We spent new year's eve at the house of my brother-in-law Iñigo and Luis Calvo. Along
for the evning were the three of us (Barbara, Nico and I) plus Juanjo, Paloma and Juan, two
friends of Iñigo and Luis...

...and the dogs of the household. This one is Pino, a Jack Russell terrier.

My brother-in-law and Luis traditionally have lunch on the first day of the year at a
restaurant on the beach at the nearby town of Las Negras. We joined them by driving
to a beach called El Playazo and walking a couple of miles from there to las Negras
along a path that follows the coast.

This is the lunch scene. Not bad weather considering it was January 1!

After lunch we walked back to El Playazo. The first three pictures show Las Negras.

When we got back to El Playazo, at around 5 pm, Barbara decided to have a swim.

It was a gorgeous day, but Paloma and Juanjo (and I) decided to watch and not swim.

This was dinner on Jan. 1 at a restaurant that was nearly impossible to find, even with
instructions. I am not sure if it is part of the charm or because they do not have permits
to operate the restaurant...

These are domestic scenes inside our house.

Juanjo even got his dialup access to the Internet (using his cell phone) working. IBM came through again.

The next morning Juanjo, Paloma, Juan, Barbara and I hiked to the La Polacra lighthouse.
It was another gorgeous day.
 

In the afternoon I drove to Almeria to pick up our friend Mechtild Whale, who was coming
from Germany (from a town called Halle in what used to be East Germany) to spend the rest
of our holiday with us. On the way from the airport to the house I stopped at a lookout so
she could get an impression of where she was.

Mechtild brought with her this nice sunset.

That evening we cooked at home. Barbara thinks the kitchen is too small, but here
is documentary evidence that four people can be inside it at once without undue
hardship.

The next morning we drove to a small nearby crater called La Granatilla because the dry
riverbed bed that drains the crater is packed full of small garnets. The sides of the riverbed
are covered by mounds made by people sifting earth to get garnets, something done for as
long as there were people around, I assume. The pictures are (respectively) the exit from
the crater looking out, the dry bed, Barbara looking for garnets and a typical piece of soil
covered with garnets  (sorry about the bad focus -- all the dark "pebbles" in the picture are
garnets).

Picking the little stones is addictive for those of us with mild (or worse) compulsive tendencies.
We collected a couple of cups full of them, the larger maybe half a centimeter in diameter.These
panoramics show the view from the crater exit and the crater exit from the outside of the crater.

We then had lunch at the beach restaurant in Las Negras again, this time in a larger group that
included all those present at the new year's eve gathering (except the dogs:-). The weather was
not as nice so we ate outside but sheltered behind the restaurant building.

After lunch, Barbara and Paloma walked back to El Playazo while Juanjo, Mechtild and I
went to see the old gold mine at Rodalquilar -- apparently some sort of mining has been
done there since pre-Roman times. The mine is on the rim of an old caldera that goes all
the way to El Playazo. In the panoramic below you can see about half of the caldera, and
El Playazo is the small patch of water left of center.

The next day Paloma, Juanjo and Juan drove back to Madrid while Mechtild, Barbara
and I spent the morning walking on the beach of Los Genoveses.

That afternoon, during lunch at the house of friends of Iñigo, I got sick so one day
(and change) are missing from the picture record. I spent a couple of days feeling
miserable in bed. Meanwhile, Mechtild helped Barbara with basic yard chores and
soaked the rays -- not many of them this time of the year where she came from.

This is breakfast of the last full day we spent in Almeria.

After breakfast I decided to hike up to the nearest hill, El Cerro de la Tortola, to have a
look around. The village in the pictures is Fernan Perez. The hill is about 100 meters
higher. If you know where to look you can see part of our house and a good chunk of
the ouse of Iñigo and Luis in the pictures below.

The item that intrigued me the most was the crater in the middle right of the picture below.
It will be the destination of my next jaunt from the house.

The summit of El Cerro de La Tortola is a flat area called La Llanada del Gavilan. I had climbed
on the eastern side and I walked to the western end to take a picture of the view towards that side.

On the way down I took a few pictures of the flowers. I did not do justice to them: I obviously
need more practice with the camera when it comes to taking close-ups as I can't seem to get it
to focus properly.

Iñigo is a late riser so he came by the house to say goodbye on our last night there.

The next morning we drove to Granada.

Sometime during our stay I took these pictures of spiders. One was at home and the
other at Iñigo's house where it enjoyed not only immunity but outright hospitality and
nobody was allowed to bother it.