South America Days 1 to 10 - Stage 1: Spain

Richard and Elizabeth's lovely house in Altea-La-Vella with the magnificent Bernia Ridge high up on the hill behind

An easy journey to Spain, though we were surprised by all the messages we received upon landing, apparently we had got out just in time, just before the whole airport was evacuated for a couple of hours!

Sitting on the balcony enjoying the late afternoon sun with a glass of wine

Arrived at the house to find father out at bridge, as usual, and Elizabeth looking as weak as a kitten as she recovers from her pneumonia. I am delighted to report though that she has improved every day and is nearly back to normal, as verified by her blood tests and x-Ray. Just to get rid of that last irritating cough and all will be good.

I call this art! The house, the ridge and a glass of wine all reflected in my sunglasses as sat on the lower patio in the shade of the trees

As a result of this we have been taking things gently here, doing a little bit more each day. We’ve been out for a curry and to Calpe for a wonderful seafood lunch. Yesterday we went into Altea for coffee with Dagmar and Michael, and to look at the new seafront and have lunch. Our treat as we are feeling flush, we completed on the sale of Latimer Road yesterday. There was a mega effort on our side to complete before the budget and the suspected tax rises, though this all came to nothing in the end, but still very pleased to have got it done. A very enjoyable lunch with sun and no wind. Wind has got up overnight, but we still have sun.

On one of our walks to Altea and this is a renovated mill fort near the coast, built in the 15th century and working up to the 19th to grind grain for the local villagers. The tower was for defensive purposes due its proximity to the sea 

We’ve done a couple of short walks, and a few tiny jobs, but most of our time has been spent relaxing, reading, eating and drinking. All good things to do before we leave for Peru on tomorrow. Three flights and more time than I actually want to think about!

The Bernia Ridge and railway viaduct from the bridge over the Rio Algar in Altea. Here's a short Relive video of our walk with more photos: click here

We feel incredibly fortunate that although Valencia is only an hour and a half away and we did have a bit of rain it was nothing like the disaster up there.

On Tuesday we woke up to heavy rain that had been falling during a thunderstorm throughout the night. It stopped here about 10:00am but remained cool and overcast with only a couple of heavy showers later. We were lucky, however as an hour and a half north Valencia was being inundated with a huge storm that caused rivers to burst causing massive flooding with cars roads and buildings swept away and, to date 158 deaths. News reports showed a scene of utter devastation and all that was less than 100km away

This was a screenshot I took from the Windy App on my phone at 8:00am of that day. We are near the coast above the Murcia label on the bit that juts out right. Valencia is north and you can see the red area of very heavy rain that was, at that moment engulfing the city. Just look how close we were!

Unaware of the human suffering so close to us, we went out for lunch in Calpe and had this for lunch next to the beach. It was magnificent and the meal we most look forward to when we come here and at our favourite restaurant in Calpe, Andalucia

Walking back to the house through the old town Altea-La-Vella

Spotted this squirrel running away from us up a tree and just looking back to make sure we were no threat. Cute little thing

Couldn't resist taking this photo of the old Fiat 500, an excellent example. In those days this was a small car, unlike its modern replacement. We forget just how small they were, it is tiny!

Yours truly relaxing on a bench seat with the four of us sitting around drinking and chatting, as we did most evenings

In Altea yesterday with Dagmar and Michael, R&E's friends who we know very well. They now live in Milton Keynes, UK for six months of the year and come back to their house here in 90 day spells. They are a lot of fun and Dagmar is a travelling enthusiast, travelling the world on her own as Michael doesn't like travelling. It's always great seeing them as we can swap many travel tips. She's off to Cambodia next year, so we were able to offer some advice and she had some useful info for us

Walking along  the seafront of the newly refurbished promenade at Altea, looking for a restaurant for lunch. It was our celebration treat in recognition of us having finally sold the house in Latimer Road to our very grateful tenants. After the sale completed we had the following really nice WhatsApp message from them: 'Thank you for  giving us an opportunity to purchase the house. The house holds so many sentiments and memories for us and to be able to call it our own, we'll always be grateful to you. You've been very kind over the years'

All satisfied after an excellent lunch we just had to do this!

And another with a misty Calpe Rock just about visible to the right of Richards head

A quite unusual sunset last night behind Puig Campana mountain as seen whilst having drinks on R&E's balcony.

Well, that's all from us here in Spain, tomorrow evening we start the long set of flights that will take us to another continent. We have a 1hr 15min flight from Alicante to Madrid, a two hour wait at the airport, a 12hr overnight flight to Lima in Peru, a 2hr 15min wait there and finally a 1hr 30min flight Lima to Arequipa in southern Peru, arriving at 10:15am after a 19hour journey. We'll be very tired and I'll possibly be suffering with a bit of altitude sickness, as Arequipa is at 3000m. Ah well, a couple of days relaxation will hopefully see us right! See you on the other side....