Autumn travels

October-November 2021

Prepare a tall cocktail or roll yourself a fatty because there’s a lot to get through, what with our visit to the US, a steady flow of family and friends through Malaga, and Christmas at Cortijo el Carligto, not to mention our getaway to Estepona. My God where to begin?

After a surprising number of summer friends/ acquaintances streaming through the Costa del Sol, and a brand new Malaga apartment, we returned to the US at the end of October after negotiating our way through the current Covid obstacle course (Antigen tests, QR Codes, Vax cards, temperature guns pointed at our skulls.) In reality, it was actually pretty stress free and a lot of that was down to coughing up the bucks for business class, with its perks like lounge access, early boarding and first dibs in the immigration line.

We arrived in Santa Fe in time to catch their gorgeous autumn, spurred by healthy rains in the summer. It really was spectacular.

We also attended a Halloween party, the first in a long time. We went as characters from the Netflix show, Money Heist (Casa de Papel) which I have never seen, but apparently I was the one named Berlin.

Otherwise, we got to see old friends at least once, we made some gorgeous drives to take in the scenery we have missed, ate at a few of our favorite places and discovered some new ones, like Sassella and Horno. We hit the casinos a few times and were surprisingly lucky. Hector flew to San Diego to attend the wedding of his cousin in Mexicali. Santa Fe was cold but no snow, alas. We got our Moderna boosters, at WalMart of all places, where we shopped for underwear as we awaited out turn.

After 3 weeks, a happy return back home to Spain. Albuquerque-Dallas-Miami-Madrid, with some upgrades along the way. We caught our train back to Malaga, dragging extra suitcases of junk from our storage unit. Malaga was in the process of decorating for Christmas already, which really you have to experience to believe. Malaga is renowned in Spain for its light shows during the holidays. There was a definite new festive feel in the air since it was the first time in nearly two years that the city was able to be even slightly welcoming to visitors.

Also newsworthy, winter had arrived. We left with tans! It may have been 59 degrees in Malaga but the Malagueños had pulled out all their parkas and scarves and were very clearly freezing to DEATH, even as the Swedes continued to bob, topless, in the icy Mediterranean.

We were home for one day, then our Los Angeles travel buddies, Tere and Martín, arrived for a visit. They had seen the tourist stuff before so we spent a lot of time visiting Malaga’s restaurants and watering holes. We had a fantastic time with them, as we always do. We ate authentic Mexican food (next to impossible to find here) at our friend Miguel’s house, and chef team detako designed a fantastic lunch at our house.

Tere, Martín and Hector then went on a late pub crawl and I awoke the next morning to find Tere bruised, Martín face down on the sofa, and Hector with a broken arm. The truth is shrouded in secrecy as they all claim amnesia. Nevertheless, we pulled it together and left for 2 days in Granada. There we stayed at the Palacio de Santa Paula hotel and visited the Alhambra, which we do every time (see my post Granada.) It was drizzly and cold there. Cozy and fun, actually, with the rain in the courtyard of our hotel, the former Santa Paula Convent.

A fond farewell to our travel buddies as they went on to Madrid and we returned to Malaga, after a delay when we got on the wrong train at our connection in Antequera and found ourselves back at the Granada train station again. We eventually made it home, tired but wiser.

Coming up… Christmas at Cortijo el Carligto, New Years’ with Fernando and Debbie and our weekend getaway to Hotel Pilar in Estepona!