Spain & Morocco

 Today we're exploring the blue city on our own mostly.  This city is so much more relaxed than Fez or Marrakesh.  There are plenty of shops and the owners or happy to sell you something but they aren't aggressive about it.  It also a place where you can find plenty of people dressed to have their photos made.  We were able to take advantage of that several times during the day. Our hotel has a spa which we took advantage of this afternoon.  The hotel is all female owned and operated which is pretty unusual.  While you see women doing a lot of the work in Morocco and the men spending a lot of time in the cafes, it is still a male dominated society. Tonight we were treated to a special meal in a family home.  A musician awaited us on the steps leading up to the apartment.  We took turns photographing him followed by settling into  our places in the family's living room for dinner.  The food was served family style and there was plent...

After breakfast we had our 2nd review of the trip. This is a seasoned group so this is more about seeing how we saw the same situation from different angles. Late morning we boarded our bus to Chefchaouen with a stop along the way in Tetouan. Rumor has it that Steven Spielberg named the planet in Star Wars after this city. Some of the filming was done nearby. We had a Moroccan lunch before exploring the souks. These high walled narrow passageways are home to vendors selling new but mostly used goods of almost anything you might need. This is the ultimate recycling center. Lots of cats lounged lazily on top of stairs, roofs, furniture, anything that was flat and out of the way. Dogs are considered dirty in the Muslim faith so they are much more rare than cats. I should mention the beautiful tile work Morocco is known for that dots the walls. Lots of blues, golds and greens are arranged in starlike shapes. These tiles can date back hundreds of years depending on the area. After...

 For our last morning in Spain we visited the Reservetauro Farm.  This beautiful, high end farm raises bulls for bull fighting and Andalusian horses for both show and sale.  We took a tour to see the various ages of the bulls.  We also saw the various pens of horses.  All the animals looked well bred. We returned to the entrance where one of the horses was being trained in the show ring.  We had a light breakfast while watching. We drove 2 1/2 hours down to the Straight of Gibraltar where we had lunch before boarding the ferry to cross into Morocco. Because Morocco is not on daylight savings time, we arrived slightly before we left. We took a short bus ride into Tangier for a walking tour of the Kasbah.  This is mainly a residential neighborhood with small shops on a few of the streets. Near the top are homes of well known celebrities.  The views over the bay were spectacular. We walked to our hotel where we had an early dinner then to bed. Tomorr...

 We left mid morning for our drive to the very small mountainside village of Benalauria.  How host for the day, Pepe, is trying to promote it to outsiders almost single handily. I felt like I had stepped back in time.  Our first stop was the bakery that prepares freshly baked bread for the surrounding towns. We sampled the meringues and they were amazing.   We wondered up and down (I did say it’s a mountainside village) the narrow alleyways occasionally running into a resident.  One gentleman posed for us.  He’s celebrating his 92nd birthday tomorrow.   We also ran into our fair share of cats.  Some even chose to follow us for some of stroll.  The whitewashed buildings made a nice backdrop for the flowers decorating the walls and window boxes.  And the best part: we were the only visitors the entire day! For lunch, Pepe invited us to his very small winery where he (with a little help) prepared the food.  We started with cheese, brea...

 We had a more leisurely morning today to sleep in or review our photos.  We had a two plus hour bus drive ahead of us so the extra time was appreciated. Setenil is a lovely little village built into the side of rock overhangs.  Bridges crisscrossed the deep valley with winding streets lining both sides.  We dined on the back deck of our restaurant.  Our mainly vegetarian meal featured sliced fresh tomatoes, a lovely aubergine dish, a gazpacho like dish that you ate on fresh bread, and a quartet of house made desserts. After lunch we had time to wonder the town.  I found a doorway where two cats napped behind a blowing screen. There was a large limestone rock that served as the roof of and outdoor cafe full of diners.  Bars hosted couples enjoying coffee, wine, or beer. We drove a short distance to our hotel for the next two days in Ronda.  We had a very short break before our first photo critique of the trip.  Each of us turned in 8 photos f...

 We left after breakfast for our trip into Cordoba. The landscape changed to rolling hills of olive, almond, and apple orchards.  Olives are king in this region both for eating and especially for its oil.  Spain is the largest olive oil producer in the world. Our main destination today is the olive oil producer Nuñez de Prado.  Our photography leader, Ira Block, shot a National Geographic story at this facility decades ago and he was anxious to return.  A family run operation, it was converted to all organic many years ago to both improve their oil and become more sustainable.  They still use old methods of production, using the old stone grinders and a gravity press to extract the oil.  After the first press, the olive past is smeared onto round mats which are stacked onto each other and then pressed to extract more oil.  No heat is used here which makes for a very high quality oil.  They export to the US and is sold both on Amazon and in Wh...