Conil de la Frontera to Alájar, June 14 and Alajar June 15

 As seems to be happening with some frequency, original plan—6:00 a.m. taxi to Alájar—got scrapped.  Reason: temperature of 100 degrees meant that a late start for a walk in Alájar was, shall we say, unwise.  In addition to the heat there was the Calima.  That weather phenomenon: heat, haze, dust, and high humidity is what can follow the Levante.  And it did.  Plan B:  three hour walk on the beach in Conil, then the taxi.  

Beach is vast:

There were some, uhh, bunkers? in the cliffs:

Shall I confess the madness of this part of the itinerary?  The drive to Alájar is two hours and forty-five minutes.  But I just wanted a little more hiking before the urban segment kicked in.

June 16. Set out at 6:30 and had a lovely walk!  The Calima is dissipating, so the air was not quite so heavy and much of the way was treed.  

Some sites seen along the route:

Trees (as mentioned above):

A bonny bridge, a bit creaky, which was crossed:

A big, black porker:

And Lo! The riderless white horse appears again, only now, he is out to pasture:

An excursus on grocery shopping in this wee town.  There are about five tiendas (shops) that sell grocery items.  For an outsider, they are not easy to find, however, because signage...there isn't. (You ask someone on the street where the store is.)  The largest of these stores is maybe half the size of my kitchen.  

Behind the counter is a person who gets you what you want—you are not to touch anything—then weighs what has to be weighed, and, with paper and pencil, adds it all up.  There were no greens in any of the shops; one had a single head of cauliflower and five nectarines, a fair amount of garlic, peppers, and some onions, oh, and bread in a back room. (You just had to know.)  That was Arturo's, the most popular super in town.  In this establishment, there is room for only one or two customers at a time, so a line forms in the street.  But that is OK because, as mentioned before, going to the store is an important social event, which is NOT TO BE RUSHED.  No one is impatient; no one complains.  Think, maybe, Atticus without the tables, chairs, or coffee.

Another shop had avocados and lemons; in a third, the boss-lady was on the phone and had no intention of ending the call to earn my custom.  Anyone who sells anything sells many varieties of ham. By 2:00 commerce shuts down not to awaken until mid-morning the next day even though all the shops say—if you ask— that they reopen at 6:00 p.m.  

Bottom line:  Get where ever before 2:00 and make do with what you can get!