1/6/05

Today is explore Ronda day. Rick needed his coffee fix so we hunge at a cafe for a bit. Then we set out for the older muslim part of town called cal ciudad. On the way we saw Alameda del Tajo park- great views and the Plaza de Toros- where we saw Ronda´s elegand and very old bullring. Apparently this bullring has seen some of the most important events in bullfighting history. Next we saw Punte Nuevo(new bridge) that spans El Tajo to Plaza de Espana and was completed in 1793. Hemingway apparently wrote about Ronda during the civil war in spain. I guess the "Fascists" were beat up and forced to run a gauntlet and weather they were dead or alive at the end they were thrown over the cliff by this bridge. Brutal! cant we just all get along? We continued on thru the older part of town and stopped to tour the Palacio de Mondragon. We considered moving on from ronda at this point but we were not able to check out of our pension so late. So we lunched and went back out to see what we could see. We saw several chruches and the older bridge Punte Viejo(1616). Caleb and I hiked down the cliff side to get a better view of the new bridge and some photos.