Carmona. A charming looking place with not at all charming people. Thank goodness our waiter last night was pretty nice, because otherwise pretty much every one else seemed like they suck on lemons all the time. Puckered, unhappy faces. Unpleasant. Scolding and nasty. We were happy to pass the no-more-Carmona sign. I did a whoop and waved my arm in the air. Lynn did the same. Well, the arm, anyway.

We took the freeway south, passing by Seville’s ugly urban sprawl and then Jerez where sherry is produced. When we started traveling east at the coast, I realised that my trip was now officially onto the “return” leg. Other moments of east were just part of the exploring or part of the coordinating with people. This time, I won’t be going west again in any significant way.

Costa del Sol!

Our campsite is charming. Very nice plots with lots of wonderful plants and palm trees, a gorgeous covered pool, a decent if unexciting restaurant, lots of friendly stray cats, an adequate little store, walking distance to the beach.

So of course we went to the beach. It was a bit rocky, but I got in the water. I didn’t swim, but I played in the waves up to my chest. Lynn had forgotten to change into her suit, so she watched from the shore.

Afterwards, we had a cocktail at the beach bar we had planned on enjoying for dinner.

That bar had a private party for the evening, however, so we walked further for a full meal a bit down the beach. I had a freshly wood-grilled dorade and Lynn the grilled squid.

We are realising how different our food patterns are, and how they are in comparison with Spanish custom. Lynn, for example, usually has a light breakfast at 07:15, a light lunch between 11-12 and a full dinner pretty early. At home, I usually have a light breakfast about 8:30 or 9, a moderate lunch between 12-2, and various sized dinners after 19:00. Usually more like 20:30 or 21:00. So I’ve become rather happy with the relatively light bread-based breakfasts at 09:00ish here, then a big lunch between 14:00-16:30, then very light dinners, for example just the free tapas that come with your beer (1 or 2) in the evenings after 20:00.

Since Lynn has arrived, which is just a couple of days, the past 2 nights we’ve eaten full dinners in the evenings. However, since the kitchens aren’t open until 20:00, we aren’t done eating until 22:00 or even 23:00, which is too late for me to comfortably digest that much food. So I’m not sleeping very well.

Dinner was delicious tonight, but I am skipping dessert (no!!) in hopes of digesting better. We’ll see. And I’ve announced that I’m sleeping in a little tomorrow. I might not get out of my tent until 09:30. We’ll see.