Monday, October 11, 2021

Caimari: Casa Caimari Guest House (Airbnb), Day 1 of 2

Bike Route: Pollenca to Caimari to Moscari to Campanet to Caimari, 18 miles, 2200 feet of climb

Caimari is only about 12 miles from Pollenca, but we could not check in to our room until 6:00 pm, so we arranged to cycle to the guest house, leave our bags, and then explore the countryside for the afternoon. The sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing, and there was hardly any traffic. A perfect cycling day.

When we dropped off our panniers, our host, Rosi, was waiting for her cleaning woman and had time to tell us about herself, her family, and the area. She is a Spanish teacher from Ecuador and has lived in Spain for 15 years. She speaks excellent English, which made it easier for us. (After more than 2 months, we still have only very rudimentary Spanish skills.) Rosi recommended a restaurant just outside of town on an olive farm, where they serve their own olive oil and other local ingredients.

Of course, we headed straight for the restaurant and ordered local bread with olive oil and Iberian ham, plus grilled chicken and vegetables and a big house salad.

While we ate, we mapped a ride through Moscari and Campanet, two nearby villages, on small roads like we had been on in the morning. As we looped back toward Caimari at the end of our afternoon ride, we passed a family that we had been leap-frogging all day, and stopped to chat. They were from Frankfurt and were mostly hiking on the island for a week, but were biking one day from the Port de Pollenca to Caimari and back. The kids were 8, 10, and 12 and were so typical of those ages: the youngest was struggling a little with the distance, the oldest was kind of having fun but would rather be with his friends, the middle one was smiling.

We arrived in Caimari too early to check in, so we stopped at a bar and had a couple of coffees and then sat in the main square and read for an hour. Sometimes we forget to just take it easy and soak up the sun. It was nice to be forced to sit for a while.

Finally in our little guest room (very small but very clean and neat), we did the usual showering and eating snacks, and planned our next day's route.

The Esglesia Parroquial de la Immaculado Concepcio was open when we visited.

The esglesia is on the main square in Caimari.

We found this somewhat odd sculpture in the plaza in front of the church. The next day, I researched it and found that it is one of John Bennassar's pilgrim statues. A little info on the artist and the pilgrim statues is supplied in our October 12 post.