Fomentera Blau Bye

Les aigües blaves...the blue water of Fomentera has become my meditational image in the savasana pose after doing yoga: I stand on the shore and the heels of my feet sink in the powdery sand, a low lapping transparent wave swirls around my feet. 

Formentera, only 12 miles of island with turquoise waters.

Ace and I keep reminiscing about our trip and how we would like to return in June if all the right factors play in our favor. The pictorial narrative continues.

One last restaurant recommendation: Can Dani. We made a dinner reservation for Night 4 of our stay, and the cuisine by chef Ana Jiménez was an amazing reprieve from the local paella restaurants.  

Day 3

Cala Saona. Lots of jellyfish, so we left to a different beach.

Cap de Barbaria

My man

The famous sargantana lizard of Formentera. The only native lizard to this island.

Day 4

Platja de Illetes, another one of my favorite beaches.

10€ for the hammock and another 10€ for the umbrella. They ruin the landscape.

After our morning in ses Illetes, we went to Sant Fransesc and had a light lunch at Fonda Platé. Highly recommended and not expensive.

My cool Formentera tank top I purchased at the hippy market in Far de la Mola.

After lunch and a siesta, it was back to Platja de Migjorn.

 Day 5

For our last morning, we went to Rafalet's and rode out to the beach on the moto. These are the last pictures I took of Es Caló beach (for this trip, we must return). I had to photograph the launching ramps of fisherman boats.

Formentera, we miss you!

p.s. TRANSPORTATION: unless you are in good physical condition, renting a bicycle is an option. Otherwise, rent a scooter if you have experience driving one. You'll be able to get quicker to different beaches in the hot sun.

Formentera Blau Beautiful Days 1-2

Holiday, relaxation, and few tourists in late September. Ace prepared a trip to the Balearic Island of Formentera, for a post-wedding anniversary celebration. We both looked forward to this trip, since our actual anniversary was in August. Our time there was spent visiting different beaches and avoiding small brown jellyfish that floated insouciantly along the shore. For tranquility and beach bumming, Formentera is molt (very) recommended. We stayed at Es Caló Sant Agustí, at an apartment right above the restaurant Pasqual (we didn't eat there). It's a pleasant little town that is on the opposite end of the island of the main port, La Savina. 

The location is ideal, but getting into the water at Es Caló is a bit tricky, since you have to eye where you set your foot on the rocky sea floor. So, we hopped on the scooter and zoomed to Es Arenals, which is an excellent place to swim. These are Days 1-2. Adeu amics!

p.s. If you want to see a little bit more of who I am, visit http://howtofeellikecatalan.com

Day 1

Ensalada payesa from Rafalet Restaurant, an OK salad. Nothing out of this world. This place serves decent breakfasts, skip lunch or dinner. Not the place for quality paellas.

Mussels are always a must.

Day 2

Beach Es Arenals. My favorite to swim and bask in the sun.

Pano to the right of me...

pano to the left of me.

For lunch or dinner, Es Caló Restaurant is highly recommended. I advise to make a reservation before showing up without one. On our first day we saw a queue of hungry diners waiting patiently for a table. We went there for lunch, then dinner the next evening and were pleased with the food. PLUS, they have a bar person who made us indulgent drinks that were the bomb: caipirinha, pomadada, and cava sangria.

 This salmorejo is the best I have tasted. The bits of jamón Iberico and boiled egg gave it pizazz. 

Peeled shrimp with garlic. 

Fried baby cuttlefish, a.k. squid.

Why Italian sparkling water? Who knows.

Black squid ink rice, the main entrée. 

Cheesecake with cranberry sauce.

Ladies sitting on weathered wood bench outside of Es Caló Restaurant. 

After lunch we headed to Far de la Mola.

Ace having his smoke. Stunning cliff view.

Sunset at Caló d'es Mort. Lots and lots and lots of seaweed washed up on the shore. Not pleasant.

This is what the beach Es Mort looked like before the sunset. Notice the seaweed. 

Resplendent sunset view from our apartment terrace.

Undergarment Bag

The content of this post comes very delayed with matters relevant to traveling, but personal issues kept me away from blogging all summer. I do hope it will help female travelers who worry about their suitcases being opened in front of other travelers at the airport. You know, the part where customs officials ask if you have any items to declare. With little time to respond, they ask you to open your luggage wide open and you cringe because intimate items will be displayed in front of strangers. 

Alas lady friends, introducing the linen bag for undergarments that will spare you the embarrassment of onlookers stealing glances at your undies and brassieres. I purchased this linen bag from an elderly lady selling linen products at Casa Otero in Poble Español. The bag cost me twenty-five euros, which was not cheap. But the handmade artistry takes time with little margin for error, so I paid for a beautiful undergarment bag to conceal my undergarments no matter where I decide to open my suitcase. Plus, it is a nice and genteel way of separating your undergarments from other garments. 

Adeu!

UPDATE: At El Prat Airport I was asked to open my suitcase at the security monitoring baggage check-point. The scanner picked-up my sun protector lotions that surpassed the 100 ml limit. I didn't sweat opening my carry-on suitcase because I had no undergarments exposed in front of everyone waiting behind me. Luck for me because I had a young hipster patiently waiting to get a glimpse of what was in my suitcase that was causing his delay to get past security. Everything was in the linen bag!

Albet i Noya Vineyards

A couple of friends and I came up with a clever way to reunite friends we hadn't seen in a long time. A group Whatsapp message was sent out to friends and nearly everyone took the bait. The lure? An organized visit to a vineyard in Sant Pau d'Ordal in the region of the Alt Penedès.  This area of Catalonia is popularly known for its wine and cava production. The mastermind behind this gathering at Albet i Noya vineyards was our good friend Xavi, known for his epicurean refinement, and to whom the task of finding a winery to visit was entrusted to. 

Our visit to Albet i Noya included a brief video introduction that explained the generational family history of the vineyard estate. Afterwards our guide, Anna Toledano, led us on a very informative tour and explained the different grape varieties grown and the company's dedication to produce ecological wines free of herbicides and pesticides. That noia knows her stuff inside and out. She gave us a well-explained tour of everything related with Albet i Noya's winemaking process, the experimental grape varieties, and the American louse that can devastate and ruin entire grape crops.

But this noia had a first-rate day learning about the wine production process, BUT most importantly, tasting the incredible wines produced here. We tasted eLbLanc XXV made from viognier, vidal and Marina Rión grape varieties. It was an incredible burst of aromas and flavors. Ana then served us Rión (grape variety named after the founder's wife), Belat (grape variety exclusively grown there) and  finally delighted us with a Brut Nature Reserva 3 that was out of this world. Mare meva, what a fantastic cava!

We left gay and elated with wine bottle boxes in hand. We had an extraordinary lunch in town at Cal Xim--but that's a different post. So amics, if you want to reunite friends and have no idea how to do so, wine tasting at Albet i Noya vineyards is a highly recommended choice.

Adeu!

After harvest, grapes are deposited here in the crusher.

Fermentation vats.

Their grapes are grafted onto American rootstock to combat Phylloxera infestation that can wipe out entire vineyards.

Loved this circular stone spinning by the circulating water force.

That is Ana in the middle explaining the bottling process and the exportation of their wines to Northern Europe.

Cellar

Those be my friends anticipating bottle number four.

Cava waiting for us.

Beautiful day.

That's my group waiting for other member's to finish purchasing wine bottles.