June 9 –
15
BENIDORM
We are
living the condo life in Benidorm, an odd city just a couple hours north of Alicante that seems to be
completely composed of high-rise apartment buildings. Some of them are
freakishly huge, sticking out of the landscape like a monstrous saguaro forest. We look for any signs of industry or business, but beyond the touristy shops and
restaurants along the main avenues, it seems that all the people here are on holiday.
Well then, when in Rome…
The city
is all about the beaches, and a grand promenade follows the coastline from one
end of the city to the other. The colorful bands of tiles are very attractive,
but there’s no shade on the walk and the middle of the day can be brutally hot.
As the bus passes along, we notice an awful lot of burnt-red pot-bellies tottering along the walkway. In bikinis.
We have a
great little condo on the seventh floor of a development, looking out over our
pool to a tree-covered mountain, with the city beach just down the street. Benidorm
is full of British and Russian vacationers, we hardly hear any Spanish being
spoken. There’s a lamb-roasting restaurant on the corner just like the ones we
saw in Bulgaria,
a Russian mini mart, and dozens of real-estate offices with Cyrillic signage.
On
Tuesdays and Saturdays, our street is closed off for about a mile for a street
market. Rows of vendor tents on both sides of the street pop up early in the
morning, selling everything from underwear to radios, with fruits and
vegetables, baked goods, olives, cheeses and hams thrown into the mix as well.
It’s fun enough, and we buy some unbelievably good olives.
We spend most
of the week here between the pool and the beach, enjoying the views from our
terrace in the evening. There’s not much sight-seeing to be done. Our big
entertainment is watching people walk their dogs on the street below us. People
in Spain
love their little dogs. Yorkies and Chihuahuas
are very popular. We watch the daily outings of one very old black and white Akita who shuffles along,
sniffing at every tree, totally enjoying his walk, while his owner leads him
along, slowly, slowly, slowly.
One
afternoon we talk a bus to the outskirts of the city and walk up the hills to a
water-park-zoo attraction. The hill walk seems to go on forever, but we have
great views of the city and the sea as we go. The sidewalk path is landscaped
with palm trees and flowering bushes, so it’s very pretty. It is really hot,
though. When we finally get to the park, it looks closed, there’s practically
no visitors. But it is open, and so we practically have the place to ourselves.
At first, it looks really lame, just a walk through fake rocks and shrubs with
some parrots and peacocks, but through the afternoon we find more animals and
we have a pretty nice time. There is an awesome tiger habitat with a glass wall
near the tiger swimming pool. The tigers are actually swimming and playing in
the pool, and put their faces right up to the glass in front of us. In another
exhibit, we see a king cobra – enormous – and he rises up and flares his hood.
We can actually go into the habitat with the llamas, goats, and deer,
which Bob absolutely loves, being allergic to everyting in sight. There is a monkey island, where the monkeys are
active and look pretty happy.
We stop
at the show arena for a performance of “horses and falcons” according to the
posters. There are no horses, probably too hot, but we have a ponytailed guy in
quasi-medieval leather dress who releases falcons and owls and other raptors
into the stands. We go in to take a seat, next to a barn owl. The guy brings a
falcon over and puts him on my arm. Pretty exciting.
We have a
long walk home, missing a couple connections for a tram and a bus, and walking
most of the way back. At nightfall, the moon is full and red, breathtaking.
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