Baeza Monumental

How many olives could a Spaniard chuck if a Spaniard could chuck olives?<br> <br>Were having a real hard time getting used to the timing people observe here in Spain. They seem to get up late, work till just after noon, then they're off until 5pm when they open up for business again until 9. We haven&#8217;t gotten to bed before midnight or 1am yet. That said, we got a relatively early start to the day so we could get to our campsite ...

... exploring Jaén which is a very chaming city. The people here are called Jianeses and are some of the most kind and helpful people I have ever met. A question is never answered with a yes or no, it is explained and made sure that you understand. Everyone walks you to where you ask to go instead of telling you take a right, then a left then another left. The people from here call it a Pueblo Grande or Ciudad Pequeña...A Big Puebo or a Small City...because it is only about 130,000 people but ...

... still hits the spot on those really hot days when it's getting over 38 to 40 degrees outside. We will be wrapping up our stay in Ubeda this weekend, which is kinda sad because we have had such a good time with the family there. But we do want to see the rest of Spain. Since we spent so much time in Ubeda, and because it's getting so hot here in the south, we've decided to forego Valencia and the Balaeric islands. The plan is to catch a ...

Craziness in Cazorla While we were in Ubeda we took a couple day trips (since there really isn't that much to do in Ubeda.)  One of our trips was to a national park really close to the town of Cazorla.  Getting to the park involves a lot coordination with the public transit system, and we soon realized that we'd have to spend a night in the park to make it work ...

... for the most part, we have been pretty successful. Of course, it helps that in addition to being excellent hosts, Merche and Paco are also fabulous teachers. This has been especially helpful for our spanish skills. Just in the course of doing everyday things with the family (cooking &amp; eating meals, watching soccer games, going shopping or out for a walk, and just talking about our day) we have learned SO much spanish. There are tons of ...

... to sum it all up. Now whenever Paco leaves the room he says "Fredrico, ciao italia" with a laugh. Mercedes has offered to teach us how to cook like Spaniards, which we are excited about, but so far we haven´t caught her in the act of cooking, so we haven´t learned much. Today she is also going to take us shopping to replace some of our worn out clothing. This will be our first Spanish shopping experience. I´m excited. Besos y abrazos (hugs and kisses) Jenny

When we were originally planning our trip to Spain, we had hoped to arrange a 1-month stay with a host family. But, most home-stay programs were connected to schools and language classes, which we didn't really want. So our best bet was the couple that Jenny's sister lived with while she was on her exchange program last spring. Laura stayed with a wonderful family in Ubeda, and had lots of great stories about her host parents ...

... enter the room and poo everywhere mostly at night and always in your hair, still it was a cunning plan of the owners Ali and Meg not to put us off. We would be staying at the Magic Roundabout in Las Palmas, a small community made up of a few families but mostly mad, extremely viscious dogs. Its in the middle of nowhere in the cloud forest where bears, tigres (big long jungle cats) and even vampire bats reside and it was going to have to be a pretty damn magic place for ...

... climb and alot of air. The clouds sit so low you cant even see out of our bunkhouse in the mornings. Big verandahs of the main house overlook the mountains and volcano and it is way too easy to sit in the comfy hammocks and not do anything at all, all day long. You forget how simple life can and is still is some parts of the world and i totally love the fact that it is here. There is no phone or net. The vegie man comes past once a week, so does the meat man. They toot their horns and we ...

... very greasy (due to the rain) path down...i start to slip, and instinctively grab on to the nearest tree, which is nicely covered in thorns...all the forest is calm, except for the sounds of a few birds and insects, as well as a silly gringo screaming like a wee girl...in a day or two i would spend a few hours removing only 6 of about 12 thorns in my hand....not fun...but a good lesson... after another night in the diesel fumed cabana (the wood is soaked in ...