Summer guests

I've been busy playing tour guide and holiday host over the past week to my parents, my brother and my niece. They spent much of their time just relaxing by the swimming pool, but one day we took a trip inland to the lakes at El Chorro, near Ardales, where we swam, played on airbeds, did some cliff jumping (fromhigh rocks on an island into the deep water), went out in a pedalo with a water slide on it, and picnicked under the pine trees. Brandy (the border collie) had the time of her life - swimming all day and retrieving objects that we threw into the water for her.

On another day, my Scottish family came to my house to have a South American meal with my Spanish family. Ada made a couple of Peruvian specialities: a fish starter called ceviche, and then the main course was a chicken and rice dish called chaufa de pollo. With my parents, brother and niece in the photo below are Ada and Gabriela (my Peruvian friends that I live with here in Alhaurin) and another friend, Adriana, from Colombia.

Gabriela had her eleventh birthday this week. She and Kasey went to the local carnival together, had a sleepover at my house, went out for chocolate and churros, had fun at the swimming pool and the beach... and went to a couple of birthday parties.

My brother and niece flew back to Scotland yesterday, but my parents will be staying on for another two weeks... probably just relaxing by the pool and enjoying the warm weather.