Alright, so these shots were taken before Christmas but I I'll post them as I intended when I took them
:-)

 A super sweet mural in the market. However, I must say that some of the kissing acts make me want to leave the market rather than buy food lol. 

As I was walking through the atrium of the school Jesús here exclaimed excitedly, "teacher! Do you want to see my new love birds"? Daw, cute little fluff balls they were.  

 A little nativity scene that they were setting up in the atrium of the school. There were several moms that worked on it like full time for several days. I couldn't help thinking, "what a short life-span all this effort is going to have"! Yeah, just call me the grinch, I don't like putting up christmas lights for the same reason ;-).

 Hahaha, okay so this was hilarious. We were talking about agriculture in one of the classes and the guy in the back with the white shirt lives on a farm. Naturally when we started talking about tractors he was like, "oh, I have a tractor"! And then he turned an air steering wheel back and forth. Well, without missing a beat the kid on the right in the blue shirt was like, "oh, I have a Wii," and did the same air steering wheel. Hahaha, oh man, maybe you had to be there but I laughed so hard.

"Teacher, I have a tractor (big grin)," "teacher, I have a wii (same grin)." Classic!!!

 So someone put some tinsel on the paper dispenser and Alejandro, Jesus, and Jose Manuel decided to display it for me.  

 Of course, when I took a photo the whole class wanted in on the action. Yes, third grade is lively :-).

 More of those love birds.

 It's so fluffy!!! (guess the film). 

This is a local winery that I went to to buy some christmas gifts. Nice wine press!

 So this stuff is called moscatel, a super sweet wine and characteristic of this region. It's really strong though and meant only for little sips. Yeah, those were the taste cups the guy brought me out! One of those would be enough to make you woozy. Chose out the finest in Chipiona though and had no problems with customs. Superb :-)

 Then off to get some ham I went. Check out the selection. Ah, I almost taste it as I write this post. 

 Num, num to the tum, tum.

 Quite a process this guy had going for the slicing of his product. I guess they have competitions for cutting ham (jamón) here in southern Spain and the owner behind the counter is not to be messed with. 

 Haha, so I was teaching a Saturday class and we heard a parade going by outside. Cristobal wanted to check it out but I told him to keep his tail on the seat. Haha, forgot how light wicker seats were as he grabbed his seat and waddled towards the door.  

 So this is what the main street in Chipiona looks like during the Christmas season. Pretty sweet! Very festive and can be enjoyed in a T-shirt. Gotta love the southern coasts :-)

 Hahaha, so this is Joaquín the butcher and he was taking some sort of water soluble supplement when I walked up to the counter. He dropped it in the cup and then grabbed this big ol' knife to mix it. I was like, "hey, pose for a pic so I can show the Americans back home how manly Spaniards take their pills." He thought that sounded like a plan!

 After we saw the ruins we came down the hill to have a “little” picnic lunch (that’s what they said). Okay, this was the fanciest picnic that I’ve ever had in my life! This was a picture of the potato salad and they brought pork steaks, some exotic fruit, cured ham, sausages, chips, salad, canned oysters, and other stuff as well.

When I dished up my salad one from our group was like, “oh here’s some olive oil,” and she handed me this big ol’ container.

I was in HEAVEN!!!

 After eating we decided to head up to this little town to the north a touch (Benaocaz) to get some coffee and see a Roman road.

 There’s the city up in the distance. Coffee!!!

 Having arrived I got to say that the view was pretty awesome. What a quaint little town! Nestled about halfway up the mountains it had a sweet view of the sierra.  

 

 Some “moo, moo’s” we had to pass walking to the old road. 

 A shot back at the city from the start of the path leading to the road.

 

And here be the road! All those little stones on the path were put there before Christ was born. The purpose of this road was to provide a pathway from Benaocaz down to Ubrique a little lower down (the one that had it’s economy 80% based in leather).

 Some grazing sheep off to the left of the path.

 

 A shot back at the mountains above Benaocaz.

 Ah, so amazing thinking about the age of this road I was walking on. I really want to know what it looked like in its glory days though!

 A little Roman bridge.

 Another lovely shot back at Benaocaz.

 Check out those mountains! It’s the most epic setting ever J.

 Coming back up the path. Such a sweet little bridge.

 Haha, definitely a character filled sign post!

 Animals are kept around the road and this “gate” (if it merits the term) was after the bridge to keep them separated from the rest of humanity. Haha, such a redneck gate!!

Coming back to Benaocaz. Gotta love the roads in the town. I guess these were constructed in the 1800’s though.