When We Were In Baelo Claudia, We Were Roamin'

So it was that at 8:30 on the morning after our arrival that Alex came bounding into the room Sarah and I were sharing, much to my surprise. In the ten years that I had known the man I had come to believe that he was unaware that 8:30 in the morning existed. Apparently it only took a journey across the ocean to meet up with his best friend for him to discover it.

Considering that Alex and I had been up drinking until three o'clock the previous evening I was quite surprised to find myself in good spirits; Sarah had gotten a full night's rest and seemed a bit tougher to rouse. But rouse she did and we wandered around the picturesque village for a bit, listening to the din of a protest by city workers. Turns out there's a bit of corruption in Los Barrios and these unfortunate government employees hadn't been paid in four months! So they take to marching through the streets of the village every Friday, banging on drums and waking the town quite early to remind the denizens their plight. I have no idea how the mayor, who stands accused of skimming from the city's coffers, manages to avoid a nasty fate at the hands of those in his employ, but he does.

Fearing that I wouldn't properly capture the moment, Sarah snatched my camera and jumped straight into the crowd, snapping a few nice close-up shots of the put-upon before handing me back the camera apologetically. I wasn't really upset, though; I'm nowhere near brave enough to take my camera and jump in the middle of something like that. After we purchased some sangria it was off in Alex's parents' car to parts unknown. Or Baelo Claudia, to be more specific.

Located next to the sleepy hamlet of El Lentiscal on the Costa de la Luz, Baelo Claudia is an ancient Roman ruin that was founded in the second century BC (the age of settlements in Europe will never cease to astound me). Baelo Claudia's prosperity culminated in the first half of the second century AD when it was named a Roman city but shortly afterwards entered a period of decline; the city was abandoned completely sometime around the seventh century.

From Los Barrios, the ruins are a roughly one-hour drive along the coast but a drive well worth it. The E-5/N-340 runs along a cliff side south out of the bustling port city of Algeciras, affording a stunning view of the Straight of Gibraltar and the mountains of Tetouan, Morocco! The government of Andalusia has a good site regarding the ruins as does Andalucia.com. Baelo Claudia is cheap for foreign tourists at 1.50 euros and free for citizens of the European Union (and if you're an EU citizen reading my blog, leave a comment and thank you for dropping by).

The museum has some interesting artifacts from the excavation site as well as some good information, although the audio program is Spanish-only. But the real majesty is to be found in the ruins themselves. Neither Sarah nor I had been to a Roman ruin site save for the one in the heart of Barcelona and if you haven't been to one and you're planning to visit Europe, find one. There really is nothing comparable to it in the US though I imagine some of the ancient Native American sites in Central and South America might not be too far a cry. The path winds through Baelo Claudia, taking the traveler past an aqueduct, the fish-salting factories, a basilica containing a statue of Trajan and the habitations and baths that were the hallmarks of Roman city planning.

I found the theater to be the most magnificent portion of the city; it certainly seemed to be the most intact of the structures left behind by the inhabitants of the city. Alex and I, being the mature thirty-something adults that we are, naturally had to turn the stage into a ring to settle our gladiatorial differences. My faithful intended of course documented the great battle that ensued and left my thumb mortally wounded. We eschewed the guided map of the ruins and toured the town in reverse order, snapping pictures where we felt appropriate (and, in Sarah's case, whenever she could wrest control of my Nikon). My favorites are posted below.

A random aside that I found fascinating is that the site is so close to the coast of Africa that Vodafone sent a warning to my mobile regarding the extreme expense of roaming charges. It was at that point that I looked at Sarah and told her, "my cell phone says we're roamin'." Get it? Yeah, a month on and I don't think she's forgiven me for that joke yet.

Once we'd gotten back into the Spanish cell phone service area we gave a call to Alex's house and were informed that lunch was nearly ready and would be cold if we did not head back soon, which caught the three of us off guard; we'd been expecting to fend for ourselves in the wilds of Cadiz. We arrived to find quite the spread; Mrs. Franceschi had prepared a huge meal for Alex, Sarah and me as well as the pater familias that included fried steak and pumpkin soup. Although it looked more like something from a Thanksgiving dinner, I was assured that the feast was merely representative of the typical Spanish lunch. The food was terrific and a great way to cap off the morning.