After 2 days in Toledo, we headed back to the Madrid Airport to pick up the rental car. My mom really wanted to be able to swim at least once in the Mediterranean on her trip to Spain so I asked around and was told that Almeria would be a good choice. People said it was a good choice because It wasn't AS FAR north (hence warmer and closer) as some of the other Mediterranean beaches and that the beaches were "virgin."
But before we could get on the road to Almeria, my mom wanted to look into to changing her flight and staying a few more days in Spain. We talked with a girl at the ticket desk in the airport and she was able to arrange a really nice deal for my mom with basically the same flight pattern, schedule and price. I think she only had to pay around 200$ to change her flight(which is cheaper than most).
We then picked up the car and headed out of Madrid. Once again I was a ball of stress. In my 8 months here, I hadn't been driving at all. I was not only out of practice, but worried about different road signs, getting lost and other drivers on the road. Not to mention we were on a bit of a tight schedule for the first few days so I also felt this nagging sense of urgency which shouldn't be allowed but sometimes can't be avoided on vacations. Originally my mom was going to drive and had gotten the necessary International Driver's License through AAA in the U.S. before coming. She had to present that when renting the car and they assumed that she would be the driver. But then at the last minute we decided that it might be a little too stressful having her drive in a COMPLETELY new country straight out the gate. So I drove which worked out good. That way she could be the navigator and also look out the window to enjoy the changing scenery on her vacation.
Almeria was very dry, kind of like Eastern Washington and apparently Hollywood has filmed lots of westerns there in the past and packaged them as if they were the old west. One of Clint Eastwood's old westerns was filmed there but I'm not sure which one it was. Also, there was a ton of agriculture there in Almeria, but most of it was covered with white tarps for miles and miles. We were weren't exactly sure why. We drove for about 5 1/2 to 6 hours before the big, tan desert hills broke and we got a dramatic glimpse of the turquoise Mediterranean. It was gorgeous!!!
We pulled into Carboneras which is a small white beach town in Almeria and started looking for a grocery store. That town was really difficult to navigate through because the roads were so narrow that one car could hardly fit and certainly not 2. Most of them were one way streets, so we could see our destination but never quite make it there because all the sudden we would have to turn in the opposite direction according to the one way signs. It was frustrating because we were racing against the sun so we could see a Mediterranean sunset with a little picnic down at Playa de los Muertos. We found a Mercadona, did a quick shopping trip, found our hostel(not without trouble), checked in and headed up to the entrance to Playa de los Muertos.
It was a little hike down to the beach but nothin too crazy. It was superwindy and a bit cold still in April. We had hoped to go swimming but that evening it was just too cold and windy. From the wind and rough, choppy waters, the color of the Mediterranean changed from the turquoise we had scene earlier to a cloudy blue. We did, however, invent a fabulous sandwich in all our hurried state of grab this, grab that at the grocery store. We had these fresh whole wheat mini loaves of bread that we bought, spreadable goat cheese, dry sausage/salami type link, and jalapeno stuffed green olives. With my new knife, we spread on the goat cheese, chopped up the salami and olives and piled our sandwiches high. They were SO incredibly good. We sat in the sand, facing the water and eating our fabulous new inventions while I sipped straight from a bottle of red wine.......ahhhhh!!! Only one problem....we couldn't see the sunset. Playa de los Muertos is on Cabo de Gata which means that our sunset was being blocked because we were on the eastern side of the Cape. Good one Jessey!! Way to think that one through. lol.
The next morning we started out by taking advantage of our free breakfast of lattes and the traditional Spanish breakfast of toast with olive oil and grated tomato on it. Then, luckily the owner of the hostal was kind enough to let my mom make an international call on her phone to figure out why her credit card wasn't working. It was a 1-800 number but from another country it doesn't quite work like that(another little added stress). But anyhow, the lady was sweet and let my mom use her office and phone for a minute. Meanwhile I brought the car around, we loaded up and headed down to the beach again but this time just the city beach. We got in the water a little although it was pretty cold. We didn't actually swim, just got wet so that we could say we did it. We bathed in the Mediterranean. Then, it was off to Granada......
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