Prowling my world, camera in hand

Last week was a week of recovery from the previous week’s hospital stay. So I stayed at home, keeping to the strict diet and taking my medications, but since physical activity was not forbidden, I was able to get out and about. So I did some bike rides every day, although shorter than my usual runs, and at a more leisurely pace, which included stops for pictures whenever I felt like it.

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On Sunday my wife and I took a ride together to Santa Faz where we had looked at the pilgrimage on the Thursday of the previous week. The mercadillo was still there, and we strolled among the stands. Here is a little girl who has seen something interesting and is trying to get her mother to look:

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Looking at stands like this one was painful given my diet:

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Sun shade:

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“Here I am, and it is Zapatero’s and Rajoy’s fault”, referring to Spain’s previous and current prime minister:

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Taking a rest:

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Later in the week, I was inspired by the harsh sunshine to do some infrared photography, for which the M8 is well-suited due to the absence of a built-in UV/IR filter. It is just a matter of mounting the appropriate filter on the lens and adjusting exposure as needed. Here is one scene I photographed in both colour and IR, a climbing “spider” on the beach:

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Similar scene in infrared:

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Statue on Playa San Juan:

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Same statue in infrared:

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Playa San Juan:

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Playa Muchavista, El Campello:

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El Campello palmera:

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Bicycling is actually forbidden on the beach promenade in El Campello, a stupid prohibiton (because the promenade is very wide, with plenty of space of cyclists and pedestrians) which is widely ignored:

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Río Seco, a couple km from our house:

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Almond trees and lemon grove near San Vicente de Raspeig:

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Parc L’hort de Torrent, San Vicente:

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Boats, El Campello:

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On Monday my wife was inspired to make paella and octopus, so this is the sight that greeted me in the kitchen when I came home from that day’s bike ride:

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And this was dinner, a welcome interlude in my diet:

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On Tuesday I went back to San Vicente. The distance from my home is about 15 km, not a distance that tires me, but still I sat down on a bench on the town’s main square to look at life. The town had just finished its Moros y Cristianos festival, and employees of the town hall were taking down the decorations:

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Mother and child on the square:

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San Vicente is the site of the main campus of the University of Alicante. The campus is not particularly attractive, just a bunch of boxy buildings spread over a large area. But there are some striking sculptures, like this huge hand with pencil:

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Sundial:

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On the way home, I stopped in Santa Faz. The square in front of the monastery which was full of pilgrims the week before, had now reverted to its usual empty self:

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Water fountain, Santa Faz:

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The people living in the immediate vicinity of the monastery enjoy a very quiet life, except for that one day a year:

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Cheeta sleeping in her little bed just outside the front door. It is really too small for her but she still likes for her naps in the sunshine:

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Two of the golf course cats eating the food I have just served them:

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The remaining pictures are from El Campello, a northern suburb of Alicante which makes its living from family beach tourism. It is popular among the locals, and also foreigners, especially British, Dutch and French. Just north of El Campello the coast is quite rugged and the beaches are small and intimate:

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In El Campello itself, I usually walk around in the small fishing harbour and the surrounding area. Here is a señorita on the rocks:

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On Friday afternoon, I came to the harbour just when the fishermen were cleaning their boats and laying them up for the weekend:

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Some of each day’s catch is sold at the fish auction house. The buyers are private individuals, although some of them may have small restaurants in the town. The auctioneer explains the rules of the auction; it is a Dutch auction, where the price of each tray is lowered in 10 cent increments (prices are per kg) until someone buys it:

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Talking up the goods on offer:

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This is not an event for tourists, unless they speak Spanish fluently. The vast majority of people in attendance were locals:

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The seafood on offer. Fresh seafood is very important in Spanish cooking:

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In another part of the harbour area, a mother is having a photo session with her young daughter, using the Mediterranean as a backdrop: