On the Spanish Atlantic Coast....

August 24, 2008 Sunday
I know that I never really appreciated the fact that Spain has a lot of coastline on the Atlantic between Portugal and Gibraltar. Well, we've been sailing along it. We stayed two days in Ayamonte because it was a really charming little town with friendly people who acted Spanish. You'd think that acting Spanish would be natural, but there are places on the tourist coastline (Costa Brava, Costa del Sol) where the Spaniards that you meet are used to waiting on Brits, Arabs, Swedes, and other miscellaneous tourists. To do this, they have lost the qualities that we love in Spain. Of course, even on these horrible coastlines with their high-rise hotels - go a few miles inland and you are back in Spain again. Anyway, Ayamonte was very nice, but we needed to move along because we found about some flamenco happenings on Tuesday in Sanlucar de Barrameda. We are going to try to connect with some friends there for what will be the beginning of real flamenco activity.

We went to a flamenco show in Ayamonte, but it turned out to be two young men who sang very nice rumbas, but all night - nothing but rumba. To this old dog, that is not quite flamenco!

So today, we travelled from Ayamonte to Mazagón. Light winds made us use the motor again. Instead of going into the marina, we anchored outside it in the Rio Tinto that leads up to Huelva. If we had gone into the marina, we would have spent 31 Euros there and then, because we were close to the town, we'd have gone out for tapas and drinks and spent another 15 or so. But, we just defrosted the freezer and are eating up some food that we bought in North Carolina. We really need to get through all these foods so that we can buy some new freezer food. We have having a baked chicken tonight and saving a bunch of money anchored out in the river. Tomorrow early we will start for Sanlucar - only 34 miles. We'll anchor there if possible. Sanlucar has some of the best seafood in Spain and that is where we'll spend the bucks.

For those of you who wrote, thanks. It was good to hear from you!