Days 27 & 28 – at Coto Rios

The campsite I’m at is just across the river from the village of Coto Rios. It’s a really nice little place. There’s a small school where the kids are doing old-fashioned PE on their artificial surface each morning (wearing masks..). There are four restaurants, popular at the weekends. All serve really good coffee.. and a friendly small supermarket with lots of local stuff, and it’s staff provide good advice, whether it be for pork, cheese, bread, beer or fruit.

There’s a sign outside one of the restaurants that reminded me that Spain too has towns with hilarious names; England with Oldham, Wales with Hawarden and Prestatyn, Belgium with Willies, and France with Herbiguns – note on the sign the town of Venta de Pantalones, or ‘sale of pants’.

On the picture below is street art of the Dalmatian from the restaurant I ate at last night, Roja’s friend..

Friday was a lazy day after the long hike the day before.

I caught up with a bit of culture; listened to Baroness Hale and Tracey Ullman on Desert Island Discs (both tremendous), watched the last episode of The North Water (so rare a TV production lives up to an excellent book, with Colin Farrell and Tom Courtenay outstanding), finished my novel Ragtime (I am a massive Doctorow fan, and this is one of his best), and watched Bristol and Bath in the Premiership (with a couple of decent beer discoveries).

Saturday we hiked out to Rio Aguamulas in the morning, returning before the afternoon gets hot, and settled in with some sport.

The crisp lady is still here, with her small dog. We chat quite often. We met in the supermarket at 1 pm, and she told me she had had two large beers again (I could have guessed though). She has some English. She also has a visitor yesterday and today, the brother of her husband she tells me, her husband back at home, wherever that is.