On Sunday we attended church at La Iglesia Cristiana Evangélica Victoria in Rincón de la Victoria.  It is a small church that meets in a rented building with 3 small classrooms and one larger room that serves as the sanctuary and multi-purpose room.  There were about 50-60 people there, including a team of about 12 visiting from Calvary Chapel in California and another 3-4 visitors from Bilbao.  We didn’t know any of the worship songs, but thoroughly enjoyed singing in Spanish with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In particular, I enjoyed the Spanish classical guitar that accompanied the music!  This Sunday, the visiting pastor from CA preached in English, with Pastor Ivan translating to Spanish.  Everyone was very welcoming, and we had a good conversation with Ivan about the doctrine of the church, their needs, and the Spanish culture.  He and his wife Eunice both speak English extremely well, so we spoke a little of both languages.

When the service was over, they converted the room into a place to eat, and invited us to share their potluck lunch with them!  We got to talk with some of the visitors and also some members of the local church.  It was a very helpful and encouraging time.

After we left, we decided to check out and inland town, Ronda.  On the way there, we drove through Torre de Benagalbón (on the recommendation of a really interesting man Ryan met at church who had worked for the United Nations and traveled all over), and then headed a little further west to check out other areas of Mijas Costal.  While Ryan was driving, Laura was able to talk to an American missionary in Spain on the phone and get a lot of information about schools for the kids, other potential towns to check out, and life in Spain in general.  We did think La Cala de Mijas was a very cute little area near the beach, but were still a little deterred by the highly touristy feeling of it. We turned north, and headed up the mountains towards Ronda. On the way, we drove through another pueblo blanco called Ojen, which is amazingly beautiful to see from afar, even despite the clouds and rain, and has some amazing views of the mountains as well as a for a few of the Mediterranean Sea. 

 As we drove up the curvy mountain roads (and Ryan sang the James Bond theme song) it started to rain. By the time we arrived at Ronda, it was pretty much pouring. We drove over the famous bridge there, but could not really see what it looks like from outside the car because it was so wet and dark. 

 We found a cheap place to stay, the Hotel Andalucia, which was a one star hotel and the least attractive one we stayed in our entire trip, borrowed an umbrella, and went out to brave the rain to find some food.  We tried to go to a tapas place that was highly rated on yelp, but it was closed and we arrived so we ate at the restaurant next door.  The food was pretty good, but the highlight of that meal was talking to the waitress, who told us that she has always lived in round and loves the town.  Unfortunately, I was pretty exhausted, so my Spanish wasn’t working very well to have a more in-depth conversation!  After dinner, we walked about a kilometer back to the hotel in the rain, and went to bed. It was a rough night with the baby, because she was right next to us in the tiny room, and she woke up many, many times. Most of the trip, she woke up every 2 to 3 hours each night, but this night was the worst.  I can’t wait for her to get back on her regular sleeping schedule the twelve hours per night without interruptions!