Hotel El Paraiso Estepona

"Yes" it is possible to to experience a different Marbella.....
Normally one does not associate "authentic Spain" when coming to
Marbella or the Costa del Sol in general! The picture we all have of this part of the world, is big
concrete buildings from Malaga right to Gibraltar! Big hotels, big resorts, Golf Courses and obviously lots of sun! Not to forget the bling bling factor!
When looking for the "Real ...

... Benalauria. The restaurant was an old converted olive mill. It was very cool inside and had 3 levels and an outside terrace for dining. We started off outdoors, but the bee's were scaring us so we moved indoors and sat next to a woman who was in her late 70's holding court with her 3 friends. She spoke 7 languages and was really interesting to talk to. It was nice meal. Again, great salads! We headed back to town and decided to eat in and pack up our things ...

... took us about 30 minutes to get to Grazalema and we fell in love with it as we were driving in. It's set in the hillside but is surrounded by national forest land. I've said it a hundred times about how beautiful the scenery is, but this by far was our favorite. It was breathtaking. The village was so cute set up a bit more for tourists than where we're staying. It has a great square where everyone was meeting. Monday ...

Hello from the REAL rock of Gibralter!  We've been here all day, bunkering (getting gas) smack in the middle between Europe and Africa in the Straight of Gibralter.  We'll be here overnight, and will sail to Morocco tomorrow early am. Barrett's official 3rd Birthday is February 4th, but since we'll be roaming the streets of Marrakech Morocco on that day, we decided ...

... hello home. Basically it is a 9.8m long , 3.8m high and 2.5m wide breadbox on wheels with a row of seats facing each other on either side. The long benches are then divided into two seater type things and under those seats is your storage container... about 3 foot deep and the same wide. No probs if it was a container per person but no its for two so after a bit of pushing and ...

... climb back into the woods a ways before we reached the end of the fence where we could go around it. We ended up way further up the peninsula than the cable car, but we just walked back a ways and reached Main Street again. We felt quite accomplished when looking back up at the massive rock that we'd just hiked down and I'd recommend the same route to others. Overall, the daytrip was well worth it and one I'd recommend to people with extra time in Andalucía.

... settled into our new home and she lived up to her promise. She bought a great Spanish cook book and loved dog-earing every page that she successfully completed. We've loved eating it all. The day before Jer left we drove up to Malaga to pick up our next visitors, Michelle and Alex. They are very good friends from Philadelphia, Des and Michelle have been friends since college. We have felt so lucky to be able to spend time along the way with the people we love. It was a blast ...

... too bad because we were going to teach it to mix drinks as well!). But we did get them to sit on our shoulders, which was so cool. One little guy sat with Ali for awhile, and even put its hand on her shoulder, which was so cute. Another one really didn't want to leave my shoulder, and was swinging around by my hair... I thought I was going to be leaving Gibraltar bald, but tons of good pictures came from it! The ...

... en daar een weekje te blijven om de rots en de aapjes te bekijken en nog wat te knutselen. Maar de wind staat gunstig en daar willen we graag van profiteren! In de Straat van Gibraltar is er eigenlijk altijd of oostenwind of westenwind. Verder is het een gebied met diverse stromingen: een constante stroom van de Atlantische Oceaan de Middellandse Zee in en een getijdestroming. Om de straat überhaupt door te kunnen komen moet je wind mee hebben. Anders word je door ...

... high winds stopped the cable cars for two days I don't even know if there are monkeys; I spent three days throwing up. David's first Gibraltar experience: There was indeed a hospital, chips, and warm flat beer - much of it infected, but cheap, the colony being duty free. Beer was the only cheap thing - everything else is about twice as expensive as a few hundred meters away on the other side of the border, and our money ...