Sharing the holidays

So, here is the promised post with the holiday affairs.

We took off the 2nd of August via train to Vigo (Pontevedra).  My mom and aunt were waiting for us there, and we went by car to Cangas.  Here is a view of the place we were staying:

Picture from turmorrazo.com

The place is called Punta Balea.  See the house with the orange roof just by the rounded path?  That's our house.  The beach in the left side of the picture is called Areamilla, and it's our favorite beach to go to have a swim.  Here are some pics of it:

Taken at about 8.30 a.m.

It's a beautiful and much loved beach by me, but it gets really crowded, so we don't go there anymore unless we want to swim.  We prefer to stay in our backyard, which is covered with grass and has a pool:

We get Sun all day there, and it cannot be seen from the outside, so it's awesome.  This is the view we get from our front window:

The rocky formations in the ocean are the Cíes Islands.  The floating platforms in the water are called "bateas" and they grow mussels there.

I am sure you get why I love this place so much...

Our mornings were spent every day by the pool and in the afternoon we went sightseeing.  Well, we know the place very well, but my mother-in-law didn't so we drove her around to Pontevedra, Aldán, Cabo Home (Cape Man), Bueu, and we crossed to Vigo in the ferry - my mother-in-law loves traveling by ship.  Here are some pics of the places we visited:

Graveyard of Aldán - we have family there

2 pics of Cabo Home

Cangas' Port

Cíes Islands, pic taken from the ferry

And this is a recent addition to Cangas port, our own beautiful mermaid, with 2 dolphins by her side.  When the tide is high, it seems she is rising from the ocean:

Pic taken from the ferry

We even had time to take pictures of me playing with my mermaid tail, and record some videos which you can watch here.  

A couple of days before leaving, we were lucky enough to spot a huge family of dolphins hunting just in front of our window, by the sunset light:

They were common dolphins (Delphinus delphis).  It was a deligth to see them jumping.  They stayed there for a long time.  Sometimes they come near the coast when there is a storm coming to seek refuge.

So, that were our holidays.  I had a great time, and I had the opportunity to enjoy a lot of sea food that I normally do not eat - mussels, clams, octopus, percebes, scallops... We did not eat meat any day of our stay.  Just fish, a lot of salads, sea food and home-made empanadas (pies).  By the way, did you know that the scallop is the symbol of the apostle Santiago, patron of Spain?  Legend has that he used the deep side of the scallop as a glass to drink water from rivers and fountains.

I hope we can go again next year...

Adventures of a mermaid in Peñíscola, Spain

So, my holidays at the beach are over, and I wanted to share some pics plus a review of the Magictail after using it.

Peñíscola was great. We had great weather, it was not really hot though, and some days we had yellow flag at the beach - lots of waves!

I had a chance to try my mermaid tail and it was awesome.  The pool at the hotel was crowded, so we just stayed at the beach - it only took us a minute to go, since we had just to cross the street across from our hotel to get to it. This beach:

On the Magictail:  the first time I put it on, I did it just were the waves broke into shore, and it was not very comfortable.  The moving water got sand everywhere inside the tail, specially the tips of the fluke.  I had to get into water by moving one step at a time over my hands and buttocks.  Once in the water it was easy to swim into a place where my feet did not touch the bottom.  The next time I went into water, I put it on while inside, and it was easier, at least for me; I rolled down the fabric until the monofin was visible; I lifted one of my feet and inserted it in the monofin; once it was inside, I let myself float and put the other one.  Then I just floated while pulling up the fabric.  It was really easy to swim in it, although I got tired after a while. Maybe because I had not swim in a very long time.  I was surprised of the momentum the monofin gave me while swimming, since it is not very big.  The monofin did not lose grip, and my feet were inside the whole time.

The fabric did not move at all, which was great.  It really is like swimsuit fabric, and very comfy.

When I was ready to finish my swim, I took out the tail: I rolled down the fabric until the monofin was visible and just released my feet.

Since the water was so agitated by the waves, I rinsed up all the sand that had got trapped inside; for this, I took apart every piece (monofin, protector and the tail itself) and rinsed them separately, turning the fabric pieces inside out so all the sand could fall.  Then at the hotel I rinsed everything with fresh water.  Of course, when I came back home I hand washed everything in cold water with a soft detergent.

Mermaid with goggles to protect eyes from muddy water

Having a rest after a swim...

...and being happy of being a mermaid!

There are more pics here, if you want to take a look.  Also, I found in YouTube some tutorials for mermaid hairstyles inspired on the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger tides".  Here is my favorite.  Enjoy!