Juneteenth in El Bosque

After a fun-filled Saturday in Seville, Meghan and May invited me to join them Sunday, June 18th for the Sunday Gypsy Market in Puerto! I may not have a house yet, but I am always down for a little street shopping! I did find a few surprises: a few houseplants to add to my collection and a Disney's Atlantis children's book in Spanish for Bryan. (You may not know, but he loved the Atlantis movie as a kid, so stumbling upon a Spanish children's book from his favorite movie just meant it was destined to come home with me! Plus it was only €1.)

With the hot weather from Seville following me home, we all agreed today was destined to be a beach day, so we spent the evening on the Rota beach by my future house!! Today just made me THAT much more ready to get into our new home!

May & Meghan

First Rota Beach Day!

June 19: Day Trip to El Bosque

During the week of ICR, Rosa talked up their upcoming day trip to El Bosque. Knowing I had nothing on my calendar for the Juneteenth holiday, I quickly texted Juzely and we both signed up. After meeting Jaime at the housing brief, I also invited her to join- so the three of us met up at Fleet and Family's office for a day trip to El Bosque.

Located an hour and a half inland from Rota, El Bosque is a tiny town known for their local products. Along the way, we drove past some beautiful white-walled cities that Southern Spain is notorious for. I pinned a few we passed as future day trips to explore with Bryan.

Salinas de Iptuci

The first stop on our El Bosque tour was the Iptuci Salt flat. This salt flat dates back to the Romans and has not been changed in over 3,000 years- we learned that it is the only business in all of Europe that doesn't use a single piece of modern-day machinery to produce its final product. This salt flat is mined all by hand! Yep, they extract 400 lbs of salt a day all by hand.

After seeing the saltwater bubbling up from the natural spring, we learned how the Romans collected the water and used water flow, gravity, and simple hand-held tools to mine the salt. The salt miners use the three tools to collect the salt still to this day: a colander on a long pole, a metal pole with a sharp knife-looking tool, and a giant metal squeegee-looking tool.

me, Jaime, Juzely

gravity filters the water

2500 yr old salt stones

Museo Molino De Abajo

The next stop was a 16th-century mill that used a local river to power the mill. I won't lie- this was pretty boring and felt like a tourist trap. The gardens outside were stunning, but the mill was overrated. We learned the mill was used for many generations to grind wheat into flour and then used to make bread for the area, and while it still works, it doesn't seem to be actively used any longer.

original oven

mixer powered by river water

milling stone

grain turned into flour

Jaime, me, Juzely

Quesos El Bosqueño

The highlight of the tour was definitely the cheese museum! While listening to the tour guide explain the process of cheese-making while Rosa translated, my stomach was growling!!! By this point, it was 2 pm and breakfast was a long time ago. After learning about the African sheep and the Spanish goat breed that are milked to create their local cheese, we finally got to try some of the original goat cheese and s sweet wine sheep cheese.

I'm not sure if it's because I was so hungry or if the cheese really was the best thing I had ever tasted, but I spent $30 here and walked out with a pound of various cheeses and jams! I didn't feel too bad because Rosa walked out with a giant bag of cheeses too! After talking with Rosa, she confirmed that as long as I kept the cheese sealed, it would last for several months in the refrigerator- so my excuse was I was buying it for Bryan's welcome meal to Spain!

Clearly, I wasn't the only one who was suckered into buying way too much cheese; both Juzely and Jaime walked out with a bag full as well!

Restaurante La Divina

I'm pretty sure they timed the cheese tour before lunch on purpose, but knowing that our meal was waiting at the top of this steep hill gave us the encouragement necessary to climb! For lunch, I enjoyed a salad, some croquettes, a risotto dish (not pictured), a traditional pork and egg dish, and a killer chocolate dessert! After our long lunch, I waddled my way back to the bus for the ride back home!

El Bosque isn't a city I have to revisit with Bryan, but I am happy to bring home a taste of the trip to enjoy with him! Scheduling a guided tour for one of my first weekends in Spain also was a great way to get out- especially since I haven't been able to buy a car yet! I also enjoyed many great laughs with Jaime and Juzely, so I would say this Juneteenth holiday was a great success!

'til next time,

--Katie