Costa Blanca, a long overdue update

It´s been abit tricky getting to an internet machine to update our blog lately due to the strange opening hours they have here in Spain.  They have siesta´s mid afternoon each day here where everything shuts down for a few hours and then they re-open again later on and stay open till quite late at night.  Having said that, the Orange House has now managed to get their communal computer working so it should be abit easier to get online more often.

As you know we are staying in the village of Finestrat, which is in the Costa Blanca region of Spain.  This area is located approximately half way along the east coast of Spain.  It is a hugely popular tourist destination now for Brits and Germans due to the excellent climate and the beaches.  We have been here nearly two weeks now and not a single drop of rain has fallen.  We have had a few cloudy days and some wind, but it certainly hasn´t stopped us getting out and about.  The majority of the days have been clear blue skies around 15-20 degrees during the day and then dropping down to 5-6degrees at night.  Very similar to a Sydney winter actually.  Perfect climate for rockclimbing, we are in teeshirts during the days but then come home to a cosy log fire in the evenings.  

The Orange House was really busy up until yesterday when most people headed back home to work.  We were pretty crowded and noisy but now it is just the two of us and one other girl.  We spent the last couple of weeks hanging out with our new friends, a couple of great Canadian lads who were over for a few weeks.  We had heaps of fun with them climbing and also chilling out in coffee shops  and wandering round villages in search of typical Spanish bars and then having beer and tapas.  For those of you who don´t know, tapas is the name of a small appetiser traditionally given free when ordering beer.  Apparently they originated as slices of bread used to cover their beer glasses during sips to prevent flies from hovering, and then enterprising bar tenders started putting toppings onto the bread.  Nowadays tapas can be anything from cheese and olives, to seafood and meatballs.  The other day we saw some rather revolting tapas of pigs ear and cheek, and lambs stomachs - needless to say we did not sample these!   Some bars still give you a free tapas if you order beer and we are slowly sniffing these bars out.  It is quite nice to have a few plates of tapas and share them for lunch too.  Yesterday Ed had lamb meatballs in a delicious sauce and Deb had a huge chunk of fried brie with jam with our avo beer, and along with this they give you slices of bread to dip. Yummo.

We have been to quite a few different climbing areas too although there is just so many cliffs and crags that it will take us forever to get to them all.  The climbing is sensational, really fun routes with excellent moves and good solid rock.  It is all limestone over here so we get great formations and colours in the rocks which makes it very pleasant.  We have found a really good location with some steep overhanging cliffs which we have spend a few days at and is so far our favourite area.  Nearby we also have a plethera of easy graded climbs if we feel like an easy day, or if Deb feels like leading (since she only leads easy stuff at the moment).  The views from these climbing spots are magnificant.  Often we will be overlooking the beach, mountains or farms or all three.   We had no idea how many orange orchards there are here either, everywhere you look for miles on end is orange farm after orange farm.  Even in the middle of the cities will be rows of orange trees lining the streets.  

We have been to a few smaller villages too but so far our favourite is the village we are staying in which is called Finestrat.  It is a lovely old village which while it is quite tourist orientated, it has still retained it´s Spanish charm.  It hugs the mountain side of "Puig Campana" (which we can see from our house) which is 1400mtres high and a spectacular looking mountain.  There are climbs up this but not as good quality as the places we have been so far so we will walk up this one to the summit instead - once we are abit fitter that is.   Finestrat has views of Puig Campana as well as all the way down to the Mediterranean sea.  There is little winding narrow lanes paved with cobblestones, and bright coloured houses and a church which rings it´s bells  every half hour.   There is a mixture of English coffee shops as well as some very traditional Spanish bars.  Something for everyone.

We have got a few lovable pets living with us at the Orange house too who we have become quite attached to and I´m sure you´ll hear more about them.  We have two dogs and two cats.  One of the cats we never see but the other one, Millie, is a smoochy old girl who will spend hours sitting on your knee in front of the fire each day.  Then we have Tufa the three legged husky/alsation who is fat and needs to go on a diet - she has to be the worlds friendliest dogs and just loves being patted and played with and hates missing out on anything.  She lost her leg in a car accident a few years ago but has adapted to three legs no problems.  Then the other dog, Pico, is a rescue dog who the owners got from a pound about a year ago. He was beaten terribly and abused right from a small puppy so is understandably very frightened and skittery around people although when he gets to know you and realises you aren´t going to hurt him he is the most incredibly playful and happy dog you will ever meet. His favourite activity is chasing stones, balls, pieces of wood, his shadow etc.   It has taken two weeks of persistancy but he is now coming up to us occasionally when the owners are not around which is a huge breakthrough.  We are going to start taking them on walks this week which will hopefully make him even more comfortable around us.   

Anyway that is about our update for the moment.  We will put some more photos up shortly and will try to update this more regularly.