San Pedro- an Oasis

by annie

From Purchena, we took a bus to Almeria and then another bus to Las Negras. We had to stock up on food, because the beach of San Pedro is only accessible by boat or long hike. We waited out the siesta until the stores opened back up and were pleased to find.... peanut butter!!!! It's really hard to find in Spain and normally expensive when you do, so I was happy to find it affordable. After packing the food, we heaved our heavy packs or 40 or 50 pounds on to our backs for a hike that would last over an hour. Brian was generous enough to carry the food bag as we made our way up into the hills along the coast for a gorgeous and strenuous hike. We arrived in San Pedro long before the sun went down and found the water spring, a place to camp and the beach of course!

San Pedro is a tucked away cove of quiet and beauty. For such an amazing place, we found surprisingly few people, mostly hippies, all enjoying themselves on the beach. Some people camped right on the beach, but we opted for a small cubbie in the valley where we improvised with dried grass to serve as bedding. We don't have a tent, so we slept under the stars on the hard earth, waking early with the sun.

It's clothing optional at San Pedro, so we exposed our parts that haven't seen the sun in quiet some time. Although we've developed nice tans over the last two months in all the usual places, the underexposed bits burned quickly and quietly. We are hurting for it now (when you burn your butt, it's kind of hard to sit down anywhere). Nevertheless, we soaked up the sun, played and laughed in the wondrous waves and lunched in the cave of an ancient ruined castle. Red rocks dotted the blue, blue water, and at times the undertow tried to keep us in the sea. At one point, Brian kept falling back in the water, unable to get out, until finally the waves pushed him, sideways, to shore.
We stayed two nights and didn't want to leave, but we had to catch an early bus on Saturday back to Almeria. We lost our alarm clock, and felt wary of hiking back to Las Negras before the sun, so we opted to stay the night in Las Negras instead of hiking back early morning. On our return hike, we faced incredible winds, pushing us backwards and sideways, but never forwards. The winds pummeled us the entire way, throwing pieces and pebbles powerfully towards our pinkest parts. At times I had to hunker down so as not to be blown over or off a cliff. The wind also had quite the sense of humor, evidenced by the many times that it blew the drool out of my mouth and onto my face. Back in Las Negras, we were able to score a reasonable deal on an apartment for the night- the first night so far that we have paid for accommodation. It felt luxurious to have a shower, a kitchen, electrical plugs and our own space for the night. We used ¨fairy¨brand dish detergent as shampoo, because that's all there was. The basics two months ago have become the luxuries today. We made a stew of garbanzos, pasta bits, tomato frito, mushrooms, onions and beets and stored the leftovers for the next day, when we travel to a new continent. Tonight, it's a midnight ferry ride and tomorrow we'll be in Morocco!