The Southern Coast Roadtrip part uno post 19

The beginning of May we had another weeklong break. I was in class one day and a classmate proposed that we go camping in Portugal. I began planning campsites etc, but I soon realized that everyone else in the group prefered that I didnt plan. We decided to rent a car and take care of the rest of the details later while driving.

I am going to post a lot about this trip so take your time. Most of the pictures are from later in the trip. The blinkin maps arent able to be blown up so you can use the one at the top. The pics at the bottom work, but not the ones of tarifa.

Day 1

I was told the day of that we would be four (Jason, me, Caitlin-all americans, and Amy-an Austrailian). Jason and I printed off our reciept for the car and we set off to get the car.

me- "So.. Where do we get the car?"

jason- "At the Airport."

"So the rental car office is in the airport."

"Yeah! of course it is."

"Oh, When does the bus leave."

"Hmm, good question.¨

"Where from?"

"Gee.... I think maybe up here."

Anyway it took a little time but we found the bus for the airport where the alleged rental car was located. Luckily we only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus to arrive.

me- "cool, Wheres the rental car office?"
jason- "where the hell is that reciept I printed off?"

Jason eventually found the receipt but we couldnt find the company in the airport. We hemmed and hawed for a while outiside the doors worrying about what on earth we would do when all of a sudden a loud beat up van with emblem CROWN CARS comes screaming into the parking lot. A shabby looking spanish dude with a bad haircut pops out of the van. And yells in a heavy andaluz accent:

"Venga tios!"

He gave us a ride to the dicreet rental car office and we picked up our car without further problems and drove back into Granada to pick up or camping stuff and the girls. We drove south to the Mediterranian Coast and continued west.

Costa del sol

Is the name given to the region of Coastline around the city of Malaga and is a huge tourist destination mostly for the English. We visited a string of pubs and in every one of them were exclusively full of English people watching Soccer. The spanish people were very friendly though because I think that they were not used to bieng adressed in Spanish by the tourists. As portugal was our destination, we decided not to spend much time here.

We found a campsite outside of Fuengirola, pitched the tent, made a fire, and roasted some weenies just like back home.

Costs

120€ all told for a rental car for 5 days! ( we rented a Peugoet Partner)

20€ campsite for 4

50 € 4 days worth of food for 4

1.58€ package of weenies

Day 2

Began with a beachvisit to Estepona. We made a short detour to Casares, and had coffee and lunch. We continued driving until we neared the straight of Gibralter. The town of Gibraltar it seems is actually owned by the British, and we ended up bypassing it.

Tarifa

If you look at the map you can see on the very tip of the isthmus, a small town called Tarifa. The area around Tarifa is covered with wind generators. Tarifa has remarkably steady and strong winds, and is one of the world´s capitals for Windsurfing and Kiting. Hundreds of kites out on the beach. Real amazing to me. If you look at the backround of the first and third pictures down you can see the mountains of Morroco in Africa.
left: Jason center: Amy Right: Caitlin

We continued up the coast toward Cadiz stopping at some small walled towns along the way. (There are many of these around this region). Cadiz has a remarkable Cathedral (basilica?) that is worth going out of ones way to see. We camped north of Cadiz after searching few hours in the dark for a campsite.

Costs

Campsite 20€ for 4

Day 3

We got a later start this day, and crossed the Portuguese border in early afternoon. We were told that Portuguese language was similiar to spanish, but I really think that whomever says that is hasn´t heard spoken portuguese. To me it sounds like a drunken dutchman is trying to speak french when I hear portuguese.

The architecture is similiar but the towns actually seemed tidier than the spanish towns nearby. Portugual was really a mystery to me because I know virtually nothing about the History of ethnic makeup of the people here.

The rest of the day was mostly spent at the beach. Throughout the trip I was hasseling the rest of the group about putting up camp in the light. It was a minor thing of contention between myself and some of the group who wanted to drive into the night and just sleep wherever.

The night of the flood

We got going a little late from the beach and drove about an hour as the sun set. We set up camp in the below area and messed around walking in the muck trying to find a beach. We thought it was cool that the vegetation was spongy. Also we thought it curious that there was a boathouse on stilts. Also a bunch of boats were beached. Anyway the general conception was that we should camp here.Turns out that we were camping in the tide plain. Jason and I had a blast watching the tide roll in. We had to pack up camp and move around 3 a.m. At this point we had no idea where to sleep, at this point Amy really pulled through and took the wheel and drove a few hours until we arrived in Lagos. We parked in a parking lot in the darkness and slept in the car until dawn. Our car was a complete mess because we had to rush to throw all of our camping stuff in the car before we got soaked by the tide. We didnt sleep very comfortably or very much. Jason and I were both a little hung over from watching the tide. The scene is pretty comical to me right now, but was a little dark at the time. We woke up at dawn and drove a short distance in hope of finding a beach to sleep at. We found a string of real nice beaches in Lagos. All the pics below are of Lagos.

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