Friends From Home

We could hardly wait until Sunday when we went to Granada to pick up our friends George and Bj from Dallas.  We haven't seen friends from home since April.  They flew from Dallas to Madrid and then on to Granada.  We picked them up at the Granada airport and served Mediterranean snacks and sangria (no sangria for Tom who was driving) as we drove back to the apartment in Los Alcazares.

We went for a quick dinner in the plaza before putting them to bed after traveling almost 24 hours.  On Monday we had breakfast at the apartment with fresh squeezed orange juice from Valencia oranges and took them to see the town of Los Alcazares.
Then over to Cabo de Palos for lunch by the sea.

Dinner Monday night was at Rebate and the Flamenco show.  We had a multicourse dinner which was fantastic and enjoyed the Flamenco dancers again.

On Tuesday it was breakfast at the Hotel Encarnacion on the patio by the sea.  During breakfast we were treated by the Spanish airforce with an airshow as they practiced their precision maneuvers over the bay in front of us.

Then on to my favorite, the street market where Bj and I made several fantastic purchases.
Back to the apartment for a quick lunch with French champagne!  We toasted our friends being here.
Tonight we are going to La Cala, the fabulous restaurant in the hidden cove for dinner.  All we do is eat--which is not all bad.

A Mud Bath at Lo Pagan

I'd been hearing stories about a mud bath, but I thought it was in a spa setting.  Our friend, Loretta told me you go down to the beach and do it yourself.  Well, what could be easier than that?  Lo Pagan is the small village where the mud and salt flats are located.  Upon arriving at Lo Pagan you might see a strange and unusual sight.  What exactly are those black objects drying in the sun? People! People covered in black, smelly mud.  They know something about this foul smelling mud--it draws people from all over the world to Lo Pagan. The mud is very therapeutic and will cure lots of skin problems, plus it's  like an all over body facial.  My cardinal rule is, NO PHOTOS in a swim suit! However, vanity aside, this is too good not to show you.  We were told to look for the jetty and the windmill.

 Finding both, we secured a parking place and set off to find the mysterious mud.

We pass by people in various stages of applying and drying, what a sight.

Wooden platforms have been constructed leading to the best areas of mud and there are steps down to the water.

I had a pail and scoop for the mud.

I started applying the mud to all areas and Tom did my back. He opted to stay clean and photograph the procedure.

 After applying the jet black mud to all exposed areas, I let it dry in the sun. It turned a dark gray when dry and began to crack slightly.

When I was completely dry I went back into the water to wash off.

After a through rinse, we walked back down the promenade passed where the vendors used the palm trees to display their goods.

 I needed to get home for a much needed shower, but I'd do it all again.

La Cala and the Beach

Our dinner companions told us about a must do place at Cabo de Palos.  It's a secluded little beach where the shore is rocky and the water is crystal clear and there just happens to be a great restaurant.

After getting perfect directions--"you can't miss it", means we will miss it.  After only a couple of wrong turns, we found the long and winding dirt road to the La Cala beach and restaurant.  We parked in the lot at the top of the cliff and walked down to the restaurant overlooking the beach.

There were lots of people, but not overly crowded because it is difficult to get to and not too many know about it.

We secured a "power table" right at the edge of the overlook with a perfect view of the beach.  The view and the food were equally outstanding.

We were amazed at the array of beach wear or lack thereof.

We had a delicious lunch of salad and seafood paella.

This deserves a return visit for sure.

Food, Food, Food!

Saturday Evening

The next couple of posts are mainly about food and friends too, you see what's important.  Good food and good friends!  We did a taco dinner for our friends in Paris and wanted to do the same for our new friends here.  It was a little more of a challenge.  Old El Paso kinda let us down.  No taco shells!!  We tried every grocery store in a 15 mile radius, but we made it work.  Tom squeezed 30 fresh limes for margaritas and I fried corn tortillas for tacos, and we had dinner.
We invited our next door neighbors, Ian and Mary from Glasgow, Scotland.

Ina's sister, Jean, her husband, Max and their friend, Loretta from London joined us.  In honor of their new friends from Texas, Max showed up wearing a red deputy sheriff's hat he bought at the Chinese bazar on main street.

Ian and Mary and Max and Jean each have places here.  There are thousands of people here from the UK.  Lots are tourists, but many have taken up residence here.
We opened up our table to accommodate 7 and brought in chairs from outside.  It all worked.  We started with salsa, guacamole, chips and of course Tom's delicious margaritas.  The tacos worked out fine and we had a delightful evening getting to know our new friends better.

We had a a lively evening of food and conversation, and hopefully, a good time was had by all.

Food II

Sunday Evening

Max and Jean host an annual barbecue at their house on the beach.  We were honored to be invited.  

Max bought this piece of property several years ago because of the location.  The location was great, but the house was a little less than perfect, in fact, it was a tiny house in bad disrepair.  But you should see it now!  With a lot of work, it's a show place.  There are now 3 floors with a rooftop terrace.  It even has a lift (elevator).  The barbecue was on the rooftop with a spectacular view of the beach.  You could see from one end of the beach to the other and across the bay to La Manga--fabulous!

Ian was in charge of cooking all the meats.

There was chorizo, English sausage, steaks, chicken and pork shish kabobs and burgers--one of everything from the butcher shop!  John and Pat,  Janet and Frank, Max and Jean, Ian and Mary, Tom and Betsy, and Loretta--nice group.  Jean, Loretta  and Mary served  beautiful appetizers and side dishes.  John was in charge of drinks.  He kept the wine flowing and we had a traditional English drink, Pimms.

It was delicious, refreshing and gone quickly.  Jean set a beautiful table and the weather was sea-breeze perfect.  The meal was delicious and generous.

The dinner was followed by coffee, ice cream and chocolates.  Conversation, stories and music filled the evening.

Ferry to La Manga

After taking care of some household chores this morning we decided to take the ferry from Los Alcazares  across the Mar Menor (Little Sea) to La Manga, the strip of land on the opposite shore.  The 12 noon boat would get us there in time for lunch.  It takes forty-five minutes to cross the bay.  As we waited on the dock for our boat to come in we had fun watching all the kids and young people enjoying the water crafts.  The three little boys on the wind surfer were working so hard to keep the sail up.  They were usually working against each other.  The paddle car with the slide on it was full of teenagers having a great time.  Lots of paddling to keep that thing going.

As usual the water was full of people soaking up the sun and the therapeutic waters.

The captain blew the horn and we pulled away from the dock.

The buildings on La Manga got bigger and bigger as we approached.  We could see the bottom, the water was so clear.

We went in search of a seafood lunch on the Mediterranean side.

We must have been in a residential area because there were no beach front restaurants to be found.  Walking on a little farther, we found a funky little place on the second floor over looking the street.  Not exactly the greatest view, but the beer was cold and the swordfish was tasty.  Check out the menu for our choices.  It's a good thing Tom knew "emperador" was swordfish.  (Last night for dinner he had "suckling kid cutlets".  He said they were really good but that just sounded cruel to me.)

A little strolling to explore a bit and back to the ferry for the return trip.

The sun was hot, but the breeze on the boat was very pleasant.