El Blog

What do you thnk?

2009-07-10T17:24:00.002+02:00

Is it possible that the person who called his shop in Cadiz, where we went walking this morning, Yellow Rat Bastard understood the meaning of the English words he was using? And, if so, what image do you think he was trying to project? Would I like this person?

Go Lance, go!

2009-07-07T20:25:00.002+02:00

This afternoon Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist and ex-cancer sufferer, failed by an impossibly small fraction of a second to take the leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France, a race that he won for 7 year's running until he retired a couple of years ago. We have always supported him and have a particular interest in doing so this year. It is not just that he is old -well, in cycling terms anyway- but also because the French health minister issued a "warning" before the race that he would be under very close scrutiny with regards to drugs tests. It is not that we have a problem with any cyclist being tested for drugs, given the shame that drug abuse has brought on the sport over the last few years (and probably before, if only we had known). What annoys me profoundly is the special attention given to Armstrong, who has never tested positive, and the fact that this is from a representative of a country whose own cyclists are hardly models of probity. Richard Verenque, anyone?

The French really need to come to terms with the fact that the Tour de France can be won by an American.

Oh yes, go Mark Cavendish as well!

We're walking....

2009-07-05T13:38:00.002+02:00

It seems perverse to travel to the other side of the world to go walking and then to sit on our bottoms here, so, since our return and now that our summer stream of visitors is over, we have been trying to get out and about more.

A couple of weeks ago we did a walk that we have done before over the headland from Caños de La Meca to Barbate. It's a lovely walk although the terrain is very sandy and walking uphill on what effectively is a series of sand dunes makes it quite tough. On Friday we decided to do visit the National Park Los Alcornocales (the cork oaks) which is about half an hour south of here. We walked for about an hour and a half from the Mirador de los Ratones (although why the mice need a lookout point I don't know!) to the embalse (reservoir) de Barbate and some tombs from the Third Millenium BC. Then after a picnic, we walked back again.

A good part of the way during this second walk was along the old drovers road so, by comparison to Caños to Barbate, it was fairly easy going, but in all the time we were walking we saw only three people, a ranger and a couple of guys working on one of the fincas.Since we are now into high season here in La Barrosa and the beach, especially at the weekend, is tent city, the peace and quiet was amazing.

As well as wonderful views what we also enjoyed are the smells. On the first walk we came across a plant that has a very delicate curry-like scent and on Friday there was a stretch where we were able to smell wild thyme.....

Hablo, hablas, habla

2009-07-02T19:50:00.001+02:00

When we were in South America we tried to speak as much Spanish as we could, even with the guides who were part of the meet and greet service that we organised through Journey Latin America and who had obviously been primed to talk to us in English. One of them, a charming young woman who took us from our hotel in Cusco to catch the train to Macchu Pichu, responded to our attempts by telling us that we spoke very good Spanish and then added, in Spanish, "and you don't have one of those annoying Spanish accents!" We hope this was because by this stage we had decided to drop the lisp on the "c" which is part of castellano in most parts of Spain. However, just to be on the safe side, we are now back in our Spanish classes. Mike is also doing a photography course and has joined a local photography group in order to get the most out of his new camera. So busy, busy, busy....more news soon.

2009-06-28T18:15:00.001+02:00

2009-05-29T14:23:00.003+02:00

Why is it that people keep wittering (?) on about how we are disassociated from politics? The sheer amount and the hysterical tone of much of the debate around the MPs expenses surely reflects the fact that people are interested. Isn't the problem rather that most people have no language and no conceptual framework with which to discuss issues and so can only engage when it comes down to personalities? I think so, and I think it is a part of the general anti-intellectualism of British culture, its glorification of "common sense", which is often no more than personal prejudice and anecdote disguised, and its mistrust of the innovative and the complicated.

Animals and some humans

2009-05-20T18:21:00.001+02:00

3 at Iguazu....

2009-05-20T18:16:00.000+02:00

...and one in Uruguay

You couldn't make it up....

2009-05-20T18:13:00.000+02:00

...but he clearly did.

Buenos Aires-all this and more

2009-05-20T18:09:00.000+02:00

It really is impossible to sum up Buenos Aires. If you haven't been yet, go!

Yes, well....

2009-05-20T17:56:00.000+02:00

I guess a little PR might help...

