Indalia Garden Retamar

... I'm laying on the sand, applying sunscreen over sand and just making a royal mess of myself. And. Prepare yourself. I officially went European sunbathing!!! There were two older women by me and nobody else. They were topless so I took a deep breath and joined their fashion statement. I have to say, it was quite freeing. But I still don't think I'm ready for the nudist beach down the coast. <br><br>Anyway!<br><br>So fine, I traipse home with my sand-covered body and come into ...

I am on my way to Cabo de Gata from Granada. I, as usual, didn't do diligent enough research and so ended up in Almeria with a 4 hour layover. Normally I would be ecstatic about this as that is plenty of time to drop my bags at the station, roam around on a city bus and get a feel for one more Spanish city. However. Almeria doesn't believe in baggage drops at the station. In an "I am Josie. I am American." moment, I walked to a hotel to leave my bags there. No. Neither being ...

... really interesting. We decided to check out the cathedral instead. It was ok but nothing like Toledo's. We didn't really like anything in Almeria - so we headed on our way north to Cabo de Gato. We traveled another 30 minutes or so and found a long stretch of white beaches with a small little town (also pretty shut down for the winter). We drove on in search of the Parque Natural - but ran into a dead end at a huge lighthouse and observatory. Our gps was all over the ...

... it turned into sand and stones. We could barely walk the bikes. This seriously slowed us down. Whats worse is that it meant that we ended up on the grotty outskirts of Almeria as it got dark. Desperate for a place to sleep we went to check out under a motorway bridge. Whilst we were down there we saw some kids needlessly kill a goat with rocks and sticks. Not a great site to be honest. I still thought it would probably be alright to stay. They were only kids after all. Quote ...

I had to wean myseft away from the area, and the next day just drove a bit up the coast, past more un(der)-developed beaches at Escullos and El Playazo, and ended up staying in Las Negras, another fishing village which is sleepy by the water-front but with massive construction going on behind it.

Returned to San Jose. Next day drove around to the town of Cabo de Gata, saw the salt-pans, went up the the "Cape", saw the incredible beach of Cabo de Gata, had great lunch there, then went around to the beach at Monsul. Eventually decided I HAD to leave!! 

I decided to rent a car for my last couple of days at San Jose, so took the bus into Almeria. Although there is an excellent integrated bus/train station there, Airport buses go from elsewhere!! So I went looking for the bus-stop, found a man who directed me half-a mile down the road. As I walked to the bus-stop, the Airport bus went by! Got to the bus-stop and had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. It's first stop was just by where the man had directed me... so I'd ...

VENDREDI 01 MAI 2009 ESPAGNE on s4est arrete a l4hotel de la paz entre 9h et 15h pour manger, dormir, et ;anger bocatillo con jamon y tortilla reprise de la route poour almeria arrivee a al;eria vers 19h, on ne trouve rien d ouvert cause du 1er mai, la ville est vrai;ent pourrie, d enormes immeubles au bord de la plage et un port tout industriel....berkkkk du coup, on se ...

Sure enough, it was an hour's hike in. It started sprinkling on us a little as we came in. We came around the bend of the mountain to find a quite little cove. At the end of the path, I ran into Andre the Giant Hippie getting water at this fountain... He says, "todo personas bebe essa agua." "Cual calle ir para a playa." "Todos los calles ir para playa." We pass many little tents and huts on the way. Say ...

... de français et d'arabe. Tout le monde s'installe. On va faire les papiers pour la douane pour la voiture. Papa et moi avons laissé des papiers dans la voiture. Tant pis ! On va manger à la cafet et tout le monde mange pareil... « Monsieur M___ Jean-Baptiste est prié de se rendre au bureau d'information ». Il y va. Il faut les papiers et il les trouve pas ! On monte pour les trouver et un jeune qui a le même problème râle, ils refusent ...