Attention Readers: Go to Cadiz!

Cadiz is the southernmost place in Spain, near Gibraltar and just a few miles north of Morocco. It is a busy seaport with a large, well protected bay, founded by the Phoenicians (yes, it's that old!). Before this trip, I didn't really know anything about Cadiz at all. But after spending 3 days in and around it, I really want to go back. It is a jewel of a city, very picturesque and chock full of interesting sights.

We arrived late in the afternoon to our hotel, the Boutique Hotel Casa Cánovas, located in the heart of the ancient walled part of the city. (BTW, we really loved the hotel and I would recommend Room 12 to anyone visiting the city). Jane and Alex's room had a rooftop terrace so after we got situated in our room we went up to have a look. From the rooftop we could see several old minarets and towers in the distance, whetting our appetite for a closer look. Then I noticed the dry, smoky, mysterious aroma of Catholic church incense, which I've loved since I was a seven year old altar boy. It was puzzling since we were nowhere near a church. Read on to learn the source of this evocative scent.

Our hotel had an Italian restaurant right next door so we stopped in to have dinner, only to find out that the wait was an hour. After some hemming and hawing we did put our reservation in and took a walk to while away the time until we could tie on the feedbag. A short ways into our walk we arrived at a beautiful small plaza where were gathered a good sized crowd of people surrounding a wooden platform with a figure of Jesus dressed in a dark purple robe. We drew closer to see what was going on, and it was then that the incense mystery was solved. There had been a procession around the neighborhood with the statute of Jesus, and of course the procession was accompanied by that fragrant aroma of church incense, which wafted its way up to our 4th floor perch above the hotel. We watched for a few minutes the final steps of the procession bringing the figure of Jesus back into the church for the evening.

Statute of Jesus entering the church

Virgin Mary statue in the church

We have learned that there are processions like this going on all over Spain in preparation for Semana Santa (Holy Week), which starts in a couple of weeks. And we did see some more rehearsals walking around Cadiz in the days following our arrival there.

Now I'm going to take you back a few hours before our arrival in Cadiz and tell you about our trip to Antequera. It is situated between Granada and Cadiz, and we stopped there to have a hike in a geological formation known as El Torcal (the sinkhole). These very unusual formations were created around 150,000,000 years ago:

We were also treated to viewing many different types of wildlife such as wild ibex mountain goats, vultures, and many other varieties of birds. Although spring hadn't quite yet sprung at El Torcal, there were just the beginnings of some flowers visible:

Blooming branch

Otherworldy landscape of El Torcal

Hikers taking a break for a photo

Although the weather on our trip so far has been pretty good, it has been on the cool side with the occasional spot of rain. We've got raincoats and umbrellas, so the rain is no big deal. Up on El Torcal (which is probably 2,500 feet above the valley floor) it was pretty cool when we started our hike. We had a bit of light rain at the start, followed by sunshine, and finally, hail! But the hail pellets were quite small and did no damage. The hike was really one of the highlights of our trip. We all felt very happy to be able to see such a beautiful, unspoiled natural monument.

After we left El Torcal we went to see another very ancient rock formation, except that this one was made by people. It is called the Dolmens of Antequera. A dolmen is a rock formation made by humans. Most of us are familiar with Stonehenge in England. This is similar but these dolmens (there are three of them) are cave-like structures oriented towards certain specific places. The largest of them points towards a mountain that is shaped like the face of a person (it looks quite a bit like George Washington), another is pointed towards where the sun rises at the summer equinox. These structures were built around 5,700 to 5,800 years ago (3800–3600 BC). The rocks that make up the dolmens are huge, and it boggles the mind to wonder how these ancient people were able to move such heavy objects without the benefit of giant cranes or Caterpillars. Here are a few photos:

Looking out from the interior of the Dolmen de Menga towards the face on the mountain across the valley.

Entrance to the Dolmen de Menga.

This is getting a bit long to read on a coffee break so back to work everyone and I will pick up here on the next posting.

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