More Catch-Up

Back to what’s important: Food.

Listing each meal would be very time consuming (and probably a little boring), as we have eaten out most every meal.  But with the groceries so expensive and the tapas so cheap, why not?  Bocadillos have become my favorite food here.  They’re basically little sandwiches on baguettes with various meets and cheeses.  I had one for lunch yesterday that was a revelation in tuna.  Luckily, practically every restaurant serves these, and they cost little.  I can’t say we have established a routine in our eating habits, but very loosely each day goes like this:  breakfast of café con leche and an orange, lunch of tapas and una cerveza, tapas in the late afternoon (a post climbing snack), and then dinner around 9.  Tonight (it’s 11pm on Wednesday as I write this) we broke from traditional Spanish foods and found some doner kebabs in Palma for dinner after a long day of climbing on the far northeast coast (look for Pollenca on the map below, we were way out on the upper peninsula).  There have many, many more memorable meals.  Maybe I’ll get to them once I digest.  One more highlight: stewed rabbit with onions and a big glass of Estrella.  See silly picture below:

Climbing:

This is an easy catchup.  Yesterday, we took a rest day.  I packed up my suit and towel before our sightseeing drive to Port de Soller hoping to maybe squeeze a climb in on a cave over the sea, but we got a little lost on a scary dirt road…(see driving section).  Today, we headed way northeast to an amazing cliff on the coast.  To get there, we drove for a few kilometers up switchbacks then parked at a viewpoint where tourists were swarming.  Reilly, Dan, and I checked out the view too.  It’s a huge cliff, plunging about 700 feet to the sea.  There is a viewing walkway perched on top and the view was unreal—pounding surf far below, sheer cliffs in all directions.  The amount of rock on Mallorca is astounding.  There are cliffs everywhere.  I can’t stress that enough.  Everywhere.  Driving along, a new, amazing wall comes into view around every corner. 

From the parking lot, we headed through some tall grass for about ten minutes, then wound our way up a trail marked with cairns that took us through a break in the hillside and down into a quiet valley.  Here, we found our climbs for the day.  The sun got brutally hot soon after we arrived, and we were all shirtless, basking in its warmth.  We knocked off a couple climbs that were my favorite thus far.  Very balancy, very small holds, and unique, awesome movements.  As we finished, a hiker wandered through our quiet valley and called out to us.  “Habla español?”  “Inglés!” we shouted back.  We commenced in English: him yelling about being lost, and us yelling directions.  He opted to wade across the tall grass and follow us back to the parking lot. 

Our new amigo, Antonio, was out for a short hike, scoping out the landing for BASE jumping from the lookout.  He was very friendly and when we got back to the parking lot, we followed him to town and enjoyed a beer down by the water while he rambled about his skydiving passion.  Here we are on the trail back to the cars:

Driving:

This is has come up in most of my other writings, but I just want to say that driving in Mallorca is ridiculous.  That’s the best way to describe it.  In the city, it’s fast and cutthroat.  In the mountains, the switchbacks are endless and the roads sometimes wide enough for only one car.  The scariest instance so far was looking for some cliffs near Port de Soller.  We headed up a dirt track that could have been built for horses.  The switchbacks were so tight that I had make a two-point turn around each one, and as I did, I engaged the E-brake for fear of plummeting off the sheer drops down into the sea.  It’s hard to describe really, but just know that it was scary, the car got a little beat up, and I know drive with more confidence on the seemingly wide roads near our villa (which are actually also quite narrow and have no shoulder at all).

Soon I’ll write about Sa Fonda, the most popular (and only open) bar in Deya.  We’ve made lots of friends there and have been quite sad at its recent closure.  I pray it opens again tonight…

Here are a few pictures (again from Reilly)…

Cafe on the port

Our table for dinner one night

We took lots of climbing pictures recently, but Reilly forgot the cord for his nice camera (these are all from an iPhone).  Oh well. I'll put some up when I return I suppose

Adios!