Cyclocross in the Sierra Nevada foothills

The scenery today reminded us of Arizona, as we made our way out of Granada and into the country. We started off climbing on what must be local training roads for Granada cyclists because we saw dozens on racing bikes, all of whom passed us, and a few of whom gave us thumbs ups, nods, and curious looks.

We stopped at the side of the road overlooking a beautiful valley and made a jamón y queso sandwich with an orange and chocolate cookies for dessert. We then stopped at a cafe for espesso and these tasty treats for our second dessert. These are a local specialty in this area.

Google maps cycling directions then got us totally lost in the middle of the desert, not a soul in sight for miles. We wandered through dried up river beds, sand too soft to ride on, reaching several dead ends and “privado. zona de caza” signs (private hunting land) until finally we matched up the GPS with reality and found a lightly worn path leading up and over the bluffs and connecting to farmland and eventually the highway. The highway forbids bicycles, so we were relagated to horrible gravel and sand service roads paralleling the highway for 30km to get to our AirBNB for the night. Because of the wrong turns and gravel, we didn’t get to Baza until after 8pm.

We are staying in the spare bedroom of a friendly Spanish gentleman’s beautiful home in Baza, a city founded by the Iberians in the 4th century BC, in an AirBNB. He speaks English about as good as I speak Spanish, so we made use of Google Translate a lot, and he explained how to use the shower, introduced us to his pet bird, and showed us to a local tapas restaurant, where Steve had a hamburgesa. We are exhausted so will be asleep shortly!