A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPHER, IN SPAIN. DAY 3, Part 1. Along the Coast and up the mountain..

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After a good night sleep, we have a leisurely breakfast, we bought something we want to try, the Spanish cheese, Tetilla (Spanish: Queso de Tetilla) is the most characteristic cheese made in Galicia, it is the pride of the land where it was created, the secret of this cow's milk cheese has been passed down from generation to generation. The soft cheese is hand formed into the shape of a woman's nippled breast! (1)

In Spain, people revere this cheese and assert that it "tastes like kisses."

It is lovely.

We’ve decided to drive from Fuengirola, along the ‘old’ coastal route, the A7, Autovia del Mediterráneo towards Marbella, the weather is perfect, a few clouds left, which makes it all the more interesting.(2)

Only around 25 km, but it looks promising.

Parts you drive along the Med, then you drive through or along villages and small sleepy towns, well it is Domingo (Sunday) AND around the Midday, only the silly tourists are out. LOL.

Names like El Faro, where you see the old and the new. (3)

El Chaparral, Ana Maria, Torre de Calahonda, Torre Ladrones, Costa Bella… we stop at one of them, discover a lovely little beach, with a fish restaurant, looking very local, the fire is burning, the fish is cooking in a typical way!(4)

The beach is deserted, we walk the shore, the sun is pounding, Paul forgot his bandana in the car, so I give him my blouse which we make into a ‘turban’, he looks quite rakish, my Sultan!(5)

We walk to the end of the Cove, stopped by the rocks. We see what's further down, the beautiful blue of the sea, Torre de Calahonda... (6)

Looking down, to our dismay, we are once more confronted with a sad sign of our times… people just discarding their rubbish… wherever. My lens is not wide enough to take the whole lot, this is only part of it! (7)

WE ARE THE ONLY ANIMALS TO SOIL OUR NEST LIKE THIS!!!

I am disgusted and storm away, the walk through the sand is tough, it fuels my anger, but by the time I get to the stairs towards the car, I’m exhausted, and feel flat.

We drive off in silence.

At some point; we come to a sign pointing to Altos the Marbella (Heights of Marbella), we both think that if we can get higher up into the mountains we might have great views, with Cypress, Olive trees. (8)

We pass a huge half finished hospital, another building site which seems deserted.

Vendors have been telling us Spain is in a crisis! Yet, everywhere you look, they are building, self-contained enclaves in the mountains, along the beaches, they are raping their land! Everywhere you look, it is like Lego-land identical boxes, neatly arranged and mostly empty and for sale, masts, cables, and roads leading nowhere.

Again, there’s silence in the car, up we go, lovely (new) road, brings us to our destination, a Securitas protected (new) village, no barrier so we drive on, you feel the cameras on you, all the villas are hidden, the gardening plantation looks well maintained, watered and fresh, lots of beautiful oleanders, NOBODY to be seen… it feels like ‘The day after’!

We meander on, till eventually, we are out and on the way down again, the nice road is finished, now more rocky, we pass a few deserted old ruins of small farmhouses, come under the The Autopista del Mediterráneo, the E15(see day 1.) (9)

It is both impressive and intimidating; we both get out to take photographs.

Driving on, we come into a lower new development… just as empty, our sat nav tries to get us out, however, every road we get to is blocked off, we see the faint arrows still there, no way out… I feel like I’m in a bad movie, in the end, we just doubled back in silence, now no longer interested in the surroundings. Another sharp bend and we are in the surreal world of Dali, amongst the manicured estate, in the middle of the road stands a herd of goats…

We stop, neither one of us gets out..., I open the window and put out my arm, hand with camera, no viewing what I'm shooting!

What a bonus auto-focus is! I 'chance' it.

They stare at us, we look at them… it is a stand off! (10)

A few minutes later, they charge…(11) past us, although at first it looks like it is at us!

Out of nowhere appears a shepherd and his two dogs.

THAT I want to photograph! I jump out of the car, camera in hand, again in my ‘BEST’ Spanish I ask him if I can take a portrait of him, he smiles, laughs, tells me a whole lot of which I don’t understand anything. I see he is wearing a Securitas jacket... is he also the security guard?

He walks off, turns around, waves at me, (12) comes back and asks if we have water for him!(13)

We do and Paul gladly offers him a bottle, he’s very grateful and takes a deep drink immediately, talks a bit more and waves good-bye, (14 )then he’s gone.

We sit in the car, except for the droppings in the road; it could have been a dream...

It has made our day, we laugh a lot.

Eventually we leave the place behind and get back, past the hospital onto the main road.

We are going to Mijas, the mountain village above Fuengirola.

Thanx, M, (*_*)