We had spent the night at Hotel Najarra, a nice 3-star hotel near the beach and shopping.  We started the day with fresh churros, bread with cheese and honey, and cafe con leche on the beach at Churreria San Cristobal.  It was very relaxing and gave us a chance to plan the day.  On the docket: visiting a school, meeting with a lady from a local church, and driving to the next town on our list.

School

We decided to visit the local public school (Colegio Publico la Noria).  Schools in this part of Spain run from 9am – 2pm.  They actually lock the doors / gates to the school at 9 and we barely made it in!  We met with Olga, an administrator.  She was very friendly and helpful.  She described the culture of the school (“like a large family”) and walked us around both buildings.  Little kids are in one building and older kids in another.  She showed us two schoolrooms where we met the teachers and kids.  They all seemed very friendly and welcoming!  We learned about the requirements for entering the school, e.g. evidence of prior learning, certificate of health and immunization, etc.

The school’s policy — which seems common in Spain — is to enroll kids in one grade below their current grade if they are not already proficient in Spanish.  They figure that kids won’t be able to learn new concepts well if they don’t even understand the language yet.  That makes sense to me.  I figure the first year in Spain would be such a learning and trying experience that I wouldn’t really care about the kids’ grades in the beginning anyway. Their primary jobs would be to learn the language and to begin making friends.

Both Laura and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and felt our kids would enjoy the school and fit in well.

Lunch with a local sister

Laura had already thoroughly researched churches in the area.  The pastor of church we were mainly interested in was out of the country at a regional conference.  Thankfully, however, we were able to have coffee with the wife of a local deacon.  We had many questions for her about the church, mostly centered on their beliefs about salvation, the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and ministering in and serving a cultural that identifies so strongly with Catholicism.

I had a strong feeling that we were 100% in sync with all these issues.  She seemed very sincere, thoughtful, and spiritually mature.  We talked for over an hour about these issues.  It was very tiring to mentally translate our questions and answers about such complex topics, but the entire conversation was such a blessing!  I wish we could have stayed in the area to see and participate in a normal Sunday service there, but we just weren’t able to with all our other goals.

To Almería

The eastern-most city on our list to visit was Almería.  This was about a 2-hour drive from Almuñécar via the coastal road.  The drive was quite interesting.  We went through quaint small towns (pueblos) and through light industrial and agricultural areas.  The climate is so dry in that part of the country that many of the fields were permanently covered with plastic to form simple greenhouses.  While the technique was interesting and, I’m sure, very useful … those were complete eyesores.  Sadly, they gave every field a very industrial / military / secret bunker look.  We would sometimes pass through miles of hills with every square yard covered with plastic.  Blech.

However, there were also many amazingly beautiful stretches where the road clung to the mountains and directly overlooked the Mediterranean.  Those portions were exhilarating and reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway of California.

We eventually saw Almería below as we crossed the final mountain pass.   It was not a pretty sight. 😦  Almería is a sprawling city of roughly 200,000 people.  We could immediately tell it was not for us.  In fact, we drove into the city only far enough to park, use the restroom and change Cora, and turn around.  We drove back along the same highway and past Almuñécar.

Testing the roads in La Herradura

Just past Almuñécar is La Herradura, a town of only 3,000.  La Herradura offered very beautiful sea and mountain views.  However, the roads from the beach up to and among the houses were incredibly steep.  I should have used an app to verify the inclination, but forgot.  The road pitch must have been 25 to 30 degrees, plus blind switchbacks.  That probably doesn’t sound very steep, but it is!  Take a look at this handy graph.  I have no idea how the people that live there do that drive.  It must eventually become natural but that is so very hard to imagine.

To Nerja for the Night

We had just enough time to make Nerja by nightfall.  Nerja is very popular among the British ex-pat community.  The latest official census indicated that at least 30% of the Nerja population is foreign, but other sources said the real percentage is much higher.  Most of the foreigners are “pensioners” (retired Brits).  We parked in an underground lot very close to the Balcón de Europa … not knowing that overnight parking would be €22!  Laura found an inexpensive hostel, Hotel La Ermita, where we could grab some hot food then bed down.  The waiter was kind and brought us some blended, chickpea-based vegatable soup for Cora.  Aside: all of the people in Spain that we have spoken with seem to really enjoy and love kids.  We basically ate then crashed.