Stand watching from the steady shore with light swimming right across your face

February 27, 2010

The next day the weather was soooooo much better. We got up-ate our breakfast including even more pasta! We made sooo much of it. I also had my yogurt/shake drink, more yogurt and Magdalena muffins. After this and packing up we headed to the ferry to head to Cadiz for the day. When we got to the ferry they told us the ferry wasn’t running-probably because it was Monday and there was really no use in using it, so we took the bus instead. While we waited for about an hour or so, we talked to some ladies from Ireland who were there on vacation. They were very nice and had been to North Carolina for Christmas and told us how much they loved America J. While we waited, it rained a little bit but not for very long.

When we got to Cadiz we bought more of the delicious 2-foot long cream filled taffy. Then we went to look at the ocean again, it was so beautiful and the waves were huge, every once in a while-though we were separated from the ocean by a brick wall and the rocks below, the ocean spray was able to come over the top of the wall…some of us weren’t able to stay dry for very long. Afterwards we headed towards the Cathedral but it cost quite a bit to go inside and we had seen enough Cathedrals and decided it wasn’t really worth going in and paying.

A group wanted to go to the tallest building in Cadiz where you would be able to see all of the city from above in Panoramic form and that was quite a bit too so a group of us decided not to go and just wait. For the rest of the day we continued to walk around and explore the city…my lunch consisted of more bread and another yogurt drink which was really good…so much better than the ‘strawberry milk’ I had before. We came across a beautiful park with a pond for ducks-kind of like in Campo Grande- and a ‘cave area’ with a wonderful and you could walk across the top. It was a really beautiful park with huge shrubbery trimmed into shapes of spirals and what looked like gum drops. We also came across a group of cats. Ken decided to start petting one and it followed us around of a while. I love cats-but I would never pet one in a park-probably had rabies…

Afterwards we came across two giant trees that most of been about a hundred years old…their branches were so long that the city placed columns before the branches to support them. We all decided to climb the trees and take picture- it was really fun. I don’t think I’ve climbed a tree like that since I was little and use to climb the crab apple tree in front of my house. By this point, our sunny day was becoming quite cloudy and a little more windy. Next we went to an old building built in the 1500s are so that might have been part of a castle or some fortress. The stairs were made of shells and there were look out areas to place canons. But while we were there it looked like it was used for exhibits-they had rooms with artwork. From here we saw another castle…all the way out in the middle of the ocean! There was a stone walkway to get there and we all decided to walk out onto it.

By this point, the waves were still crashing, but they weren’t bad. The walkway was about 100 feet long to the castle. We were up pretty high with rocks along the side to keep back the waves, but they would still crash and come up onto the walkway. The trick was to time out when you would walk/run and when you would stop and wait for the waves to pass. A little bit onto the walkway we saw a group of boys running back as a wave come up onto the walkway and soaked them. I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen to me but at that point I really didn’t care. I just wanted to make it to the other side with my group-and try to stay as dry as possible.

Once in a while I would have to wait for a wave to pass and other times I would realize that a huge wave was coming and would have to run for it. I could feel the salt in my hair, skin, and even clothes. Just felt like a big mess. I was able to stay pretty dry on our way there…some people in our group got more soaked than me and I was one of the first people to make it to the other side along with Adam B. It was pretty sweet to see how far we had walked out into the ocean from the shore. Maybe being a swimmer and always being around water, I didn’t find it nearly as exciting compared to other people but it was still really exciting.

On the way back I wasn’t quite as careful about the waves and as I was coming back I saw one coming and tried to run but it hit me from behind before I could get very far. It mainly just got the back of my legs so it wasn’t that bad. We would need to take a bus to the air port soon so we started to head back. We walked along the same wall as we did that morning that overlooks the ocean and the view was so beautiful. The sky was still a little dark but the sun’s rays were shining through the clouds over the ocean while sea gulls flew in the air. We stayed and watched the sky and waves for a good ten minutes or so. That day was probably my favorite out of the whole trip. Just to see how beautiful nature can be.