Spain trip May 2025 - Part 3 Caceres, Extremadura and El Rocio, Andalucia

When we were in Extremadura a few years ago we visited the neighbouring town of Trujillo, famous for its history of conquistadors who brought back riches from the New World. The larger town of Caceres also became wealthy for the same reason and the many buildings and mansions built on that wealth still stand, with nothing having changed to the exteriors. It also has a lot more history than that of course, going back to the Romans who founded it, then Visigoths, Arabs and later, Christians.

It's quite a stunning town with amazing architecture wherever you walk.  The town is full of towers, castles, mansions, palaces, churches... We only wandered around the old town for an hour or so and I have collaged my photos in order to take up less room, but you can click on the images and see the individual photos much larger. 

I am going to skip looking up the names of each building to save me a lot of time! If you are interested, this website has some interesting information. Also, the town appeared in Game of Thrones like nearby Los Barruecos did (which I wrote about here)

El Rocio, Andalucia

El Rocio is one of the closest towns to the Donana wetland area which is well known as the largest and probably most important wetland area in southern Spain, although that is arguable now that it has dried out so much in recent years due to natural drought and strawberry farmers illegally pumping the groundwater. However, even if you have no interest in birds or wetlands, El Rocio is a special place that is well worth a visit!

We were very happy to see water in the shallow lagoon at El Rocio as it had been bone dry in Oct 2023.

This church, Santuario Nuestra Señora del Rocío, dominates the main square of the town and is stunning against the backdrop of a deep blue sky. What's different about El Rocio is that it is a 'wild west' town, with sand in place of tarmac and you will often see horses about. In a way it is similar to Saintes Maries de la Mer in the Camargue, also a wetland area with 'cowboys' sometimes seen on horseback in the town.

There are some tourist shops, mostly selling religious tat, and a few cafes and restaurants, but that's about it really. It was much busier than when we were there in October, with mules and carts waiting to take tourists for rides, plus pony rides for the kids.

A festival called Saca de las Yeguas takes place every year, where the wild mares and foals are rounded up from the marshlands and brought to El Rocio for a blessing before being taken to the nearby town of Almonte, for a horse fair where they will be checked over by vets, have their manes and tails trimmed, be microchipped and some will be auctioned off. It sounds very similar to what happens to the wild ponies in the New Forest in southern England.

Our Lady of El Rocio inside the church which is the site of an annual pilgrimage known as the Romería de El Rocío, where people come from far and wide to pay homage to the Madonna and have a fiesta with lots of flamenco music and dancing.

A Jacaranda tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia) - gorgeous blue blooms!

The following are photos I took in Oct 2023 as we walked down more attractive side streets that time. (I never got as far as sharing my photos from Andalucia in 23).

The sad dry lagoon in October 2023.

Just adding this Wall Lizard that I saw back then - I think it is the Andalucian Wall Lizard (Podarcis vaucheri).

El Rocio is well worth a visit, but it's hard work at times walking around in the sand and it's best not to wear sandals unless you don't care about getting sandy feet!

We stayed at La Aldea campsite just outside of the village, which was within walking distance, giving K a day off from driving and we need days occasionally where we have a free morning or afternoon to get our laundry done.

Back from Italy!

We've been back from Italy for several weeks but I have only just got around to downloading my photos! That is partially because we both came back with rotten colds, which may or may not have actually been Covid as they were not the same as normal colds - I did do a test but by the time we got around to getting one from the pharmacy, it was 10 days since I had caught Keith's cold and the results were negative. Anyway, it left me feeling drained although I am glad to say we are both feeling much better now.

I found some photos from July and August on my camera so I am sharing those now, before I get back to reporting on our Spanish trip.

I decided to try shooting butterflies in flight, but you know how it goes - you go outside to do so and where are the butterflies? Well exactly. I shall have to try again next year when there are more butterflies around. This summer was so hot and dry that I didn't see that many butterflies in the latter half of the summer, and it was too hot to go out for walks. A bit of a wasted summer in that respect (although the pool was nice and warm, see above. 😀)

I did get a reasonable shot of a Long Tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus) in flight - interesting because they usually sit with their wings closed. If you open up the collage you can just see its little tails. The other picture is of a more worn specimen which is lacking its tails and eye spots at the base.

October has been a very pleasant month with temps mostly in the low 20Cs and lots of sunshine. Just before we went away we had an enormous amount of rain which was sorely needed - I think it was about 50mm (2 inches) so when we came home it was very green everywhere which was so nice after the dry summer. There are still a few butterflies around, one of which is the Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) which is below taken on wild oregano, back when it was flowering.

This is a Rough Saddle Bush Cricket (Uromenus rugosicollis) on a garden waste bag. Love its eyes! Also, I've just remembered - I don't have a photo but we found a gecko in the garden - it was on a watering can that I was carrying around at the time! I thought they were only found in the coastal areas so that was a real surprise. Haven't seen one since though there are lots of young Wall Lizards around.

And whether it is the heat or what, I don't know, but I have seen lots of Preying Mantises (Mantis religiosa) this summer. There are probably lots more, but look how well it is camouflaged against the colours of the plant! Often I spot them because they are on a wall, or have just flown out in front of me to land in a plant. If they don't move, they are very hard to notice.

My indoor orchids are doing really well. The Odontoglossom below is one of the fancy ones I bought at the plant fair last year so I was really pleased to see it come back into flower again, although these flowers didn't last very long (about two weeks) and are actually going over in this photo.

This is a Phalaenopsis that came back into bloom for the first time, so I didn't even know what colour it was going to be! These blooms are really huge ones.

My favourite purple Dendrobium flowered its face off before we went to Italy and this time, instead of the usual 5 or 6 flowers on each stem, it had loads of flowers, I think about 11 or 12 on each stem! When we came back it was just going over but has two more flowering stems which have just started flowering!

Three of my other Phalaenopsis are about to flower yet again, having already been flowering for four to five months earlier this year, and my fancy Jewel Orchid (Ludisia discolor) with the stripey leaves (you can just see it in the foreground below) has a bud on it.

I can honestly say that at the moment I have really green fingers where orchids are concerned. 💜 I am being very good about watering and feeding them regularly, and have been repotting some of them, which might help!

But how was Italy, you may be asking? It was really enjoyable and made a nice change from Spain and France. However, the amount of tourists in some places was incredible; I absolutely dread to think what it is like there during the school holidays! It was also very green everywhere which was surprising and the weather, whilst sunny, was very humid which wasn't so nice. As for the Roman sites we visited, they are out of this world. You'll have to wait until I finish blogging about our earlier Spanish travels first though! 😀