From one extreme to the other, via Santiago

2009-05-20T17:54:00.000+02:00

We got up close and personal with the Grey Glaciar, which is actually blue but the Lake is called the Grey Lake-in English-because it contains a lot of sediment. And then we got hot and sticky in the Atacama desert. The photo with the black sky was taken just before a storm. In between we toured Santiago which we liked a lot, despite the pollution. Those damned Andes just trap all the air....

4 favourites from Chile

2009-05-20T17:43:00.001+02:00

The view of the sunrise is from our window in the hotel, a photo of which is below. I woke about 6 o clock one morning and this is what I saw. The animal is a guanaco. The photo of the two of us was taken at The Base of the Towers and represents something of a triumph. It was hard and it was cold!

75th time lucky

2009-05-20T17:25:00.002+02:00

According to Mark Hughes, our manager, Manchester City FC has been linked to 75 different players since we became "the richest club in the world" (TM). At last, one of these rumours had made it into the local paper, El Diario de Cadiz, which told us on Monday that we had increased our offer (what offer? we asked), for Diego Forlan. Why he would want to return to Manchester-if indeed he does-after his brief and not very successful spell with the club up the road is anyone's guess. Meanwhile Cadiz CF, which currently languishes in a local third division, won the first leg of the first round of the "eliminatorias" or playoffs by 1 goal to 0. This was the home leg and whether it will be enough is in some doubt. The next game is on Sunday, so next week could be tough in the Cadiz supporting Pizzeria at the top of our road. We will let you know.

Catching up

2009-05-14T18:16:00.002+02:00

We have been back in Spain over a week now and one of the things we have done a lot of, apart from sleep of course, is skype. This is something we missed in South America and although it is far from perfect, it is a good way of at least registering the changes that are going on in the babies. During one of our most recent skypes a game has developed. Jessica likes to give things to people (she likes to get them back as well, mind you!) so she will pass a pen or, most recently, some sunglasses towards the computor screen. Then Naomi will perform a sleight of hand, removing the object, while we pick up the equivalent object here. The sunglasses were great as Mike was also able to wear them, adding to the effect. Anyway, the point of this is that you can tell from the look on Jessica's face that she sort of knows that it can't possibly be happening for real but she wants to keep trying it just to make sure. Mmm my grandaughter the nobel prize winning physicist!

Three cheers for the Miraflores Park, Lima

2009-05-04T00:05:00.002+02:00

We have stayed in some pretty wonderful places in South America, the Explora Lodges in Patagonia and Atacama, Home in BA and the Inkaterra Lodge near Machu Picchu. But of all the standard type hotels (well, 5 star international class!)in which we have stayed, we like the Miraflores Park in Lima best of all. It´s not just the ocean view (someone obscured today by an autumn mist), the enormous bathroom with walk in shower and lots of products or the squishy sofa and armchairs in our living area. What really makes us happy is the quality of service, summed up by our arrival last night. Tired and a bit grubby after our flight from La Paz, we arrived at the hotel at about 11 o clock last night to be met by the smiling duty manager who gave us a seat whilst he checked us in, told us that the cases we had left behind in storage here were already in our room and took us himself up to the fourth floor. To cap it all, they had found the jacket I had left beside the pool on our last stay here and returned it, beautifully folded,lined with tissue paper and with the ribbons at the neck neatly tied. I was sorry it was only a M&S jogging top, as I felt that such devotion deserved a better object. I must remember to lose my better stuff in future!

Today we have been on a tour of colonial Lima, which is stunning and gradually being restored, funded in part by the Spanish government (Do the Spanish know?) and then to the Larco Gallery which is am amazing private collection of pre-Columbian art. Unlike its sister museum in Cusco which displays its objects as works of art with no ethnographic informtion, this is more of a standard ethnographic museum, but beautifully done, funded (as of course was the Tate collection in the UK originally) by a fortune made in the sugar plantations. It left us wanting to find out more of what is truely a remarkable history and one that is till unfolding as more and more archaeological sites are discovered and excavated, now mostly using proper scientific techniques. What was especially amazing, in some ways, was that visitors are given access to the stores,objects that are not on formal display but simply placed in groups on floor to ceiling glass shelves. For every object on display, there must have been a hundred in these cases, emphaising just how rich Peru is in archaeological material.Then we had lunch in the restaurant. That was pretty good too.

