Hola!

It has been a while since I last posted one of my "lifestyle" updates.  Not because there has not been anything going on - just the opposite, in fact.  It has been about three months since we arrived and the time has flown by.  Paradoxically, in the year and a half since we have been gone from Canada, I marvel at how much we have seen and done.  If ever there was a Fountain of Youth it had to have been the quest and not the destination.  But if time seems to pass quicker now, I think it is because our stress level is lower.

Until our arrival here, we have generally been on the move, and that can be stressful work .  Vigilance is required to manage safe navigation, weather, equipment, and health.  Even at anchor, you are constantly aware of the forces of the wind and the water, and the potential impact of others' anchoring practices.  Here on the dock, knowing that we are not going anywhere for a while, we can totally relax and not worry about any of that.

So what have we been doing?  There has been a little bit work and far too little of it to make a big dent on my job list.  You have seen some of Maggie's posts about the exercise she has been getting.  I, too, have been getting some exercise but of the more modest going-for-vigorous-walks variety.  We have had friends visit with more planned in the future.  We have done some touring of the surrounding countryside by car; the mountainside villages known as the "pueblo blancos" are stunning.  We have also been learning to speak Spanish.  Yo hablo solo un poco , pero estoy mejorando.

The best part of what we have been doing is making and hanging out with new friends, and this goes back to day one.  Along the way we have met folks who have unstintingly lent us a hand, some tools or a car; have invited us to visit, share a meal or some companionship; given us stuff that we never expected to receive, and have just plain made themselves very agreeable with whom to get acquainted.  While I may not have mentioned all such instances in the past blog posts, for they are more numerous than one might expected, we fondly remember them all.

We are living a charmed life.  We have traveled to four countries, so far, and now we are living in Spain where the climate is warm, the culture is interesting, the history is rich, the people are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful.  To top it all, we can buy a decent litre of beer for $CAD0.90 and a decent bottle of wine for about the same.  Think about that the next time you trudge over to your liquor control board to pay five times that amount and have to deal with the surly employees.  In general, everything expect fuel is a lot less than in Canada and in many cases even the U.S.

We will start cruising again in the spring, April or May, and before then I will have to get to the jobs on my list.  For now, however, we will continue to enjoy living in Spain.

Branko