days of living amongst 220 million olive trees



so for the past two days, cas and i stayed with clive and maki ridout in finca las encinas, their home in iznajar in the la subbetica. we rented a car to get there, and it was completely worth the slightly difficult navigation, the somewhat harrowing turns and unfinished roads and the manoeuvring from cordoba city where we picked the car up. we got upgraded to a citroen c4 coupe instead of the c3 we paid for, so it was good.

the first day we arrived a little late because i was trying my best to squeeze money out of my citibank card but couldn´t. we made an amused friend in cordoba who was watching my difficulty and tried to translate what the bankers were telling me - that my card pin had too many numbers (cinco) instead of the quatro that typical spanish atms accepted. so, when we arrived at finca las encinas, we were introduced to clive, his wife maki and their adorable five-year-old son Cei. we gorged ourselves silly on the sumptuous dinner clive cooked, which consisted of clam and jamon in a piquant sort of sauce for a starter, grilled fresh sea bream with turmeric and paprika amongst other spices, and dessert was chocolate, coffee and cognac flan with mascarpone cheese on top. heaven. :) we also imbibed copious quantities of fino, which is locally made and isn´t readily available outside of the la subbetica. it isn´t processed or fermented so it doesn´t keep easily, but we drank quite a bit - will probably not get to drink any more of it unless we go back. it rained throughout the first night we were there, perhaps eight solid hours of rain.

the second day we woke late but to a dazzling breakfast of andalusian toast - that´s where you rub a garlic clove into freshly toasted bread, then spread tomato paste and olive oil (only the best) and sprinkle salt on it. there was also cod roe, melon slices, pomegranates etc. after breakfast we drove to priego de cordoba first, but all we really did was walk around and get hopelessly lost trying to look for the tourist office (tip: don´t follow the signs for parking, just look for the town square which is usually adorned with a huge nativity scene for christmas). so by the time we had time to sightsee, most of the sights were closed for siesta and lunch. we took a recommendation from a local and went to bar rio, where we stood by the bar and had a cerveza each and just pointed to the tapas that the rest were eating. it was GREAT and we only spent 2,20 euro, the cheapest meal of our trip so far. we haven´t done much of the tapas thing although we should. maybe when we get to sevilla.

ok i shall write more and post more tomorrow, we have a tight morning schedule to follow. ciao!