Argentina

Alicante was just too relaxing. 2 weeks is just the right amount of beach time where you aren't tired of it yet, but you are ready to go. We had thought about exploring other cities like Cadiz and Seville, but why mess up a good thing right? After 10 days, we finally tried the mini golf directly in front of the condo. Sandra turned the putting course into a pitch and put. See the ball flying through the air?  The one day we managed to pull ourselves away from the beach we went to Alicante. Narrow streets and staircases that were similar to Lisbon.  Too cool for school Dinner with Sandra's family friends in Alicante. They had a young baby named Claudia that was crying until I busted out the classic weird sound trick, which confused the baby into silence. We met this 39 and 40 year old at the tapas bar randomly. Ended up having a 2 hour conversation about life. The tapas bar was Andaluz, which is from the province of Andalucia. Little did I know, but there are ...

Here are recipes for two classic Spanish dishes. Paella: Dice half of two different bell peppers and begin to saute in olive oil.   Add half an onion Introduce raw meat with a little bit of caldo. Traditional paella is made with chicken and beef, however, the seafood version is also very popular. You can also mix all of the above together. The caldo is very important. For seafood paella, you can get the caldo by boiling shrimp/ prawn shells once you have peeled them and added them to the paella. Of course, add salt to taste to the paella. For chicken paella you can just use chicken broth. There's a nice chicken broth at Trader Joe's that comes in a carton that will do the trick. Add salt to it though.  Colorante, or coloring, is used to give paella the correct yellow color. I don't believe it adds any flavor.   Make sure the meat is decently cooked if you're using chicken because once you add the rice you cannot stir. Add the rice in the propor...

 Alicante is an old school beach paradise. Alicante is in the south east of Spain on the Mediterranean and is a favorite summer destination for Spaniards. According to Sandra, each country in Europe has it´s popular destinations in Spain. Germas go to Mallorca, and the British go to Marbella. I have completely lost count of days here. We arrived on 8/9 and I have completely lost track of the day of the week and the time. Everything is a timeless mix of beach, pool, food, walks, and sleeping. The typical schedule is to wake up around 10 am. Make it to the beach by 12. Pool by around 2:30, lunch around 3:30, siesta from 5 to 6 (from all the exhausting activities of beach and pool), beach at 6, pool again at 8, tapas and dinner around 9:30. It´s easy to forget where you are and how you got there. We haven´t touched the car in 10 days. Everything is within walking distance. On the way to the beach. Even adults need boogie boards and buckets.  Out and about on a S...

Where to begin? I arrived no problem in Spain after train, plane, plane, plane, metro, train. We spent two nights in Salamanca dining at La Casa de Las Pulgas (Sandra´s family´s new restaurant) and caught a bus to Santander in the north of Spain to begin the Camino. Sandra´s father own a pork factory, so the factory supplies all of the highest quality pork to the restaurant. An excellent business model if you ask me. Here is the famous Jamon Iberico from her home town of Guijuelo. These dried pork legs are all over the place and you just cut off what you want. Mmmm. The second night, Spain played Brazil in the finals of the Cofederations Cup (precursor to World Cup). The Spanish were a bit arrogant going into the match and many were stunned when Brazil won 3-0.   I have a ton of photos so best to just narrate them I suppose. The Camino that we chose is the Camino del Norte (Northern Way), it is much less traveled then the more popular Camino Frances (French Way)...