Tomorrow we have nearly a full day in Lima and have a reservation for lunch at Astrid and Gaston, meant to be one of the city´s best restaurants. Then,at 4 o clock our car will pick us up and take us to the airport for a flight back to Madrid. It seems hard to believe that this wonderful holiday is coming to an end.....

Downtown and Down in La Paz

2009-05-02T21:59:00.003+02:00

Of all the countries we have visited in South America, Bolivia seems to the the least accesible, or at least that was our experience as we puffed around La Paz today-we have conquered the altitude sickness but this city is still the highest capital city in the world and we notice the shortage of oxygen.

What´s this about? We managed to visit the museums we were interested in-the National Gallery of Art, the Ethnographic and Folk Museum which had brilliant displays of masks, head dresses,capes and other objects made of feathers and a quirky little private museum of musical instruments made from all sorts of bits and pieces, some of which you are allowed to play! We also went into a church and watched a group christening-the street vendors outside were doing a roaring trade in pink and blue rosaries- and back in later, by which time the rosaries had disappeared and confetti and rose petals were being sold from enormous sacks, to watch a wedding. So it is not that we weren´t enjoying ourselves.

However, the combination of the chaotic traffic, especially the taxi-buses whose "conductors" hang out the door and tout for custom as the bus weaves in and out of the traffic, and the steep streets with their cobbled pavements makes walking very hard work. In addition, there seem to be very few tourists here so its hard not to feel conspicuous and out of place-a feeling probably not helped by the fact that the newspaper headlines this morning were proclaiming the decision of the Bolivian President, Evo Morales, "to nationalise the British Company BP." Not least, this is not a coffee, not even a cafe society so we were beginning to feel caffeine withdrawal.

Then we wandered into the Cafe El Consulado and everything suddenly took a turn for the better. The building, we discovered, used to be the Consulate of Panama and is charming. The cafe is a small dining room inside but also, and this is where we ate, a pretty conservatory that looks out onto a beautiful garden with hollyhocks, roses, ferns and-damn it-lemon trees which seem capable of producing lemons, unlike ours in Spain. The food was fantastic- I had a vegetarian plate and a hibiscus juice (yes, the flower-it was delicious). We were also shown the bedrooms which are equally charming and cost 50 US dollars a night, breakfast included. We would choose one of them over our 5 star but utterly charmless Hotel Europa, which is next door, any day, so if you get the chance, do. Then, feeling restored and loved, we checked on the football results (City had won-it always helps!) and went off to buy one of the paintings from an art gallery we had visited earlier in our stay. So all´s well that ends well. Back to Lima tonight for our last two nights.

It´s the cutlery stupid...

2009-05-01T21:20:00.009+02:00

We have discovered that you can tell a lot about the cuisine of a country by the type of cutlery routinely provided in cafes. So here we are in La Paz,Bolivia, munching away on salad and the occasional trout using knives and forks clearly designed to cut up something far more bloody. Neverthless, the trout is very good and quite different from what we are accustomed to call by that name in Europe.In addition, our hotel will make you a very nice cheese (or other type of) omelette for breakfast on a little camping stove set up in the dining room So all is well on the food front, which as you know is very important to us.

We arrived here by travelling from Cusco in Peru by train to Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca-a 10 hour journey, although done in some luxury as the Andean Express provides an open air observation car, equipped with comfy armchairs, and lunch and afternoon tea on board as well as entertainment. Unfortunately, or perhaps not from our point of view since we feel we have seen a lot of this sort of thing, there was a strike in one of the towns that we passed through and this prevented the traditional dancers from making it to the station in time to board the train so the barman had to step in and run a class on making pisco sours. We are being fairly abstemious in order to cope with the altitude and Puno is the highest town in Peru so we decided to give this a miss although we then gave in to the temptation of the bucks fizz that was passed round in order to make up for our disappointment in missing the dancers and yet another "photo chance". Then, after a night in Puno, we travelled by car to Copacabana in Bolivia and crossed Lake Titicaca in a catamaran (fantastic!)by way of the Island of the Sun, the so called birthplace of the Inka civilization, to the Bolivian altiplano and down into La Paz.

