Parador Trujillo

... That was extra exciting for me because Davy didn't have much luggage so he helped me with my massive, way too heavy suitcase. In the hostel, my roommate was a French girl named Adela (that's a phonetic spelling), but after the first night, she spent most of her time with the other French people so I didn't get to know her much. At dinner, the introductions continued, and I met Damiano from Sardinia, Italy (that brings back some great memories ...

... five classes here, all of which are in spanish. The first three are taught only to Kalamazoo students and are, therefore, much easier. These three classes are Art and Culture of Spain, Intermediate Spanish, and the History of Islam (with Paco, my favorite teacher here) My other classes are with the University of Extremadura and intended for the students of the college to complete for degrees. These are much more difficult, and ...

... is an old Roman town and the old parts within the city walls are quite wonderful. I wandered through the tiny old streets taking photos at will and could have gone on doing so for a great deal longer it was so interesting. Perhaps this is why there is a huge banner in the Plaza Mayor announcing that Cáceres is a candidate city for European Capital of Culture 2016. But to be honest I can´t believe it is in with a chance (although seeing how Liverpool ...

... town/city has one) for a snack and coffee and struggled to find something to eat - lots of cafés, just don´t have much left to eat by mid to late afternoon (This has been a common problem in Spain - why is that?). Finished up buying snacks in a supermarket - Great! Things did not improve when I tried to get into the hotel restaurant for dinner (having sat around waiting until 8.30 pm for it to open) only to be told that it was closed but I could have a bar snack! So I had to settle ...

... of the church's tower, which showed amazing views of the city. We then went to Pizarro's House, which has now been turned into a museum devoted to the exploration, and conquest, of the America's. It had interesting photographs and artifacts from Latin America, as well as copies of letters written home by Pizarro when he was in the Americas. Lunch was, by far, the highlight of my visit. We ate at a restaurant off the Plaza Mayor ...

... we saw exhibits about the town's history and the famous Arab aljibe (cistern well) which used to provide the town's drinking water around the tenth and eleventh centuries. The night made up for the disappointment of the afternoon tour. After returning from the Medieval part of town, we asked a local for the cheapest and best restaurant/bar around. A group of six of us went to Don Pancho, the restaurant he recommended ...

... food but there was quite a bit. Then in the evenings there is a couple hours of entertainment involved. For our week the Master of Ceremonies was a man in his thirties who used to be a magician and his job is to handle all ice breakers and entertainment. So we enjoyed some magic shows and we were also involved in some skits. Thats right we did some acting. At least tried to. It was an interesting week and we met a bunch of interesting ...

... and as this was the last day, time was not on our side, but when is it ever ??? Trujillo As we drove along, typical of what we had seen, above on a hillside loomed another town, and this town was named Trujillo. There are many things that it's famous for, but none so more than Francisco Pizarro. He was one of 2500 people who left Trujillo to set up shop and to take over/rule in Central/South America. He did all the **** that a conquistiador does before he ...

Aunque Jano no pudo vencer la cruda para ir a conocer Merida o Caceres, el tocayo (es decir, yo) no le quedaba de otra ya que no tenia dinero para pagar otra noche en el parador y tenia ya pagado el hotel en caceres....asi que como a Carito se le complican un poco las velocidades ..................despues de todo la visita a Caceres valio muchisimo la pena

Extremadura really surprised me and turned out to be a really cool trip. We bussed it out to a Merida and looked at some more Roman Ruins on the way. Merida was a tiny little town in the hills with a castle overlooking the town. API (my program) surprised us all and made reservations at a four star hotel which was awesome. It was in the old villa of Cortez's ...