La Marina del Este

We decided to venture a bit further afield today, after days of staying within the bounds of Almuñecar. So after lunch we did a walk from home to the Marina del Este, (barely) seen in most of my sunset photos. It's not that far, but there's a lot of ups and downs. We started by going down the 283 steps to the beach, then right up again via a steep path. We then had to do a long zigzag down to the marina via roads, as most of La Herradura seems to be private urbanizaciones with no through roads.

We finally made it to the pretty little marina and there found a bus stop with a somewhat impenetrable timetable. We calculated we had forty minutes before the bus, time to stroll along the marina, gulp down a drink in a bar, and then hurry back. And wait for half an hour ... no bus. So we walked back too, but via a different route that didn't involve going down to sea level and back up again. Stats: 8.5 km, 330 m climbing, 3.5 hours, but at least 40 minutes were spent sitting in the bar/at the bus stop.

Yesterday we enjoyed our second Spanish lesson with Fifi, having a good conversation. It seems like just the right level for us. Afterwards we went for a coffee with classmate Michel and carried on speaking Spanish.

Wednesday night's intercambio was disappointing though -- there were so many people, talking very loudly over each other in a hard-surfaced room, that it was impossible to hear yourself think, let alone follow what your table mates were saying. I couldn't help thinking it was almost the definition of a superspreader event too, as we leaned in to hear each other! We will probably skip it for now and just go to the outdoor Saturday morning one instead. A shame as this intercambio introduced us to so many of the people we've got to know in Almuñecar. But some of them come to the Saturday group too. It's good to be getting back into the usual round of Almuñecar activities, though we're missing the cinema, currently closed.