La Herradura: Week 1

Wednesday 6th August, after dropping Michelle off at the bus station, Victor and I headed back up to the bbq. By the time we got there, it was winding down and people were leaving. So we all headed back down to the beach and went swimming in front of La Cochera. We were all there for a while, and when it got dark, we took Wali and Fabiola back to Almunecar. Then back at home, Victor and I made dinner, watched LOST and then bed. Our 3 weeks of vacation in paradise was off to a great start.

Now I wasn't very good at keeping notes on what I did during these 3 weeks. But I think it will be ok because we mostly did the same thing for 3 weeks. Victor is so tired from traveling so much that when he gets a break he just wants to veg out and do nothing. Fortunately, his parents own a lovely beachfront apartment in the perfect pueblo for doing so. The first few days may be more descriptive than others as I introduce all the La Herradura vocabulary, but then, maybe closer to the end, it will become more concise.

Here is a mini recap of what was usually our daily schedule. Normally people wake up, go to the beach, eat lunch around 2 or anytime thereafter and then go back to the beach around 5 or so. But since we were on vacation and staying out late everynight, sleeping in everyday, that pushed our whole daily schedule back as well. I would wake up around 10 or 11 or later, Victor woke up even later, usually when I went into his room to wake him up. Then we would have breakfast around noon and go down to the beach maybe around 1. In the mornings we would go right out in front of the house or in front of the Chambao de Joaquín. A Chambao is a resturant on the beach. Joaquín's chambao was on one end of the beach that had good snorkeling nearby. We would usually meet Santi and Floren there in the morning. Unfortunately, Floren would leave to go to lunch soon after we got there, and Santi a bit later. The nice thing about going down to the beach after everyone has gone to eat was that it was quiet and not crowded. Then when we got hungry around 3 or 4 we would go home, make lunch, watch several episodes of LOST and relax. Then around 6 or so we would head to La Cochera. La Cochera is the most awesome bar/cafe in the world. Every year they give it a new decoration theme, mirrors, 1st communion pictures, etc. and its always awesome and unique. It has WiFi internet, an outdoor terrace under the shade of many trees, and people go there in the afternoons for their afternoon coffees, shakes, teas, your beverage of choice to catch up and play cards. Sometimes we would meet people there, or go straight to the beach in front of La Cochera, depending on what we felt like and what time we got down there. Most of the time we missed the cafe part and showed up for the beach part. Then swimming and sun till the sun went down around 9:30 and we would head back home. Shower up, dinner and more LOST and then whatever plans we had for the evening. Victor's house was right in the middle of town and became the unofficial, and at times unwanted meeting place, wether we watned to go out or not. So the gang would all meet at our house, usually around 11 or 12, and head down to get a botellon, or go to a concert at La Cochera. If it was a good evening we would stay out till 4 or so and on our way home would stop by the bakery which was opening up and selling the freshest and most delicious baked goods on the planet. Then with a full tummy after a day of greatness it was easy to fall asleep, sleep in and repeat the process the next day.

Back to the calendar: Thursday 7th of August I woke up and tried to organize all the stuff that I brought and just dumped everywhere. Between the two of us, I also had to do a load of laundry as well. By then, Victor had woken up, or I woke him up and we warmed up to the day by watching a few episodes of LOST. We are totally hooked and had most of the second season to finish and the whole 3rd season waiting for us. After that we headed down to the beach for a swim and some sun. Victor would swim out to the bouys several times a day to practice and I would go about halfway. There are also these really cool floating platforms just off the shoreline that have diving boards and a slide on them for everyone to use. They were really fun. After a while we came home and I made fajitas which turned out delicious! We watched Lost and then went and hung out with the gang at La Cochera, went swimming and then probably came home, ate dinner, watched more Lost and then did soemthing in the evening. My notes have a question mark and then say "no idea." :)


Here are my notes for Friday August 8th: "Same, cochera @ nite, jose." So yeah some of my notes are really bad. What this means is that we repeated the same beach process and in the evening went to La Cochera. It was nice because our good friend Jose, who was not on vacation and hanging out with everyone got off work and was able to come down and hang out with everybody. I remember it was fun. :)

Saturday 9 August we did the same thing. I remember I didn't really feel like going out much in the evening but we did because it was the last night El Gallego was going to be there. El Gallego, or Javier is a friend from Galicia, who comes there every summer.


Sunday 10 August we did the same. That evening though, at the beach in front of the Cochera, Antonio and Bea had the idea to have dinner at our house. It came from me suggesting and inviting them to lunch several times when I was going to make fajitas or some other special American dish I had been saving. So they invited themselves over for mexican, but unfortunately it was Sunday evening and nothign was open, so I could not do Mexican. I even went on a motorcycle ride with Antonio to see if the campground store was open but it wasnt. We invited them over anyways and I delegated stuff for people to bring, mostly drinks and snacks. We then went home and showered and started getting stuff ready. Victor went and ordered pizzas, I made a salad and whipped out some deviled eggs (my first time!) I don't know how we did it but we made a huge salad, cleaned up, a dozen deviled eggs and were ready to have company in record breaking time. We had a good crowd, Antonio and Bea, Santi and Floren and Victor and myself. Dinner was a success and afterwards I showed them how to play Uno and Pit. It was so much fun! They loved Pit and it was seriously so fun. I love sharing American stuff!! It was a really good evening.