Two posts today... Almogia needed to stand alone. Alora is about 90 minutes from Tierre de la Torre where we are staying until Sunday when we head for Madrid. Our first view of this mountain fortress took our breath....we took a wrong turn and drove up the side of a mountain in the wrong direction until the road became a track and then resembled a rocky wide sidewalk...before we agreed turning around made sense...that was a trick... But Steven maneuvered us around as I shook my head...and we avoided the goat herder and his many goats...and within a few miles, the white washed houses sat above us wedged into the mountain as many have sat for too many years to count. This is the village where ROSA ROMERO RUIZ, our great grandmother was born and died. Grandpa Bernardo Ruiz was 6 years old and the 4th and baby son when my great grandfather became a widower... He was Francisco Ruiz Garcia. Rosa's father was Miguel Romero Fernandez and her mother was Maria Ruiz........ We found an almost-English speaking woman at the tourist office who is helping us "find" Rosa, Miguel and Maria....possibly buried (probably cremated) up on the mountain in the ancient castle courtyard.... Awaiting email notification for our return at the end of the month.
MORE STEEP STREETS....A typical Moorish village.....and absolutely a bit frightening but Steven again persevered (later admitting his knuckles whitened around the steering wheel a few times....my eyes were squeezed shut I think....). I would have loved to spend the day walking around those tiny streets up and down the hills....this village is hundreds of years old and crunched directly into the mountainside with the castle peering down from a perch so high, we could not figure out how to drive to it....and three men hunched over beers argued with one another while offering Steven directions to do so.....three different versions and complex instructions, none of which helped us find the passage to its gates!
Now we have a contact to further our research into Rosa's line!!!! Off to celebrate at cousin Pedro's restaurant where his 13 year old daughter, Laura, drenched the rumba for us and without any urging, taught me to tap my feet, swing my hips and dance to the music for everyone's entertainment (especially mine).
And Steven introduced me to his favorite dish here in Spain: gambas...... with their heads and tails still on....
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