Ronda

A tiny little pueblo in the middle of windy country roads usually described as a "white town" not because of its inhabitants (though most are) but because all the buildings are painted in that colored, called Ronda, was our destination for the day. We all rolled out of bed at 7am and met the bus way down the streets because of some silly historic preservation laws set in Cordoba. The two hours jaunt to Ronda was an easy way to catch up on some sleep.

We arrived to Ronda and made a beeline for the tourist office to get our maps. We set the students free to explore and we were off to find some tasty morsels. Sunday in Spain is like Christmas is most of the States. Everything is closed and surely people are at church or with their families, supposedly. Every establishment that we passed was closed and our grumbling tummies were getting louder. As we approached what appeared to be the end of the road a warm, delicious scent crossed our path. With little other leads we decided to play bloodhounds and follow it. A mere two blocks away a small rotisserie chicken place was the source. The decision was easily made to buy a chicken. They cut it up into small pieces for us, threw in some napkins and drinks and sent us on our way since eating in was not an option.

Looking for a shady place to pop a squat and finally ingest some food, a unbelievable view drew us into a dead ended street. Ronda is built on top of a cliff. There is an old bridge near the center that crosses a massive drop into a deep valley. It is absolutely breathtaking. The view was our magnetic so we decided to sit on the side of the road in some shade and what may have been someone's front porch to eat. An older short Spanish man entered the house from the other side and later on exited, as he passed us, giving us a slightly curious look, he said, "Buen approvecho!"

We ate, we drank, we were pretty merry and continued on our tour of Ronda. One of the tour books had recommended free Arab baths. Earlier in the week as a group we experienced Arab baths that were relaxing and quite enjoyable, so we had told the students to bring their swimmies and towels. After our lunch we headed for a relaxing bath. After walking up and down very slippy cobble stone roads we entered the baths to find a group of students sitting in what used to be Arab bath ruins. No baths at all.