Bad Coffee or Vodka Cranberry

Time to Read 1-2 min

One summer several years ago, some close friends asked Lynn and me to join them in Spain’s Costa del Sol region in mid-November. This region hosts great beaches. We decided to take a pass since we would soon be traveling to southern Spain and passing by many of the Spanish Mediterranean beaches, legendary for their full-throttle sunning.

Upon arriving in Tarifa, we booked a whale tour through the Straits of Hercules that Nicky Blade and Nissa took in Dangereously Overcaffeinated. I used a lot of webcams in writing my book, Dangerously Overcaffeinated. In Tarifa, Spain, while researching one of my scenes, I noticed an RV was parked in the exact same location every day. I assumed the owner was just at the beach every day. Sure enough, the same RV was in the same spot as it was every day I used the webcam. I thought the owner was staying near a beach.

However, the RV was not parked at the beach but just off the ramp leading to the Tangiers, Morocco ferry. Beware of a Chamber of Commerce promoting its city that uses optimal angles in camera placement.

Be advised, not just webcams can be misleading. We’ve always used Rick Steve’s Guidebooks while in Europe and read about a pristine beach outside Nerja along the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. Lynn, the boys, and I took a series of steep switchbacks through a protected wasteland in a rattling eight-person minivan for €2 each to the blue Mediterranean below.

According to Rick Steve’s Guide Book, we were expecting this beach.

With these people;

But got this…

It turns out the naturalists were peeved that families and the rest of us clothed mortals had the better beach and facilities. Unknown to the guidebook, they had moved from the discrete nude beach around the corner to the family beach. Rick’s guide needs updating. Only in Hollywood movies are the good-looking people naked.