All of this has given us an opportunity to see some spectacular views of the Andes and we shall be boring you with the photos very soon. It has also been a way to observe a little more the way in which people live-from the shanty towns on the outskirts of tourist towns, such as Cusco, to the large urban industrial and commercial conurbations and the traditional agricultural communities. I imagine the life of these rural communities is hard, especially on the altiplano in both Peru and Bolivia where growing most crops isn't a possibility. However, from what we saw, it looks infinitely preferable to the urban options. Although we saw lots of charming children running alonside the train and waving at us in the country and they seemed at least to have enough to eat, the poverty we saw in the towns made us feel uncomfortable. We hope that, on balance,people feel that it is better that we come and spend our money here than not.

On a less controversial note, this morning we have been to the Valley of the Moon, a nature reserve outside La Paz, to look at the incredible rock formations (more "photo chances") and then came back into town to watch part of the traditional May Day parade which included as well as the political parties, various groups of workers in their uniforms, miners in their hard hats, civil servants in their white shirts, bread makers, workers in the meat industry as well as, in many of these groups, women wearing the traditional dress of the full skirt and peticoats, flat shoes, beautifully embroidered shawls and..bowler hats.

More in La Paz tomorrow when we expect some of the museums to be open, then a late flight back to Lima where we shall make our farewells to South America. At least for now.

The truth, but not as we know it...

2009-04-28T18:14:00.004+02:00

In Cusco we have stayed, and will stay again tonight at the Libertador Hotel, a converted colonial convent, filled with antiques (not just us, stop sniggering at the back!) and original paintings and with a world class restaurant. We travelled to Macchu Pichu on the Hiram Bingham Orient Express and after our exploration of the "Lost City" yesterday we have been staying here at the Inkaterra Lodge Hotel, a tiny oasis which used to be a tea plantation and which is carved out of the cloud forest just at the point where the Amazon meets the Andes. Our bungalow had candles, a log fire and hot water bottles in our bed-and that is modest. Apparently the villas, where I am told members of the British Royal Family like to stay, have private terraces, hot tubs and butler service.

Although we have tried to eat Peruvian cuisine and talk to lots of people-our Spanish has been much more useful than we thought, although for many rural Peruvians it is their second language-it would be foolish to say that in these circumstances we are getting to know the real Peru. One thing is clear though, I think, and that is that the beliefs that underpinned Macchu Pichu are alive and well even today. This morning we went for an orchid walk through the gardens of the hotel and our guide told us stories about the use that shamans make of the plants we were seeing (we also saw amazing birds and butterflies, but thats another story). It was evident that he believed them, as did our guide in Macchu Pichu who told us similar stories and our guide in Cusco. Peru may be a catholic country but people hedge their bets and combine christian and pagan practices as for example our guide in Cusco`s grandmother who used to "exorcise" illness in her grandchildren by passing an egg across their bodies when thy were sick, mixing it with water and then employing a man to take the water out into the streets and throw it on the ground so that the illness would pass to the next person who passed (very charitable!) after which she would make the sign of the cross and go to mass!

Off to find coffee now before we go on another walk and then this evening catch the Hiram Bingham train back to Cusco. Tomorrow we head off to Puno and Lake Titicaca and the Island of the Sun. I am still not clear as to what Macchu Pichu was-we have heard various explanations, including a healing centre, a fort and a pleasure palace. But the Inka culture which produced it and the other places we have seen, building on other ancient civilisations is fascinating and perhaps when I have a faster internet access I will try to write somemore. For now, Mike is pacing......

Onward and upward

2009-04-27T14:43:00.003+02:00

I have been suffering from a little altitude sickness for the last couple of days-nothing serious, just a headache and a slight queasiness-so Mike was left to go on his own with our guide on the treck through the Sacred Valley while I caught up on a lost night´s sleep. He has some amazing photographs and on the way back he mentioned that he hadn´t seen any animals here, other than the ubiquitous llamas and alpacas (we had our photograpoh taken with one and its owner on Saturday-it is something you have to do!) so he was taken to a rescue centre where he was able to photograph condors and puma from close up. Fantastic.

