"It was nearly 9:00 pm when we landed in Madrid and the sun was setting. I walked ahead of everyone else to start the car pick up process while they hit the restroom. We were booked with Alamo who we had used in England. I approached the counter and passed over my identification and payment cards. Sir you are late and we cancelled your reservation. A couple of months back the airline had pushed our flight back 4 hours but I hadn’t bothered reaching out to the car company. She had to say it again before I was willing to hear her. That can’t be. I’m here with my family of 8 to rent a 9 passenger van that will be dropped in Seville. If you are more than one hour late we automatically cancel your reservation. So someone else came in the last 4 hours and rented that 9 passenger van? No response so I asked again. Where is the van? Reluctantly she admitted it was in the shop and I about blew a gasket. She didn’t care and wasn’t interested in doing anything to help. Do you have other cars? Maybe I could find two small cars. Or maybe you should check with the other car companies. The crew had caught up to me at that point and didn’t take the news any better than I had. I knew Lisa did not want to drive and we had more than 3 hours to drive to reach our destination that night. Natali and I went and checked the other car rental places. No one-way 9 passenger vans available. I left Natali in line to ask at the last kiosk for Europcar while I returned to Alamo to push for more options. They weren’t interested in helping. Natali came back and said they had an option so we returned and got in the end of the line again. The agent was helpful and seemed like he cared! They had two different van options but they cost $700 more than the one I had reserved. No recourse to Alamo. I texted Laurie that I was having another “good thing it is just money and we have it” moment on vacation. I was back to driving on the right side of the road, but now I had a massive van in a metropolis. I emailed Mercedes, the owner at Villa Matilde that we would be a bit later than anticipated but she assured me that they would be ready for us around 2:00 AM if I managed to stay awake that long!"
The kids san Natali weren't too disappointed that McDonalds was the only option for dinner. I kept Greg awake on the drive so grateful that we weren't in two cars again.
Our place in Andujar was fun and unique.
"We pulled out of the lodge at 7:30 with Mercedes sitting shotgun, a cooler with breakfast in the trunk along with a spotting scope. Mercedes is from northern Spain but had been educated as a biologist abroad and had purchased Villa Matilde more than 20 years ago and settled there with her husband and 2 daughters. Mercedes speaks great English and quickly figured our kids out—she asked Andrew challenging questions, teased him, and taught the kids how to use the scope then expected them to find the animals themselves through it. Most of our time searching for lynx was really driving on a rough dirt road through private ranches or preserves that were fenced in."
Little Rock Owl
Turtle Club - Mack was the master finder of Tarpins, Lizards, and bunnies.
Ibex
Wild Boar and piglets
"When we reached the dam Andrew spotted several ibex playing on the rocks along the shore far beneath us. We walked across the dam and through the tunnel on the other side where we saw 3 new species of bats. Mercedes knew many of the bird species and was excited to help us see the endangered black vulture and imperial eagle. We saw enough rabbits to be confident that the lynx weren’t going hungry. We skipped lunch altogether and returned to the lodge in the early afternoon for a nap and a quick dip in the cold clear swimming pool."
Mercedes taught us about the cork trees and how they harvest the bottom layer for bottle corks. See the piles of cork bark stacked up?
"We all joined the turtle club while we listened to the cacophony of birds as the sun dropped on the horizon. We found marks of river otters but no specimens. Mercedes was feeling the pressure to help us find a lynx, but somethings you just can’t force. We stayed out until dark but without luck. We were ravenous and tired when we got back, but Roland was ready for us with a feast of a tasty zucchini soup that even Emily liked, a Dutch chicken recipe and what Andrew swore were the best homemade French fries."
The kids had been worried about dinner but it was fabulous - they didn't complain about chocolate mousse and tiramisu for dessert either.
That night as we went to bed Lily and I realized that our room has special acoustics. When we were both laying down the shape of the walls would amplify our sound to each other. So we could whisper messages and hear each other clearly.
The next morning we headed out at 7:00 for one last Lynx try. Kate and Mack chose to sleep in. At this point I was finally felling better from my cold and had passed it on to Natali. The Lynx alluded us and the other kids were thrilled that they had slept in. We said good bye to Roland and Mercedes and headed to Carrefour, an international grocery store, for lunch. It was a huge store and everyone was so excited with their finds. Mack and Lily created a sandwich worthy of Subway Artistry with their fresh baguette and salami. Lily was disappointed in her nasty soft cheddar cheese slices (that was a waste because no one ate that).
We had to try the pink panther Twinkies that Fernando told us about. Emily ate chocolate chip pancakes for lunch and the guacamole was way better than the stuff we had in previously.
We were bummed to miss the lynx but we were ready to head on to Granada and new adventures.
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