Spain week four, day two

Sunday May 18th 2008

Hacienda, Villamartin, Spain

After yesterday's trials and tribulations, everything was delayed an hour today, so we started this week's yoga at 10:00. It was really nice to have a slightly larger class than I've ever had before and with one member pregnant as well to add to the experience. As always, the first class to quite gentle and we'll build up during the week. But also, without Linda here, I am doing a second class each day this week - so that will also be a first for me.

But we are forced to do our class on the side terrace as the wind was pretty strong directly along the front terrace, which would have been my first choice. The hacienda's rooster's are close to this side terrace which makes for an interesting background noise. Brunch is held indoors, as dinner was last night. We have decided to cook from the smaller kitchen and are using the big table in main lounge of this wing.

As the weather was too poor to consider sitting out, I offered to take everyone out for a long drive this afternoon through the Grazalema National Park. With Ellie in the boot of the land rover, we only need one car for us all. We make our way to El Bosque and from there up into the hills towards Grazalema iitself where we stop for a walk round. We were not exactly prepared for it being so cold (though we were over 4,00o feet up) so everyone had hot drinks in the town's main square and several plates of tapas, including plates of ham, cheese and potato tortilla. Ellie, Kate and myself also had scrummy cakes from a little close to the centre of town.

Everyone in Grazalema - Luigina, Jonathan, Nicky, Ellie and Kate (foreground)

From here we drove the incredible route to Zahara that Linda and I had done last year. As we approached the top of the pass, we saw a number of the huge birds for which the park is famous - some sort of vulture, huge birds with wingspans of at least 8 feet.

On the road to Zahara near the top of the pass

A quick stop for some pictures at the top and then down the incredible road towards Zahara. This route is a brilliant series of bends dropping steeply to the village below. We briefly went through Zahara (which also features some incredibly steep roads) and then out towards Algondalares and home.

Thirty minutes after getting back it is time for yoga again, a relatively gentle restorative class in which I tried to feature some pilates variations of yoga postures I knew. Over the next couple of days I am going to try and add some more of these which could be fun. And then it is cooking time - fish with pesto topping and a summer vegetable risotto - and an evening in the main lounge in which we had decided to have a fire. It probably isn't really cold enough for a fire but it was really nice - not sure if it was legal though!