Flamenco dancing and Ronda

Flamenco dancing was awesome last night. We went to a little place called La Carbonería Bar recommended by Rick Steves ("La Carbonería is the sangria equivelent of a beer garden. If the Beach Boys sang flamenco, they'd hang out here.") It's in the middle of Santa Cruz, the old Jewish neighborhood of Sevilla. Santa Cruz is charming, with cobblestone streets and balconies with overhanging flowering baskets and very narrow winding streets.

Me and my roommate, Cherise

Carly, Steph, Alyssa and Audra at the Flamenco bar

The dancing was pretty intense. You could tell from watching the girl what incredible concentration and dedication it took. We had a wonderful time drinking Sangrias while we watched. I uploaded a video to Youtube, watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd0aOyHNKjo


Today we went took a day trip to a little town called Ronda, which is about an hour and a half bus ride from Sevilla. Ronda is an enchanting little town that is divided down the middle by a spectacular gorge. The houses are all bright white and they sit precariously along the edges of the cliffs. It is also the birthplace of bullfighting. We had a wonderful time seeing the cathedral, hiking down the cliff and then back up again, eating tapas, drinking cerveza, strolling along all of the beautiful streets and taking hundreds of picture of the spectacular view.

The whole group that went to Ronda minus Andrew, the one guy who came with us. At the end of the trip he said "I need to go hang out with some men now."

Inside the Santa María Collegiate Church, a 15th-century church that was absolutely gorgeous.

Hiking down into the gorge, where we briefly saw the Arab Baths, a restored archaeological site located at the former city gates.

Delaney at the restaurant where we had tapas and drank cerveza. The local cerveza is called Cruzcampo, and it's a light beer that's actually pretty good. Each of these tables had its own tap that would measure how much you poured from it.

The "New Bridge," built from 1751 to 1793. We spent some time basking in the sunlight on this bridge.

On our way into Ronda and again on our way out, we stopped at this delicious little bakery that sold incredible pastries for only 2 euro.