Getting Lost

Mijas is full of little paths that lead to driveways, creeks, clifts or other roads. I have been told that there is a path into town from the top of town... Seeing as I live on the edge of town, I fgured I'd find this road that i'd heard about. I took Jeni on a long walk to the bank today by ways of this unknown path. We ended up in someone's driveway and then later near this path which was a paved road but we were ontop of a cliff that was about 75 degrees. At the time I wasn't sure if this paved road would lead to town or a locked gate. I looked at Jeni and asked what the worse case scenario, would be... convinced it was one of us falling and spraining our legs or ankle and finding a locked gate with a broken cell phone in my back pocket. That being thought, we climbed up the hill to be on the save side. We ended up on that path a different way and made it to the bank. Most of town is closed except for the tourist shops and a few cafes including the bank but I knew I needed to spend some time with the ATM (figure out if it was me or it that wasn't working right) and it wouldn't be busy today; so we took the scenic route to the bank and got a bit lost, but happily returned home a few hours later.

(about the ATM: Spain calls your checking account your "credit account" and your savings is called your "current account" or "savings account" and your ATM card is sometimes refered to your "Mastercard")

Although there were times this morning I wished I had my camera, I was glad that I left it at home when I was climbing the hill/cliff with Jeni. But that left me with the itch for shooting. After resting up, we went out again for a short walk up what I call 'our hill'. I found an olive tree near someone's summer house. Tomorrow I may collect some of the sticks because I hear they have a beautiful smell when they burn. It isn't uncommon for people to pick the fruit from trees that they can reach. Because this tree is tucked away from anyone but our neighbors all of the olives were on this tree.

I believe this little white and green unit is my neighbors' mailbox or electricity gauge. If there is any reason for the city or a person to have a structure that is seen on the road, it matches the houses near by, if it is off the road, it will be painted green to blend into the hill. Trash collection is a bit differnt here as well. Instead of taking the trash to the curb once a week, the trash is left in a shed that looks like this that is build attached to the house or separate. Your nightly trash is taken to it and it is picked up once a week. It is open instead of sealed like the one in the picture so that the smell isn't super bad and it's not polite to put your trash in your neighbors' bin, so people don't.

I walk up this hill pretty frequently because it's so close. I also know that this house is one of my Spanish speaking neighbors who has two dogs :) His yard here is full of cactus. It reminds me of my grandma. I wonder if they cook with it too. Yup, I am having my moments of homesickness and shock that I am so far away from most the people I know.

Tomorrow it should be rainy but I expect that it will still be a beautiful day :)