Andalucia Road Trip, Day 2: Ronda, Gaucin, Castellar, Tarifa




24 de junio 2009. Ronda, we discovered, was the birthplace of modern bullfighting (i.e. where the torero approaches the bull on foot rather than on a horse) as well as the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition (!). Also, I have to say that literary greats such as Hemingway and Rilke have been there, and I can understand why they stayed awhile; I wanted to stay longer, too. Definitely one of my favorite places in Spain now. But then we had places to go and things to see.

The general plan for the day was to head down towards the coast, stopping at interesting miradores or lookout points along the way. When we saw an interesting castle on top of a ridge, we decided to stop and explore, and that is how we discovered Gaucin. Castellar turned out to be a tiny, abandoned village inside a castle on top of a hill that had been taken over by artsy types because the original residents' farms were flooded when a dam was built. While looking for a campsite, we found this eerie place with bull's skulls on top of spikes and teepees by a creek that the owner left us to find our way around in (one of our greatest regrets that we don't have pictures of the place. Too strange to be believed, really). Fortunately, we met an enterprising British lady in Castellar who advised us to drive down to Tarifa, the southernmost point of continental Europe, and camp there instead. That was certainly a day of both wonderful and strange surprises.

Comments

  1. Lemuel CabahugJuly 13, 2009 at 4:27 PM

    ninduta diha oi..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janjan PerezJuly 13, 2009 at 4:38 PM

    oh to see the sights that you have seen...

    ReplyDelete
  3. :: blindsided ::July 13, 2009 at 7:45 PM

    i love ronda. back in 1992 when everyone was heading to barcelona for the olympics, i went down south instead.

    surprise of surprises, someone was speaking bisaya there in ronda! an old dame from bais who decided to retire there.

    nice to know you enjoyed that place.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leland PasionJuly 13, 2009 at 9:58 PM

    This is beautiful. I'd love to see this someday. Safe travels, Jeneen!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jemi AquinoJuly 13, 2009 at 10:28 PM

    i am sad to say... wa'y angay. =) hehehe.
    not that THAT's a bad thing. ;)

    lovely, neen.
    i mean the place and the smile on your face.

    vaya con Dio.

    HUGS,
    jemi

    ReplyDelete
  6. domi espejoJuly 15, 2009 at 9:37 AM

    lovely photos dear =) kainggit ang trip!

    ReplyDelete
  7. mariflor garciaJuly 20, 2009 at 4:59 AM

    nice photos neen... i wish i could travel too that far with tito jerry of course. hehehe...
    hope you already have a comfortable accommodation there in germany. take care of yourself & GOD BLESS!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    hi lemz! musta?? abi nako laag ka diri sa europe this summer?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    but you will, jan! won't be long till you become a hotshot international lawyer, right? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:27 AM

    haha of course. there's a filipino in every tiny corner of the world, including antarctica i'm sure. unfortunately, i don't think i saw any during my short stay there.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:28 AM

    thanks, lei :) on the other hand, you can be my tour guide for southeast asia :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:30 AM

    HAHA. well THAT's good to know :P

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:31 AM

    hey hey domi! kumusta na? :) long time!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jeneen GarciaJuly 26, 2009 at 11:32 AM

    thanks, tita :)

    it doesn't matter how far you travel, as long as you're together, right? ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boljoon: More Reasons to Return

Image
8 and 9 June 2007. When editor Kristin Llerin asked me to write about Boljoon for the Cebu Yearbook, I asked, "Why ME?". I'd just written an article on it a few months before for the Lifestyle page (supposedly, it was what inspired the Yearbook editors to feature Boljoon in the yearbook), and I felt I had written all I had in me to write about Boljoon, after years of yearning for it. I'd explored all I wanted to. It was a closed book, as far as I was concerned. "Because you like to travel!" she said. Fine. It was MY Boljoon, after all, so I thought it might as well be me. When I got there on a Friday morning (the first weekend of the schoolyear, and I was already on another "vacation" :P) to interview some government officials, I discovered that there was an archeological dig going on in front of its historic church, and that there were actually still a couple of places I hadn't been to...which some of the locals hadn't even heard of, eit...
Read more

Being Brown... again

Image
In 2002, I wrote an  #essay for one of my Sun.Star columns titled "It Ain't Easy Being Brown" . In March 2016, I suddenly got requests from university students in different parts of the  #Philippines  to interview me about this essay for their class. The essay wasn't online and they had to ask me for a copy, so I have no idea how their teachers thought to assign it as a text. In October 2017, I was contacted by students from yet another school telling me that they had chosen the same essay to make a  #shortfilm  on for a school competition. Again, no idea how they got hold of it. But since my essays are  #autobiographical , it was basically a film based on my life. Sharing it now because it's just so hilarious 😂 especially their portrayal of my parents. It's so amazing what kids can do with the technology these days. This is the  #poster  they made for the film. You can read the (very short) essay first . And then watch the  #trilingua...
Read more

It Ain’t Easy Being Brown

STRANGER THAN FICTION by Jeneen R. Garcia Published in 2002 Never fails. Every time I walk down a grocery’s toiletries section, an overly eager, mestiza sales lady blocks my path, wielding the latest whitening product. It’s as if I had a sign on my forehead saying “In Need of Whitening: Approach at Will”.  It’s weird how even in this age of political correctness and Naomi Campbell, Filipinos still automatically equate beauty with fair, cancer-prone skin. And have you noticed how they use naturally white people like Lucy Torres and aforementioned sales lady to endorse their product, in a strategy to make us brownies insecure? In fairness, it’s generally easier to find something that’s bright than dark. It’s less straining to the eyes. Bright surfaces reflect instead of absorb light, making everything else around them brighter. My mother most of all has always wished my skin were whiter. She says I was born reddish, and was worried I would take after my kayuman...
Read more