Day 37: San Jose to Agua Amarga

March 26, 2025

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We have been using up to three different cameras in a day. The Nikon may be looking for distant birds, while Dodie may be documenting events generally with Susan's Canon. And the Lumix butts in, when it feels like working, because in certain conditions it takes better photos than the Canon. In general it's a bit confusing to keep the photos in time order, even though the camera clocks are synchronized. But yesterday I misplaced the Lumix photos, and I think some of these were good illustrators of yesterday's story. So let's go back for a moment:

Here we see a truck narrowing the narrow road. I was not going to get into squeezing past!

These cyclists steadfastly rode double, even up the hill. I hung back until over the hill. Did not want to get involved.

The Batmobile arrives at the first hide. Last time we fought our way here on bike, like the guy in the background.

The blind is great, but as you see, Steve is seeing no birds!

Wait, there are two flamingos out there! (And some waders behind the little island.)

I had remembered the terrain as being rough for (given our direction this time) leaving Agua Amarga, rather than going to it. I am sure I am still right, but I did not expect to be exclaiming over any hills today, in jumping from San Jose to Agua Amarga. Wrong!

Things look pretty tame at first, except for that mountain in the distance.

Ok, now this is cheating. That is the Sierra Nevada, BEHIND us.

Dodie shot a few of these picturesque windmills. I somehow chose one to print that has no vanes.

This road, shot through some bird poop on the windshield, was not actually our route, or the bike route. But a similar hill was coming, for us and the bikes.

On a whim we hung a right and landed up at at tiny village called Isleta del Moro. This was the scenic highlight of the day, as the village sits on a bay opposite two volcanoes. Here is my artistic take on it:

Out in the bay, a fisherman was bringing his catch.

The Gull, by the way, is either a Yellow Legged or more likely Lesser Black Backed - they are hard to tell apart.

The buildings use the sugar cube design.

Another fish boat is approaching the dock.

No need to follow that car to find a fish dinner - restaurants were right there on the shore.

Dodie noticed these stockings, which are the kind that use a garter belt. She assumes they belong to an old lady.

The road coming up to the village was long and steep. And to leave, a cyclist is looking at this short steep bit.

Then after descending a bit, there is this hill.

Here comes a reward for cyclists that made it this far.

Still a lot of the way was quite nice, as show in this photo and the next.

From the point of view of us, now in the car, difficulties were a little different. The road remained narrow and with no shoulder, which is not good for anyone. Then, wanting to go slow and in any event having the car's safety system complaining about exceeding the very low speed limits, we picked up a lot of tailgaters. This exact yellow truck had tailgated us for some time, before blasting by. Now on his return trip, he is certainly using most of his half of the narrow road.

With the shoulderless and curving road, I do not want to encounter any touring cyclists that I can not see,

And then the way goes down to a greenhouse filled valley.

It's not that you get to see any plants or veggies, with these greenhouses.

We have a natural tendency to choose to travel on smaller roads when possible. But with the car, this may not be best. We chose a small road coming in the last 10 kms to Agua Amarga, and this turned out to be "infested" with day riders.

We want to give them lots of clearance on this narrow road.

These ones brought their automotive friends!

Our Hotel Senderos in Agua Amarga is naturally in a sugar cube. The surroundings really are beautiful, as seen in these shots from our window. We have our eye on some birding spots along the coast for tomorrow, but also want to see if that remembered big hill out of town is still there.

Agua Amarga is a village of 400. But there is one grocery store. Soon, for a major activity, we'll go out and see if we find it!

We found that grocery store, which was very small and with high prices, but it did comprise 1/2 of downtown, the other half being a restaurant. We headed then for the beach, which features as expected splashy waves, Mediterranean blue water, and rocky headlands.

We also spotted some birds, one a new for us sparrow, we think:

This scene from a sugar cube struck us as nice. We like scenes with pussy cats.

We re-read last year's blog a bit, and yes, tomorrow we go up in the hills. Even in the Batmobile I am not keen on that!

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Scott AndersonPretty sure that big hill you remember will still be there, but it will be even worse than you remember because you were going in the ‘easy’ direction. Look at the ride profile when we rode it the other way; https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/iberia2019/mojacar-d79/

Also though, it’s really stunning from this direction. Keep all three of those cameras handy.
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3 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonSad but true. At least we will not be on the bikes, but even in the Batmobile it will probably be nerve wracking. Dodie will wield the camera, probably the Canon which she prefers. Steve will concentrate on driving and only take photos with the Nikons if we are at a "safe" pullout.
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3 weeks ago