August 20, 2026

We slept in and all enjoyed the rest. When we got up to leave it had started raining – it worked out because the rain stopped soon and returned to clear and quite warm.

We decided to go to Sentinel de las Bodegas – a cave village. When I was last in Italy, Matera was a big hit. The question was – would this be a repeat or more of a Truli situation. The reality was in the middle.

The first trick was finding parking. The village is built down into a gorge so the roads are windy and most parking is along streets. We landed a spot and walked into the heart of things. There are several house built with their back wall as the rock face and some are built under some rock over hangs. It was interesting but small.

Beyond the cave architecture we did see a bird that seemed unafraid of us.

Overall the verdict was that if you are looking for a cave town, Matera is way better. We then headed for our AirBnB in Ronda.

Ronda started with stunning views of the Puente Nuevo bridge.

This the third iteration of the bridge and has fallen down once – this version seemed pretty stable.

We grabbed lunch at Tabanco Los Arcos. it was right across the bridge.

After lunch we went to the Casa del Rey Moro – it is a giant house (that you cannot enter), some gardens, and …. A water mine. We had much discussion about what a water mine is? Is it just a well? Are they discovering pockets of water? Is the water in mineral form? – their YouTube channel – if you are wondering – haven’t I seen this before? The answer is yes – the house was used in Madonna’s “Take a Bow” video – it was not the same as our experience but hey!

The water mine is a structure built on the side of the gorge and carved into it to bring water up from the river – beyond that things seem pretty unclear on how it was used. But at the bottom we got a lovely view of the river and the gorge.

The walk back up was easier than I expected – we think the fact that they were very high steps made it feel shorter.

After this we headed over to the bull fight ring that is one of the oldest in Spain.

There was some interesting history about how bullfight evolved from jousting and other medieval things – the connection was interesting.

After that we shilled before dinner. We ate at a local place – Tragatá. It was great – I got a sea bass and Elliott had a bone marrow and steak tartare. We had one of the best flans ever to cap the evening.

We went back to the place and enjoyed the bridge view by night and the bottle of bubbly that the host left for us.