Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Good, the bad and the UGLY!!!

Hello again.
I guess our noble goal of blogging everyday or two was just a pipe dream. Turns out life catches up with you no matter what part of paradise you live in. I will endeavour to catch up with all that has happened to the Boisjoli Clan since our lst update.

The Good.
In-law arrival, We had the whole clan here for a family holiday. Ruth and Earl showed up for a few days alone, and then the cousins showed up. We had a few real nice relaxing quite days showing R&E around the town, and taking in some of the local flavor, and then when everyone arrived, we had an incredibly action packed week of non-stop activity. Group trips included a short (13km) hike through the Alpujarra range in a torrential downpour. According to our map, it was supposed to be 8km, but apparently we read the map wrong. Not withstanding the distance, the hike was amazing, following an old spice trail through the mountains, with serious elevation drop, gain, drop and gain. We hiked past old roman ruins, ancient structures, a fruit grove, and through a couple real quaint little towns. It did start raining about halfway through the hike, and I had fears of a few implosions, but everyone was a real trooper, and even though it was the coldest day we've had here, no one complained much....except that there was no hot chocolate at the end!!!!

Following the hike, we headed out to trek the Caminito Del Rey trail. If you haven't heard of it, I would suggest googling it. At one point it was considered the most dangerous hike in all of Europe. Fortunately, the trail was revamped into a leisurely stroll. For all those who are coming to visit us, read up on it, as we think it's one of the definite must do's here.

After 2 days of hiking, everyone decided a day off at the beach was called for, so we ordered up the tropical Spanish sunshine, and spent a day relaxing, paddling, swimming, kayaking down on the beach. It might have even been 2 days. Sunburns were had by all, but that was the whole point!!! During the paddle, we saw a whole line of jelly fish floating in the water.  There must have been a couple hundred of them, and they had the most amazing colors.  We didn't risk swimming with them, as we didn't know if they were the stinging ones or not.  We did get some great pictures though! And speaking of pictures, at the end of the day, the kids decided to hit the water for a quick cool down, and stumbled onto a big octopus.  Not a giant pacific one, but a good sized one for this area.  It was amazong, because it stayed around and played instead of hiding like they normally do.  

Another day, we drove into Granada, and toured through the Alhambra. Again, Google this one, as it's another must see. 3 hours strolling the grounds, following the footsteps of the ancient Sultans, Caliphs, Kings, and conquerors was amazing.

Throw in a trip to the Caves of Nerja and it was a action packed week.






The Bad.

While everyone was here, we had a major rainstorm, which knocked out the power to the entire community. We didn't think much of it, as we had planned to leave for the day, and figured it would be repaired by the time we got back. Arriving back the the house after dark, we were glad to see the street lights on, but found out when we got in the house, the power was still out. The rain was so heavy, it fried the power meter at the street, and we were left in the dark. Close to 3 days, without power, and 10 people makes for some cozy living. Also, we had just bought a fridge full of food, so scratch those meals.

2 Days before the power outage, we woke up to a water issue...specifically, no water in the house. Fortunately, it was just a temporary issues, as crews were working on the hydrants, and shut the water down....only they went away for siesta time and didn't turn the water back on while the were away. Who really needs water for about 5 hours? Answer pools, automatic pumps and filter system, and other irrigation fields. The house above us must have had there pool system timer set to run during the water outage, as we heard their pump start, wind up, get real loud, and then go into alarm....followed by no more pump noises for a couple days. When we did get the water back, it ran brown from the taps for a couple hours, and had varying pressure, so it would spit and surge when the taps were opened. Made for interesting showers and flushes!!
Since we have Internet today, I will post this portion of the blog, and work on the ugly section offline.



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