Wednesday, June 02, 2004

help me ronda...

no, i´m not talking about the Beach Boys either. we´ve spent the last two nights in Ronda, Spain, which is in the central southern area. it´s one of many whitewashed towns along the Sierra Grazalema.

from reading the guidebooks, it would seem that Ronda is a sleepy little town with little to offer. i guess that´s somewhat accurate. unlike the major cities, most of the places close around nine o´clock. however, the infrastructure is pretty well established for tourism. the main draws for its visitors are the bullring (oldest one in Spain - 1785) and the ultra beautiful views of the bridge that spans the Tajo gorge.

we are majorly tired though. we really haven´t been on the go the entire time we´ve been here. in fact, we´ve been taking it easy - a vacation from the vacation. no, what has been tiring us out is the scaling of all the hills. our hotel is on the east side of town, about a fifteen minute walk to the central part of Ronda. the hills are killer. i don´t know how the cars navigate the super narrow and slick cobblestone streets. it´s even crazier to watch scooters and motocross bikes charge up these puppies.

although we almost wish that we stayed in a hotel closer to the bus station, the place we´re in, is really cool. it called the Entre Arte Hotel. we ended up paying 90 Euros a night for one of their double A rooms, which is pretty spacious. it´s about 30% more than we were paying in Sevilla for a junior suite and a buffet breakfast...but here, ALL the drinks (beer...wine...sherry) is included as well as a fantastic lunch spread. oh yeah, the internet access is free too. so, we´re just kicking back and enjoying the views of the mountains, listening to the thousands of frogs in the riverbank below, and enjoying the HELL out of ourselves!!!

i know i skipped a couple cities, but stay tuned...i´ll catch up eventually.

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