Mediterranean Navigation Day 11

Day 11 - Wednesday, March 12, 2025 – Visit Olive Oil Coop; Home Hosted Lunch; Salinas, Spain

After breakfast, Antonio, our local guide, met us for our day’s adventure. Our driver was Miguel, who navigated our full-size bus through the narrow streets of downtown Malaga.

We have been amazed at the logistics needed for the changes to a trip of this magnitude with this many people. The tour leaders had to cancel the activities in Sicily and Morocco, arrange activities for us for four days here in Malaga when we were only supposed to be here one day, get bus transportation for us to drive to Gibraltar from here, and then hire local guides for the days we spend in the changed cities.

They have been on their phones constantly with the OAT folks in Boston’s corporate offices, the regional manager in Morocco, and then they have to make sure that the ship’s crew can coordinate their schedules.

As we drove, Antonio pointed out the highlights of Malaga and the surrounding hillside villas. Olive, avocado, and almond trees anchored the steep slopes. Green fields of wheat, oats, and barley were on the horizontal plots of land.

Driving north and then west, our first stop was Antequera to visit an olive oil coop. Antonio explained the process that we would have seen when olive season, (fall and winter), was in full operation. Today we went to the museum and learned about the different types of presses used in the Roman times.

Miguel drove slowly through the medieval town so Antonio could point out special sites, including the train station, the bull ring, churches, and government buildings.

We drove on to the small village of Salinas for our Home Hosted lunch. The Red Team was divided into three smaller groups. Our hostess was Felicia who welcomed us to her home.

She served us a gazpacho; a cold soup, appetizers, a hot vegetable soup, roasted chicken and mixed veggies, with cookies, coffee, and after dinner drinks. Because Vic was the only person who could speak Spanish, he translated for the rest of us. The time went very quickly and at 3:00 Antonio and Aziz came to pick us up.

Miguel drove us directly back to Malaga. Most of the group took advantage of the Spanish tradition of “siesta” as we retraced our journey to the Clio. We got back to the ship about 3:45 with plenty of time to catch up on our messages and start working on the journal.

Before dinner we attended the Port Talk by the Captain and learned more about tomorrow’s events by the Trip Leaders. After our delicious lunch in Salinas, we were not very hungry. The meals on board are very tempting so we each requested a half portion this evening - smart choice!

Another wonderful sunny day in Spain! We thanked our Trip Leaders for all of their hard work and flexibility in making the best of this journey.

Accommodations: M/V Clio

I can’t imagine the logistics needed to rearrange all the plans! I would enjoy seeing the trees and fields and especially to have lunch in the home of a local.