I didn't know it, but June 23 was to be a day of extremes.
I started the day by electrocuting myself at the crack of dawn: remembering that the camera's battery was dead, I tried to plug it into a loose adapter in the dark with wet hands (a 220v socket has a current in both sides). The hotel's tasty breakfast made me feel a little better.
Mohamed then took me to visit the castle in Tarifa, where it was very sunny but also quite windy. I had no idea just how windy it would get later in the day!
Because I was at the southernmost tip of Spain, I got a tantalizing view of Morocco (oh, how I wanted to hop on that ferry and visit again). Mohamed took me to the beach, which was picture-perfect but unbelievably windy. Blasted by sand and ocean, I couldn't even keep my eyes open as we walked to the promontory. This strip of land with views of the Atlantic and Mediterranean was worth it, though.
Unfortunately, upon leaving for our next destination, we got sent to the middle of a field by Google Maps: Mohamed was perplexed by the increasingly rural settings, and looked on the map to discover that we were driving towards the geographical center of Cadiz province (which is apparently composed of fields), not the city center of Cadiz (which looks clearly metropolitan from the satellite view). Lesson learned: just because the destination is typed correctly doesn't mean you're actually going to where you want to go!
Mohamed decided to visit Arcos de la Fronterra instead, as we were closer to that destination. We apparently arrived during the worst time of day: it was suffocatingly hot, and we were the few people still awake in the heat of afternoon. I don't think I've ever heard such loud silence anywhere else before!
We thankfully found a small restaurant open for tourists, and had refreshed ourselves with a small cold soup and eggplant with honey and cheese. And lots of cold water.
Mohamed braved the narrow European city roads, and we arrived at our renovated palace of a hotel in Sanlucar. I loved the colors!
I started the day by electrocuting myself at the crack of dawn: remembering that the camera's battery was dead, I tried to plug it into a loose adapter in the dark with wet hands (a 220v socket has a current in both sides). The hotel's tasty breakfast made me feel a little better.
We walked in the surprisingly intense evening heat to a local seafood restaurant, and ate yummy food with a view of the Atlantic (outlet of Guadalquivir). Pretty sunset!
