The start of my 22 day vacation

Well I would just like to begin this with the fact that I swaying back and forth in a peach colored canvas hammock that is extremely comfortable and extremely convenient for allowing me to catch up on my blog writings.

So after a confusing trip down here to Tarifa in the Cadiz province in Spain I finally arrived in what would exactly be described as a bungalow. Although I was hoping for a beach sided bungalow I am content with the fact that for the price I am paying I did extremely well for myself. I have two sun tanning chairs, a picnic style table, said hammock, an outdoor sink, small barbeque, a real live cactus, some chickens in a chicken coop and two lovely furry dogs among a dozen or so medium size bushes and small palm trees in a delightfully landscaped high hedged yard with 2 ½ other bungalows. One is the same size as mine just a different layout and the other is 1 ½ times the size and is the only one occupied, said dogs stay here. As far as the accommodations for the bungalow itself, well that isn’t half bad at all. . . . Sorry about that pause I had to push the hammock again since I had stopped swaying. I have what would be considered a queen size bed here in Spain in one room, 2 single beds in another, an L shaped couch, 19” T.V. bar style high-top chair equipped kitchen island for dinning along with a full size, for Spain at least, refrigerator and quaint kitchenette. Not to shabby when it is all tied together with hardwood, actual hardwood that is, flooring and several screened windows. Oh how I absolutely miss screened windows. It seems here in Spain that they don’t believe in them and that is really annoying since I would love to leave my windows open all year here but since they don’t have screening I don’t.

Anyways, enough about that stuff back to my trip down here. Well I had booked a lesson, well three actually, to learn how to Kite Board something that I have always wanted to learn for a while, but just never got around to actually learning. So I figured that with Tarifa being a so called “Kite Boarding Mecca” I would give it a go here in Spain. So while I was here with Timmy back in April, more on that in another blog which I promise is coming . . . eventually, I got a bunch of names of companies and what not and then did my homework as to see the difference in class length vs price that way I can get more bang for my buck, which is actually a little more now since the exchange rate has come down since I originally was planning on it or about 12 cents on the Euro which helps. So I found this place, emailed to set up a lesson, booked accommodations, what would end up being this killer bungalow, and I was all set. Well except for the fact that my Spanish cellular phone then decided to stop taking incoming calls and messages. Although it is nice to not get stupid messages it also meant that I missed a few messages saying that my accommodations had fallen thru and if I still wanted to do the lesson I would have to call and work things out. Well 10 days went by and the school didn’t hear from me and thus cancelled my lesson and accommodations. Then Thursday, a week before today, I called to finalize my arrangements and was told about what I missed and my only thought was FML. So after a whole lot of phone tag and emails back and forth I finally had a reservation and a place to stay but that wasn’t even finalized until Wednesday at 11:25 am when I was supposed to check in at 6pm and of which I did not get that message until 4:30pm after returning to my computer after being out walking around Seville and hanging out with some friends in Utrera and also getting a phone that works, Hoo-Ray!. So I get home and pack, 3 bathing suits, 2 shirts of the button down style, 1 pair each of shorts, socks, sneakers, and flip flops and some food, mainly tuna packets and energy drinks, and I was off and driving.

230 km, 150 minutes and a few wrong turns later and I was in Tarifa and still lost since I failed to get directions before I left. I guess I was hoping that I would just instinctively know where to go and apparently I was wrong. Well after making a few calls and driving around I finally met up with Javi who would get me settled in my bungalow. He showed me how to work the gate, the door lock, told me where the lights were and said watch out for the friendly dogs and that was good enough for me.

I’ll be right back. It is time for my first Kite Boarding lesson which is the beginning of awesomeness on the verge of EPICNESS!.


Stay Frosty
-C