Down Under in Aracena

7 September 2019

Breakfast at Casa Annette’s in Cortelazor was wonderful. All the better because we shared it with Annette and Stuart, on their terrace at the back of the house.

Stuart handed us a list of “must go to” places in Edinburgh for when we are there in around 6 weeks time. The list mostly involves bars, but we are ok with that.

We then worked on more immediate plans , and we were given a list of small country villages to visit on our drive to Evora, Portugal, later in the day.

But first we had to go down under. Our entrance fee to the caves included entrance to the ham museum. Grahame was excited.

We drove back to Aracena and were lucky enough to get tickets for the next tour starting in 15 minutes.

I’ve stolen a few internet pics because a “no photography “ rule is enforced. The operators do however take a formal pic, with flash , in a stage setup along the tour. And of course, everyone buys it, because it’s the only photo you have.

The caves were truely magnificent!! The trail took us right up amongst the stalactites and stalagmites, into several amazing chambers and past amazingly clear waters of underground lakes.

Then, there was the Museum of Ham!!! Such a disappointment! Apparently the local pig, a black one eats a lot of acorns and that makes the best pig meat. That’s it. Tour over!!

Our back country drive toward Portugal took us through some lovely Spanish Villages. We drove through some and stopped at others.

Our favourite was Almonaster la Real with its ancient castle ruins and its adjoining bull ring!!!

As we drove further west towards Portugal, the landscape changed once again.

There were more trees, more greenery and more grape vines.

We counted down the final kilometres to the border. I was ready to document our border crossing into another country and another time zone .

Nothing!!!

The first we knew we were in Portugal was getting this message from Vodafone.

It’s more exciting crossing from NSW to QLD!!

We checked into our conveniently situated hotel and went exploring.

We found somewhere to sit and people watch and plan for tomorrow in a busy street in the centre of town. We may have even had one or two “Spiritual Drinks”.