By yesterday lunchtime, however, I had recovered enough to go to the Museum of Pre Columbian Art in Cusco. We had read about it in Hugh Thomson´s book, Cochineal Red, and it really is as spectacular as he claims, especially if you enter the galleries when they are empty as the cases light up as you go through the door. The point of the museum is that all the work-pottery, woodwork, shellwork and gold and silver-are displayed as art and not as ethnographic evidence of particular cultures. You are given the minimum amount of information-broad dates, the culture, since it covers the pre-Inka civilsations and the Inkas-and just left to look. According to Thomas it is perhaps not possible to give much information by way of provenance since looting is, or at least was, almost officially accepted in Peru, seen by the descendants of the indigenous people as a way of liberating their history from the detested Spanish conquerers and by the government as a cheap and feasible way of getting access to archeaological sites. Whatever, it is amazing and leaves you feeling able to wonder at the beauty and quality without trouybling yourself with a lot of information. That is for another day.

Must rush now as we are off on the Hiram Brigham Orient Express to Macchu Pichu, leaving our suitcase here as the Orient Express kindly provide you with your own little case. We have left another case in Lima. Must remember to collect everything on the way back!

Don´t cry for me....

2009-04-25T19:45:00.002+02:00

So we have said farewell to Buenos Aires and Argentina having spent our last evening at Casa Felix, Felix´s House. Felix is not our new best friend. The name, of course, is that off a restaurant. But it really is Felix´s house, one of the many (we were assured that it is the best) ¨private¨ restaurants in BA that are run within peoples´homes. The home in this case was what is called a "chorizo house" because all of the rooms run off each other, like a string of sausages! It was built in 1910 and so is in the art deco style that was typical of domestic architecture in BA at the time. Running alongside the rooms is an open tiled patio which has been filled with plants and which serves as an open air dining room. Before the meal we had drinks in the backgarden where Felix grows the herbs which he uses in cooking and then we ate-a 5 course degustacion menu plus an "intermezzo" of a sorbet made with melon, thyme and turmeric (sounds weird, tastes wonderful!). But best of all, from our point of view, all the food was either vegetables or fish, each course accompanied by a wonderful Argentinian wine. We finished off by finally getting to drink mate, the national tea of Argentina which people drink all the time, carrying their flasks around with them to top up their mate pot, on the street, in parks, at the cinema....

We felt the experience brought our stay in BA to a triumphant conclusion and we are now in Cusco ready to begin our tour of Peru. Things continue to look up on the food front as last night we stayed in the fabulous Hotel Miraflores Park (our room on the 9th floor looked out to the Pacific) and ate ceviche (fish marinaded in lemon or lime to cook) in their restaurant and were given a wonderful explanation of Peruvian food by our waiter. Off to lunch...

Tea for 2?

2009-04-23T15:28:00.003+02:00

According to Miranda France (Bad Times in Buenos Aires), Cafe Biela, opposite Recoleta Cemetery and the Church, is where rich divorcees drink coffee and take afternoon tea while "looking at themselves in other people's sunglasses". Not being in the market for a divorce and having only very small sunglasses, we decided to by-pass this venue and yesterday afternoon headed instead to the Orangerie in the swanky Alvear Palace Hotel, BA's swishest hotel-look it up on Google for nice photographs! Thanks to Naomi, Esther and co's generous birthday gift we indulged in tiny sandwiches, scones, cakes, pink champagne and blue earl grey, which is earl grey but with the addition of lavender from the south of France! It was served by waiters wearing red coats and white gloves. In the corner a lady in black played the harp. Delicious and a great way to start an evening which ended just after midnight back in the Thelonius Jazz Club in Palermo listening to Pablo Kranz.

France also describes how her local news stand (there don't seem to be news agents here, just street stalls) refused to sell her foreign fashion magazines on the basis that they were too expensive, even though they stocked them, and we have also had this experience. I tried to buy the Spanish version of Hola to keep up with the doings of the Duchess of Alba (as you so) and was told it was far too expensive and I didn't really need it-so I didn't buy it! Yesterday we had a similar experience. We had hardly sat down at the Alvear Palace than the elegantly dressed Maitre De glided over to us and "advised" us that we didn't need to buy two teas as one was quite enough for two people. And so it turned out to be. You just have to love these people!

Time to go time

2009-04-20T15:56:00.000+02:00

We now feel quite at home in the area we have been living for the last few weeks in Buenos Aires. We have found two good and comfortable cinemas within walking distance and, as seems to be the case in general here, foreign films are subtitled not dubbed so you actually get to hear the voices of the actors rather than, as in Spain, the small group of "actors" who provide voices (often inappropriate) for a wide range of actors. This weekend we went to see a French film about a school in the 20th arrondisment in Paris, Entre Les Murs (The Class, I think, in England) and finally caught up with Slum Dog Millionaire ( Quien Quieres Ser Millionario?). Both were fascinating studies of difficult societies and it is easy to see why they won prizes. In fact in relation to Slumdog I would imagine all other contenders in most categories from cinematography to acting to soundtrack gave up hope on seeing it. It was also, of course, horrifically violent, but I can see that it would not have worked without this.

