Top (rental) Gear
Over the past year it has been our pleasure to rent a range of low-cost cars. Notwithstanding the moment in Cornwall when we almost drove a Jaguar F-Type off the lot for forty quid a day. In the end there …
Transmissions or, it can always be worse, right?
Having spent more weeks in the Pyrenees than was healthy for Marlon, we finally arrived back in Cartagena. In a busy shipyard squeaky wheels get the oil, and on our return Carol got pretty squeaky. In short order we saw …
Bad News and Good News – Part 2
It took a couple of nights in an apartment in Cartagena to get a better sense of how long repairs were going to take. Given that a delayed tourist season was on us, and when repair days stretched to weeks, …
Video: Paragliding in Panticosa
Position: 42°43’06″N 0°18’02″W We jump off a mountain for fun and adventure! As you will see Carol is completely comfortable flying around suspended by a few bits of string. I on the other hand, being something of a control freak, …
Bad News and Good News – Part 1
The Bad News Aleta is on the hard – again. Here’s why: after six months of sitting around at dock, we finally had some necessary repairs done to her engine’s cooling system. Once the cooling hoses were installed and antifreeze …
Video: Swifts or Swallows?
Position: 42°38 17″N 0°00’00″E Swallows are one of the great migratory birds. Small as they are European swallows will fly over 6,000 miles to winter in South Africa. Then they fly back for summer in Europe. Barn swallows are one …
Sierra Espuña Half-Marathon
Position: 37°53’09″N 1°32’55″W The soughing of an uphill breeze as it catches a canopy of pines is a unique sound. Deciduous forests sound different. Leaves rustle, but they also quietly rattle and click against each other. Pine needles by comparison …
1968
Position: 41°47’50″N 87°35’06″W 1968 was an ugly year in America. Here’s what I remember about it: My grandfather died in January. He and my grandmother had come out to Chicago for Christmas. It was perhaps the most extravagant Christmas I …
![[Your Country] – Love It or Leave It](https://i0.wp.com/aleta.life/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ocean-builders-sws3.jpg?resize=215%2C200&ssl=1)
[Your Country] – Love It or Leave It
Position: 7°36’40″N 98°36’39″E Protesters love their country. But, just as in any family that has a relative with self-destructive habits, protestors want their country to change for the better. Their way of doing it is by forcing an intervention. Refugees …