Walking Tour in Sierra de Grazalema

Last weekend we drove 1 hour and 45 minutes north to the Grazalema area
near Ronda. It was a beautiful day.

We call this photo "Layers" because that is just what it looked like:
four layers of  poppy fields, rolling hills, mountains, and sky. 

We met Brenda Jones, our guide from Spanish Nature (spanishnature.com)
Brenda and her husband moved from their native England to Spain six years ago.
Brenda is an expert on wildflowers in the area and takes people on
 private tours. (Her husband, we learned, has a passion for
 birding and takes people on birding trips in Spain,
as well as distant places like Gambia, Ecuador, and Kenya). 

We spent the day with Brenda, driving to different spots, hiking around,
and learning the names of different flowers in bloom, like this one-- Ferula or Giant Fennel.

We always thought of iris as a cultivated plant, but here Spanish Iris grows in the wild.

The Sierra de Grazalema was the backdrop to all these beautiful flowers.
We had been to this area before and passed it many times on our way to Ronda,
but on this day with Brenda, we discovered a lot of "back roads" with gorgeous scenery.

The area is loaded with different varieties of rockroses or Cistus.

The petals are so delicate.

Rockrose bushes are about three feet high and spread quickly.
They look lush and colorful in areas that are hot and dry.

We saw many fields of white and were surprised to find out it was
flowering cilantro. 

 Ironically, the Spanish grow
a lot of cilantro but don't use it much in their cooking (at least in Andalucia).

We took notes and photos all day long. Hopefully we have the names of these
flowers right. (Brenda, if you're reading this, please fill in and correct!)
 This is pretty Ronda Cranesbill.

We've included this little beauty but confess to not knowing its name.

We only saw one snake the whole day. Thankfully.

Sweet little orchids.

The Milk Thistle flower was as stunning as its variegated leaves.

Brenda told us about a number of really good hikes in this area, and we
plan to come back in June and do some serious walking . This was
part of the 14K LLanos de Librar.

Lovely pink Valerian.

 Another no name....

Tri-color Convulvia. Not photoshopped. Nature is perfect.

Some sort of prickly pear. So strange looking, right?

This is a "man cave"---the real kind. Brenda told us that in the
winter, men from the village take a break from their wives and hang
out here! It's got a fireplace, stone benches, a couple of framed
"girly photos."

The cave is located on a hill above the pueblo blanco, Montejaque.

The end of another memorable day.
Gracias to Brenda for a wonderful tour. We loved it!
Hasta luego, Deb and Jim.

Lagos, Sagres, & Cabo de Sao Vicente, Portugal

This is Part II of our Portugal Weekend Adventure.
(See our other blog post dedicated to the incredible wildflowers of the area.)

Beautiful weather vanes. Fortunately we had beautiful weather on our trip.

El Puerto to Lagos was a quick four hour drive. We spent a long
weekend exploring the area.

Sagres Point, a remote area in the southwestern part of Portugal.

One of the few remnants left from Prince Henry the Navigator's School is this
enormous Rosa dos Ventos wind compass on Ponta de Sagres.

Storage building is in the background. The surrounding fields were
covered with wildflowers.

Simple chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graca was also built by Prince Henry.

One long straight road to the lighthouse at Sagres.

A few miles away from Sagres is Cabo de Sao Vicente. See the lighthouse?
This spot is the extreme southwest point of Europe. It was believed to
be the end of the world by the Romans.

Fort on the cliffs of Cabo.

Lots of fishermen but we never saw anyone catch a fish!

Coastline was stunning.

Literal translation? "Last sausage before America"

Ponta da Piedade in Lagos.

The grottos in this area were magnificent.

So many spectacular vistas.

Next time we go back, we'd like to kayak through the grottos.

More beauty. We climbed all over this area.

Many of the flower photos we shot (see other blog post)
were along these cliffs.

The end of another great weekend.
 Hasta luego, Jim and Deb

Wildflowers in the Algarve

April and May are the best months for wildflowers in Portugal. Last
weekend we drove four hours to the western tip of the Algarve--
a remote and dramatic area on the Atlantic ocean. We spent the weekend eating
tasty seafood, drinking remarkably good and inexpensive wines, walking,
and taking photographs of beautiful flowers and stunning landscape. What
a wonderful way to spend a weekend!

Daisy-like flowers came in every color from purple to...

...blue, yellow, pink, and white.

We'd call this Queen Anne's Lace back in the Northeast, but here we believe it's
Wild Carrot.

Anybody have any idea what this beauty is called?

Sea Daisy.

Ice Plants are gorgeous but invasive succulents. They come in yellow
and pink (pictured later).

Jim taking one of the 600 photos we took over the weekend. It was hard to
whittle these down to just 15 photos for this blog!

Ice Plants in pink.

Bromeliads were in full bloom.

Car nestled in a field of flowers.

The Atlantic is just beyond the cliffs. We're doing a separate blog post
on the Algarve scenery, which was fabulous.

Rocky fields were wild and beautiful.

This hibiscus-like flower has sticky dark green leaves.

We took this shot at 8:00 pm, just as these Ice Plants were closing
up for the night. They may be invasive, but aren't
they lovely?

We hope you are enjoying Springtime and Mother Nature,
wherever you may be.
Hasta luego, Deb and Jim

Favorite Foto: February

Pottery collective in Fez, Morocco. 

February Flowers

It's starting to look and feel like spring in Andalusia...

Flowering Almond Tree

This citrus tree in our yard is laden with lemons.
Time for pie, lemon ice cubes and Laura's limoncello!

Lavender and rosemary in bloom

Upclose.

Anybody know what these are?

And another? Anybody have any ideas?