Today is day 76 of my 89-day travel marathon. I’ve been struggling to keep up with the blog, and moreso now because I’m having a hard time thinking of interesting ways to write about each place I visit. So although Ronda, where I spent about a day and a half, was delightful and photogenic, I feel like I’ve already used those adjectives too often. But I can’t think of new ways to write about each place and each experience.
Photos
It’s kind of like taking photos of the Puente Nuevo, or New Bridge (see above). It’s not like each photo reveals something new and magical. Each angle I saw the bridge from, and different times of day when the sun was in the east or overhead or in the west, I felt like I needed to capture it for posterity. And it’s not as if it hasn’t been photographed millions of times before (probably by the millions of other tourists who were there when I was). Google it and you’ll find more photos of this pretty bridge than you ever thought you needed. And to be completely fair, it’s not like it’s the prettiest bridge in the world. I mean, it’s nice, and it’s in a nice setting. But how many pictures of it did I really need to take?
I know I go overboard with photos anyway, and as this trip goes on, I find myself raising my standards for which photos I should keep and how many I should discard. Remember when we used to use film cameras? We’d have to wait until we got home to get them developed, and then we’d hope they came out okay. Now I take three or four (or more) photos of everything, and when I go through them later that day I try to decide which is the best one, and I delete all the rest. And sometimes I think, “You know what? This is not a very interesting thing to have a photo of.” And I delete them all.
Still, I think I have more than enough photos of the New Bridge in Ronda.
The Bull Farm
On the way from Carmona to Ronda, we stopped at La Cobatilla, the bull farm owned by the Murube family. Here we learned how they breed and raise bulls for bullfighting. We drove around to see some of the younger bulls (1–3 years of age) as well as those ready for the arena (4–5 years).
OAT includes this in our tour program as a “Controversial Topic.” Of course it is controversial, and we did have the opportunity to ask questions about the ethics and politics of bullfighting in Spain. But mostly it was a learning experience. I found it fascinating.
Zahara de la Sierra
We passed by this picturesque White Town on the way to Ronda, and Laura, our trip leader, asked our bus driver to park at a viewpoint, where I took some nice photos. They’re in the Ronda album, because there aren’t enough to merit a separate album. And because we didn’t actually go to Zahara de la Sierra. But here’s one of the photos of the town.
Also, there were nice scenic regional views:
Ronda
And then we arrived in Ronda. Among the highlights, we saw the hand of Saint Teresa of Jesus (aka Saint Teresa of Ávila) and visited a cloistered Carmelite nun via a lazy susan.
Ronda also has the oldest active bullring in Spain. We got a bird’s-eye view from the rooftop bar across the street.
On our first night Laura arranged for us to attend a classical guitar concert by a local musician, Paco Seco. It was brilliant. While I was there, I discovered that it’s one of Rick Steves’ highly recommended activities when visiting Ronda. I concur. I didn’t take any video, but there’s lots on his YouTube channel.
If you want to see what else I saw in Ronda, here again is the photo album.
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