Marbella - ish

Marbella was only 30 km away so we decided that we would make the drive but if we found parking for the night on the way we would stop. We drove about 3 km when I made a wrong turn in a roundabout (GPS error) and we ended up in a semi residential area which had parking alongside the road. Tired, we decided we should just rest here for the night before we made our drive into Marbella to find our second campsite. Our second campsite choice was more expensive than Julie had remembered (from internet research) and we quickly turned away before we even entered. Our last choice was on the other side of the road so we needed to find a place to turn around which turned out to be more problematic then we expected. Because of the way the road system is designed along the N340, every second exit brings you to a roundabout that leads you to a bridge – we didn’t learn this at first though, now we are experts (it just takes one mistake). So we turned around and got off twice before getting to the right exit, the campsite is located at the 192.8 km marker. The guy behind the desk told us he wasn’t even sure we could spend an entire month at the campsite due to prior reservations. So Julie and I needed to drive around the campsite and mark down the #’s to all the sites that had no residents. We gathered up a few before heading back, when another guy just came in for his shift and seemed to know more about what was going on than the first guy. As it turned out we had a choice of 3 plots on a stretch that we had figured would be our best chance as there were so many vacant spots. I chose the one closest to the water outlet and the electricity. We promptly parked and started to set up for our long stay. First order of business was to clean the inside of the van and wash the dishes that had been piling up for the past few days. We set up the patio table and camping chairs when we were done cleaning so we could sit back and relax. The downside of us showing up on the day we did, was that everything was closed so we couldn’t buy groceries (a slight oversight). On the upside, we found 5 wireless connections available, one of which was the campsites. The campsite one required a password and the other 4 required payment, 55 euros for the month. We decided to check with the campsite reception to learn about the internet and find out about mail and what not. It turns out we get free internet (or the internet is included in our cost of the campsite) but they were experiencing technical difficulties at the moment (something we learnt happens a lot). They told us to try back tomorrow. While we were cleaning the van, a guy across from us was cleaning his yellow VW van listening to music. Julie and I determined that we had not heard one song we didn’t like the entire time he played his music, everything from oldies to new stuff. It was great to hear while cleaning, and eventually relaxing. Julie made a late lunch while I tried to get caught up on the blog writing when I remembered our Canadian flag. I mentioned to Julie that I had wanted to put it up when we parked, probably on the antenna. I didn’t even have the chance to get up before Julie was fastening it up. That’s when the guy across the road walked half way across and said, “Are you from Toronto or Vancouver?”
We ended up talking to Freddy for most of the night before calling it quits. It turns out that he is from the east side of London, England but had been living in the states for the past 14 years. He also spends most of his time traveling, finding work as a radio host. It was his first time traveling in a camper van (used a bike before) and he was converted in the way of life. Freddy hung around until Wednesday and we spent the time talking to him or listening to his music while we continued with our list of chores – we’re resting so we put very little on our plate each day.