Portugal-Lisboa y Sintra

For a long weekend that I had this year I decided to head to Lisbon with a friend who was visiting. It was an excellent trip, until the last day when all of our stuff was stolen out of the rental car. Since I downloaded the pics from the first day onto my laptop, and it was stolen, I only have the pics from the last two days of the trip.

Aside from being robbed, I thought Portugal was great! I had had the opportunity to visit Porto with a group of friends from my master's and we had a blast there, so I was eager to explore the capital.

Outside of Lisbon a few kilometers lies Sintra- a town of manor houses and palaces. This is a picture of the national palace. The entrance was free that day and the palace was quite nice.

A view of the palace gardens and off in the distance the Atlantic.

The kitchen of the palace and some great copper pots.

A view of the national palace behind me. The two towers are the chimneys of the kitchen.

A view from another palace in Sintra, again spectacular views!

La Boca do Inferno or The Mouth of Hell, it was great to see the waves of the Atlantic crash against the rocky shores here.

A view of Cascais

A view (mostly of the table) in the Fado show we went to. A great meal and even better entertainment. There were four singers, but the same gentlemen on guitars accompanied them. Well worth it!

Las Canarias

España consiste en la península más unas islas en el mar mediterráneo (Las Baleares) y unas islas en el Océano Atlántico al oeste de la Sahara (Las Canarias). Tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar las Canarias y quedar con una amiga y colega mía, Rhonda. Lo pasamos muy bien ahí por el buen tiempo que hacía y las vistas magníficas.

Spain is made up of the peninsula as well as some islands in the Mediterranean (The Balearic Islands) and some in the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of the Sahara, the Canary Islands. We had the chance to visit the Canaries and meet with a friend and colleague, Rhonda. We had a great time there because of the excellent weather and the magnificent views. 

Unas fotos del parque nacional de las dunas de Maspalomas.
Some pics of the Maspalomas Dunes national park. 

Rhonda y yo en el parque nacional de las dunas.
Rhonda and I in the dunes national park. 

Aquí quería montar en camello a visitar las dunas pero no pude- no supimos como reservarlo y la oficina de turismo estaba cerrado.
I wanted to ride a camel accross the dunes, but since the tourism office was closed we were unable to find out how to reserve it.

Una foto del navegador- se ve que hay muchas curvas en la ruta.
A pic of the GPS- you can see all the curves in the route. 

Estas dos fotos a continuación son del dedo de Dios o el roque partido en el Puerto de las Nieves, se ve que antes había una formación rocosa muy interesante y bonita- desgraciadamente por mucho viento se cayó el dedo hace unos años.
The next two pics are of the ¨Finger of God¨ a rock formation in Puerto de las Nieves, you can see the before and after in the first image- unfortunately because of strong winds the ¨finger¨ fell off a couple of years ago. 

A continuación unas imágenes desde la carretera.
Some images from the highway.

Dicen que hay mucha variedad entre las islas. Espero tener la oportunidad de viajar a Tenerife y Lanzarote algún día.
There is supposed to be a great deal of variation among the islands. I hope one day to be able to travel to Tenerife and Lanzarote.