Playas y playas

Agua Amarga is the kind of beach town in Spain where you can easily imagine retiring--living the quiet life near the sea and eating at the town plaza every day for a fresh meal of local seafood. It's so quaint and so low key that I have dreamed of it often in the five years we've known about it. Being back here this year with the girls in tow has been such a blessing. And I don't use that word lightly. We have had a few ups and downs in that time and this year just felt like we were finally making some progress towards a few life goals--you know, big picture stuff. The kind of progress where you stop for a minute to take stock of how good your life is and how much you appreciate what you have. And so being back in Agua Amarga makes sense somehow. It feels like this is the place I'm supposed to be in right at this very moment. How often does that happen? And yet sometimes it does and it feels very, very good. 

So forgive me for the obscene amount of photos of us smiling in the water or eating amazing things near the beach. I'm just trying to remember it all and make sense of how we got here. When Nacho and I originally found this little corner of heaven in Almeria, Spain, I wasn't sure we'd ever be back. I wanted to but then I also sometimes feel like there is still so much more to see. We made a second trip a year later (again without kids) and it was just as dreamy. So being back this year with our girls for their first time was something special. We recreated a lot of the highlights of our other visits, but of course found new things as well. Our decision to hit the beaches near San Jose on Day Two was a great idea and I was happy to grab a bit to eat in the town before making the post-lunch bus trip to the hidden calas. Our favorite little beach just to the left of Cala Carbon was still there and as beautiful as every, even if the steep, rocky path down was a bit more daunting with two kids screeching about it. They did fine and we made it onto the little cove with plenty of daylight left to enjoy. The fact that there were only 4 other people there (2 of whom were completely nude) was exactly what I had imagined. The girls were able to splash and play and enjoy the amazing water. Elisa even forgot about the tiny fish circling her for a while and we all found our beach zen in that moment. The day was slightly overcast and mild but we managed to stay until almost sunset before packing up for the drive back. We stopped at the pizzeria in Isleta del Moro and I had to keep my promise to myself to get the same jamón with arugula pizza that I had so many years ago. It was still divine.