The countryside of Ronda

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend for everyone in Spain because of all saints day. So my roommate who has a small RV planned a trip to meet up with some teachers from my school and their families. We were a group of four in the RV between Eugenio, David, Rocio and I. We met up with the other teachers at the house of Maripaz, the PE teacher who I work with, in Montejaque, a small town in the country. It was an awesome trip! The weather was practically unbearable compared to what I am accustomed to in Malaga, it was overcast, somewhat windy and even rained sometimes. This nice weather is making me weak.

The first day we did a few hikes and checked out both openings to a massive cave that tunnels through the mountains. At night we all ate together and drank wine out of wineskins! It was pretty classic Spain -eating bread with olive oil, olives, aged cheese, ham serrano, sausage and lentil soup. Everyone shares multiple plates of different finger foods which is called "picking" in Spanish. Do enough of this and it is considered dinner. Drinking from wineskins is a great way to bring people together. I learned the technique: blow up the wine skin with the wine in it, then start squeezing a stream of wine in your throat from the lips and gradually pull the bag away from your face while continually maintaining a stream of wine flowing in your mouth. If you are good enough you squeeze the wineskin as long as you want and swallow the wine with your mouth open as the stream of wine continues.

The second day we went hiking again and picked wild mushrooms. Mushroom picking is really popular in Spain and the weekend we were in the mountains was a great weekend to pick because had rained. David knew how to pick the mushrooms and taught the rest of us what to look for. Really there was only one kind of mushroom in the area so it wasn't difficult or questionable. Apparently the mushrooms we picked sell for around 20 dollars a pound in the stores.  Later that day we cooked the mushrooms in garlic, olive oil, white wine and pork loin. It was bomb.

The next day Eugenio and I went on a 5 hour mountain biking ride that was pretty intense and included an hour and a half of carrying bikes over a rocky area of the mountain. I was dead by the end of the day. The landscape was worth it though. It was very different from anything I had seen before - very rocky, red dirt and acorn trees. It was really pretty.  We stayed the night in Montejaque the night before we had to go back to work so that Eugenio could just drive straight to Marbella where he works, which was pretty close to where we were, rather than go home and then drive to Marbella in the morning. As we entered Marbella from the mountains I could see mountains in Morocco across the Mediterranean and I could see the rock of Gibraltar. It was pretty incredible. A great weekend overall!