Los Llanos: not the moon

It’s a good thing we did our mountain hike yesterday, because we sure couldn’t do it today. All the weather apps have posted warnings for our area saying stay inside with windows closed if you have any problems with breathing. They are advising people not to do anything outdoors that involves strenuous exercise.

It’s easy to see why. Everything outside is coated with sand, and when you step outdoors and talk, you can feel grit on your teeth.

After a lifetime of absorbing the lesson “don’t look directly at the sun“, yesterday we could actually look directly at the sun. I had just finished writing yesterday‘s FindPenguins entry, when Ned called me to look outside. At first, I thought I was looking at the full moon that we had seen a few days ago in Soportújar. But no, this was the sun, obscured by a gray haze. Usually, when you see the sun like that, it’s because it’s cloudy or foggy, but this was neither. Instead, it was sand that the wind had carried from North Africa into this part of Andalucia. The weather report is calling it a ‘calima’ and notes that it was 800 miles wide when it hit the Canary Islands last week.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, bringing sand down with the rain to make what is called a mud rain. We will be walking to catch the bus from Soportújar to Lanjarón early tomorrow morning, so it will be interesting to see what happens.Read more