pass on info to this blog. We caught up on email and the Egypto news and then took off for a drive to Ronda. We passed through El Bosque, Ubrique, Villaluenga, Grazalema and saw from a distance many other small white towns. This area is all a national park with very civilized hiking trails and picnic areas throughout. In Villaluenga, was a small bull ring built on top of a rock above town…great views but we think the small ring may have given the bull an advantage. We got lost in Ubrique trying to find the old town center and gave up. Instead had lunch in a small town triangle (wasn’t square!) of Grazalema where there were no tourists and there was great food. Stumbled our way back to the car (great vino also) and let the steep cliffs we were driving sober us up. We arrived at Ronda and found lots of construction to get to the old town. Our mansion here was a bit newer, built in 1735. Very nicely renovated, you can get lost in the numerous stairwells – one of which seems to go up the enclosed central atrium by the small private (12 seat) theatre. Pictures in the dining area of people frequenting the hotel include Rick Steves, Ernest Hemingway, bull fighters and various other world renowned musicians, movie stars and politicians. Ronda is an old town separated from the “new town” by a 300+ foot deep gorge and “nueve puenta” built in the 1700’s after old one fell down. We strolled the city, large lovely pedestrian streets and “mirador” viewpoints for photos to the tune of guitars, harpists, vocal groups and laughing children on their evening paseo. Saturday night here was their St. Valentine’s Day, so restaurants were full. We had to settle for an oven baked thin crust pizza, or two.

Feb 13- Cueva de la Pileta and Bodega San Francisco
Today we head south through the mountains and, like little terriers or dachshunds (which are everywhere) we went to ground. The cave we visited is still owned by the same family that discovered it over 100 years ago. Four generations ago, a farmer saw bats exiting a small opening and went inside to locate guano to improve his fields. They have allowed exploration but resist commercial exploitation…no electricity here - but the bats are (hibernating at the moment!). The entire family has been hijacked by their g-g-grandfather's fascination with the cave. Hiking up a steep rock side, we entered the cave through a small entrance (watch your head!) to marvel at the stagy tites and stagymites…they grow 1 cm every 100 years here. The cave is quite large but we only covered about 2 km. The cave comes complete with marvelous paintings from 30000 years ago and underground lakes (fish on the walls, not inthe lake). The oldest paintings were of animals - horses bulls goats people animal traps, done in iron rust red. The most recent, from Neolithic times 4500 years ago, were charcoal. As the paintings became more recent, they started to take on a more pictographic or symbolic nature, approaching language. There was even a “map” of the cave and calendars important for the inhabitants as they started to do more farming. Probably only one family lived in the cave at a time during the hunting era, though it was huge. It may have held a “village” of 3-4 families once farming started, maybe 12-40 people. At one point, the cave we were in overlay another below us, with 4 meters of rock separating the two – you could stomp on the floor and the whole place reverberated. Very freaky.
Back to Ronda and lunch at the Bodega San Francisco in a small square outside the town walls. DOCP great red wine from the area, marinated anchovies, shrimp cocktail on ½ avocado, octopus and Iberian pork sausage for lunch. Naptime! This evening it is raining slightly and we are catching up this diary while sipping wine in a lovely salon...may skip dinner and stay here for the evening. Tomorrow, off to Granada. Pictures of here to follow.