The rain in Spain falls mainly on me.

No Today was actually the only rainy day we've had recently however it is supposed to continue for a few days to come. Which I am happy to have compared to the wind we had to push through yesterday.

But before any of that we stopped in Jerez to watch flamenco dancing! And we just so happened to arrive on the first day of a Flamenco festival. Upon entering the city we went looking for a winery to tour. Following signs that pointed the way led us in circles several times but we did finally arrive at 2 wineries to find them both closed for the day. That is ok because the Flamenco dancing we saw later that night was fantastic.

From Jerez we decided to go East through the mountains instead of South to the coast with the idea of getting to Ronda. The approach to the mountains went through several small pretty towns, nicer than any we've been through thus far. As we climbed higher the winds increased to the point that we were pushing our bikes. Partly so we could keep moving forward and partly to keep from getting blown over. The situation became more desperate as the evening approached and the wind increased and the only place to go was higher. We were in a park but the roads were lined with tall fences and no good camping spots existed.

We finally came to an intersection and to try to get the wind on our back we turned right. This was ultimately the wrong direction to go but worked in our favor for the night because it was not far before we came to a small neighborhood and met Francisio who invited us in to his warm fire, gave us a beer, took us to the local restaurant to hang out and eat and let us camp in a sheltered area on his porch. We were so grateful to stay out of the wind which kept up through the night.

Francisio, now in his late 40s I would guess, was born in his house (he said it was not too old, 92 years) and worked in the park that we were biking in since he was 16. He explained the Spanish eating schedule, 10am breakfast, 2pm lunch, snack at 9 and dinner at midnight. This is why when we ask a restaurant for lunch at noon they give us a confused look. He also filled in some answers regarding cork trees, harvested every 9 years, and the weather, it's been a very cold year and the wind has reached 140mph where he lives so we can be glad to only be in the wind that we had.

This morning we left early and went back the way we came to head to Ronda. Stopping at the restaurant from the night before we saw some of the same folks now having wine for breakfast. A group of cyclists advised us not to bike to Ronda because of the windy and rainy weather but instead to bike down to Los Angeles. Now in town we are having some flan.