We have also found a restuarant where we are welcomed like long lost friends-yes, despite all our complaints about food-and another which we have been to only once so far but which serves the best pizza I have ever tasted "made with the same love as that of the original immigrants" according to the blurb, since of course pizza, made by Italian immigrants, was the original fast food, long before McDonalds thought of the concept. We will be back there tonight.We have a favourite coffee shop and we know which supermarket to avoid (horrendous queues at all hours and no change in the till-a constant problem here) and where to go. For bigger adventures we know to keep an eye on what is going on at the Centro Cultural Borges, where we were again on Saturday night, to watch a modern dance company perform some of the most startling tango you could imagine, accompanied by a tango band and singer with a voice that surely equals that of Carlos Gardel (No, we had´t heard of him either till we came here, but he was a hollywood star in the 30s and lived up the road). We have a park that we run in and know our way to a shopping mall where we can sit and read the papers and watch the beautiful people stroll by on a Sunday morning. What more could anyone want?

So, predictably, we are moving on. Not very far to begin with, just to Palermo, another barrio of BA, but then, on Friday, to Peru and Bolivia. It is raining there at the moment and here we are enjoying the most wonderful autumn weather-blue skies, a little chilly first thing in the morning and then warm sun in the afternoon. The leaves are beginning to fall so the light is dappled....Buenos Aires gets under your skin. It will be hard to leave it.

Mas Guay que Paraguay

2009-04-17T20:34:00.002+02:00

I came across the above phrase, which means literally "more guay than Paraguay" ages ago. it means, or more probably, it meant at the time, since fashions change, "cool". I have been looking for a chance to use it ever since and came close yesterday as we went ...to Uruguay. Or at least we went to Colonia de Sacramiento which is a world heritage site in Uruguay. Some say it has been over preserved. It has delightful single storey houses built in the Spanish colonial style, cobbled streets, plane trees and restuarants with views of the river, in one of which we had a lovely lunch. However, we found it charming and a delightful place to spend an afternoon, enjoying the quiet after the bustle of BA. It only takes an hour on the wonderful efficient Buquebus, a sort of floating shopping mall so we were back in time to have dinner with Greg in Palermo at a restuarnt which boasted of a performance by opera singers. Maybe so. but not as we know them. Tonight we are going to the opera at Teatro Avenida to see Don Pasquale. Hopefully this is the real thing, as our previous visit there to see La Traviata was very enjoyable.

PS. I have just realised that I do know something about Paraguay since we were told by our Brazilian guide that the main industry of Paraguay, whose border is about 10km from where Brazil meets Argentina, is shopping. I have heard of people who make this their life´s work (put your hand down Esther!), but never of shopping as an industry. However, it seems that the tax system in Paraguay is such that they can import and sell good from all over the world very cheaply so people actually visit specifically to visit its shopping malls. Mas guay que Paraguay. There you have it.

The global village

2009-04-15T17:46:00.002+02:00

As I write this I have a fantastic view of the Iguazu falls through the hotel window. Impressive as it looks , however, the thing that I wasn´t prepared for was the smell. Think "newly watered garden" times 100. It also sounds pretty impressive and last night we heard the roar as the damns further upstream were opened up to allow more water through which happens once a week.

We have now done quite a lot of walking around the impressively laid out tracks (Mike thinks that it would be a good idea to get the company who run the national park to come and manage Chiclana. They might actually make it work), yesterday on the Brazil side and today in Argentina. You are going to get so tired of our photographs of waterfalls, although we have one of a racoon trying to drink out of a can of Coke.

We now have a few hours spare since our flight has been re-scheduled. Fortunately we were told about this yesterday and fortuitously, there was some repair work going on in a room adjacent to ours when we returned yesterday so that when we complained we were able to negotiate not only a new room but also told we could check out just before we left rather than by the official 10 o clock deadline. Smart negotiating.

Off to the pool now. Must get a few more rays of sunshine.