The beautiful mountains

First, I really do apologize that I haven´t uploaded photos.  I haven´t been able to find computers that allow me to plug in my USB card, and also, since right after leaving Zaragoza, I ran out of space on my 1GB card that is USB ready, and have been using a standard SD card that I can´t plug into a USB port because I don´t have the cable.  The good news is that I´ve taken a bunch of great shots, and will upload them when I can, probably back in Burgos just before my return to Boston.

Right now, I left Cádiz´s beautiful and awesome Atlantic coast, and went along the coast all the way to the Strait of Gibraltar.  In Tarifa, I hopped in the water, thinking that it would be the last time I would see the Mediterrannean.  Howevewr, I was wrong.  While in Ronda, I realized that there were no campsites on the straightest route between there and Granada, so I would have to detour.  The detour today takes me to a little town called Torre del Mar, about 20km east of Málaga.  Multiple people had told me that Málaga was not worth going out of my way to visit, and that the same went to most of the Mediterrannean Coast.  This was when I thought I would go south from Barcelona all the way to Tarifa.  I´m glad those people gave me that advice, because, honestly, there isn´t all that much to see here.  It´s overdeveloped beachfront, replete with intermittent casinos, gas stations, and gaudy hotels.  To top it off, the beach isn´t even all that good.  Not that I´m complaining, because I´m just here for the night, before turning back up into the mountains to Granada, which everyone raves about.  After having seen Jaén, Córdoba, Sevilla, Cádiz and Ronda, I am really looking forward to seeing what is different about Granada.

Ronda was a great place for a rest.  Some caves nearby have early human cave paintings of horses and people with arrows, just like you see in geography books, except this is so very real.  You have to walk into the cave, tread through some water (not like the caves in Colombia), and eventually you get to the cave paintings, which are a sadly kind of far away for preservation reasons.  I know this not because I went (I would have liked to, but they only open a few days a week, exactly those which I was not there), but I was told all this at the tourist office.  What I did get to see in person is the abyss.  I had previously described it as a cliff, but I think abyss is a much better word.  The story is that there was an enormous rock just sticking out of the ground.  Really, it was more of a small hill, but with very pronounced ends.  And then there was a river headed straight for the hill/rock.  Usually when this happens, the river goes around, but in this case, the river went right through, and eventually, over eons, it eroded an enormous path through the rock.  Humans enter into the picture and settle on both sides of the path, but were separated by this 120 meter (appx 400 feet).  Multiple bridges are build throughout history, but either the river, or some other natural force like an earthquake, do away with the bridge.  One side of the river is called Ronda, a city dating back to the Romans.  The other side is called Marcella, a city that developed later than Ronda, and by the 18th century had become a place to escape the tax laws that applied in Ronda, but not across the abyss.  So, in 1750, the construction of a permanent bridge was commissioned and started. The bridge, called the New Bridge even though it´s over 200 years old, is now a symbol of the city, and a powerful one at that.  Looking over the edge, down 400 feet to where the river still rushes through, you can´t help but feel some vertigo.  From the bridge, you also get a great vantage point of the mountains on both sides, making it the tourist destination in Ronda.  You can still sense how this all developed, with the older side of Ronda a maze of uneven, steep, cobbled streets that dates back to the 12th century or so, and the newer side across the bridge, where most people live now, is modernly designed with gridded, paved, and relatively even streets.  Two worlds, so close together, so far apart, and linked by a bridge.

The ride out of Ronda was just as spectacular as the views.  Of course, my perspective is a little skewed because I did descend something like 1200 meters to the coast.  Everything looks nicer when you´re not climbing hard on the bike, and are able to look up and enjoy the scenery at a normal heart rate.  To my credit, though, the ride up into Ronda was really nice, and I was climbing hard.  But today, the scenery was spectacular, while the mountains drifted off into the background, I could see the coast approaching, awaiting with excitement.  In the end, the coast itself was a bit of a disappointment, but the beauty of the ride stands on its own.  Even though tomorrow is back up into the mountains on my way to Granada, I am excited about seeing beautiful landscapes again, away from hotels and neon lights.

I have updated the map, for all of you to get an idea of what path I have traced through Andalucia.  The only things left are Granada and Jaén, and then a train ride to Madrid, a car ride to Burgos and back to Madrid, and a long flight back to Boston.