RIBERA MARKET SIROCCO END

We had three windy hot humid days and today, the wind finally died down and the humidity was cut in half. Even though the night temperature wasn’t that high (about 82), I was really getting tired of sleeping in damp sheets. These hot damp winds from the south that often carry sand and fine dirt and deposit them everywhere are the nightmare of our climate and happen all year long. But other than churning up a lot of awesome waves on the beach, they seem to be over. In fact, when we swam today, our third swim was the first time a lifeguard ever told us to get out of the water (but he came in to substitute for the regular guy’s lunch and does not know that we are strong swimmers who had been in twice before). The beach and water was dirty because the winds had churned up all sorts of stuff, but we enjoyed playing in the waves till Steve dived under one and lost his sunglasses. The water has warmed up nicely, finally!
Before swimming, we went to Ribera market today. It was pretty sparse and we are wondering where the feast day is since the regular vendors were not around and there were less than half the normal amount of people around. I bought celery, lettuce, and parsley plants for the fall-winter garden, and we got a few other odds and ends, nothing great. But we did see an open truck with 5 horses on it and another with a nice looking donkey. So we followed it to see if we could find the other celebration, and ending up parked near the donkey on a side road while the owner looked around perplexed. Think he know his ass from…well, never mind, we were the ones following this ass around to see where it went! Anyway, I got some good pictures of him.
Anyone who follows our adventures or who has visited may remember Claudio the used car salesman of the lumaca (snail) farm fame. Claudio is giving up on the snail farm idea for he has turned it into a moto-cross area for bikes and four wheelers. It is only open Sundays and he charges $5 for running your vehicle around the track as much as you want, plus he rents 4 wheelers and has a coffee bar there too. One of these Sundays Steve will go over and check it out.