I
recognize that many people have lost far more than I have in the past couple
months and am thankful for all the blessings that we have in our life.
Nonetheless, our sabbatical experience has been heavily impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. By the time we leave Spain in a few weeks, we will have had
to cancel trips to the Netherlands, Germany, Morocco, Italy, Denmark and Norway;
three different sets of family members had to cancel trips to visit us in
Spain; our daughters have missed out on the special opportunity of attending
school in a foreign country and did not enjoy the closure of saying goodbye to
classmates and teachers; and we missed out on about two months of enjoying normal daily life in Spain. While we have tried to make the best of the situation, it
is impossible to not feel some sense of loss. So, it was nice to enjoy an
experience that wouldn't have happened if terms like "social
distancing" and "new normal" had never entered our vocabulary.
Spain recently entered phase one of the
government's de-escalation plan to slowly reopen the country. During the first
three phases, it is permissible to travel within one's home province, but not
to travel to any other province. Since we have had to cancel so many other
trips, we decided that we ought to take advantage of the opportunity to travel
within Malaga province and rented an AirBnb apartment for a couple nights in
the small, traditional, whitewashed town of Montejaque. The town is located within
the Parque Natural de la Sierra de Grazalema near the Cueva del Gato or
"Cat Cave."
We rented a car and started off towards
the mountains, but first made a pit stop at a natural beach area about twenty
minutes from our apartment. Most of the coastline on the Costa del Sol is developed, but Playa del Cabo Pino is a protected area with natural dunes and
grasses. It is also home to a nudist beach, but fortunately all we saw were
families and everyone was wearing a swimsuit. The beaches are still closed
during phase one, but since the beach was more secluded, we didn't need to look
over our shoulders for the police and freely played in the waves.
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| Playa Cabo Pino, a natural beach about twenty minutes west of our apartment. |
After a late lunch, we wound through the
mountain roads and arrived in Montejaque in the late afternoon. We quickly
unpacked and headed off to the main attraction: Cat Cave! The Cueva del Gato is
a series of caves with a waterfall that empties into a small swimming hole.
There had been a bridge leading to the cave in the past, but it had been taken
down and we excitedly crossed a small river on rocks to access the area. Since the
water coming from the cave was groundwater, it was quite cold, and I was the
only one to go under in the evening shadows.
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| The view of "Cat Cave" from above. I think the cave looks a little bit like the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin, with the lion opening its mouth. |
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| No bridge, no problem. I have always felt that crossing on rocks was a better path anyway. |
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| The frigid swimming hole outside the Cueva del Gato |
The next day, we made a late morning
return to Cat Cave and the air temperature was much warmer. Everyone but Lydia
went under and our legs were numb by the time we were done wading in the pool.
The girls wanted to try to find a place to swim in the warmer river than joined
with the water coming from Cat Cave and we hiked along the shore to try to find
a good place. In the end, we decided that the water was too murky, but we
enjoyed the short family hike, nonetheless.
Once back in Montejaque, we stopped at a
small restaurant for lunch with tables on the sidewalk overlooking the
mountains surrounding the town. When I ordered the "plate of the
mountains" and received a thumbs-up from the waiter/owner, I knew that I
had made a good selection. The food was homemade by his wife and delicious.
Relaxing in the shade and enjoying good food and a drink, while soaking in the
beautiful scenery, was sheer bliss.
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| Enjoying lunch with my favorite girls in Montejaque |
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| The "plate of the mountains"...I am going to miss chrorizo. |
In the afternoon, we enjoyed playing in
the grassy area surrounding the community pool, which was unfortunately closed
due to COVID-19. Our "casita" was in a little gated community that
seemed to be for weekend and holiday getaways, since we were pretty much the only ones around.
From our patio, you could take in the beautiful view of the tops of the
mountains over the white walls and terracotta roofs.
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| The view from our casita or little house. The middle peak is where I hiked to the next morning. |
I rose before sunrise the following day to
go for a longer hike in the mountains. After a little trial and error, I
eventually made it to my desired trail and followed a switchback trail up the
mountains. However, the path ended earlier than I had hoped, so I rock hopped
up to a peak that overlook Montejaque and the neighboring town of Benaojan. I
savored the view from the peak looking down on these little, whitewashed
mountain jewels. Although the last few months have not gone as expected, it is
nice to know that even within disappointments and disrupted plans, there are small
surprises and opportunities to create happy memories.
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| Sunrise hike in the mountains |
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| A birds-eye view of Montejaque |
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