Cala Llevado (near Tossa de Mar)

Since Jaisha couldn't make it to Tossa on Monday, and others wanted to go also, people decided to rent a car and go again. This time the group was comprised of Jaisha, Laurent, Brice, Pol, and Me. Anna joined us later by taking the train out.

Our planned destination was Tossa de Mar, but on the way, Jaisha suggested we stop at Cala Llevado - a small place just before Tossa. One of her friends was from the area and suggested just catching the view from here. Cala Llevado has a camping area where you can park, and from there you can climb down a pretty steep hill to a beach surrounded by cliffs, trees, and rocks.Once we got there and saw it, we decided to just stay. There was a restaurant on the beach there, so we could even stay for lunch.

As soon as we got there, the guys decided they were ready to swim. (Jaisha, being responsible, had brought her team's report with her, and was editing that on the beach.) I decided to join the swimming group. There were some giant inflatable intertubes way out in the sea, and we decided to swim out and see what they were. It was a pretty long swim, but really fun, except for one scary incident. I was swimming along happily, chatting, and enjoying the water, and then Brice says "Hey, Mariel, watch out for that jellyfish," and I responded by flailing and trying to move away from the dark splotch in the water. (Laurent swears that I somehow moved about a meter in under a second.) The jellyfish was only a couple centimeters from me when Brice warned me (thanks for all the warning, guys...) so I actually did touch it (Yuck!!!) - but luckily I didn't get stung.

We swam back to a different beach than the one where we'd come in, so we thought we'd walk up and over the rocks to get back. Unfortunately, this plan failed miserably, and we ended up walking up and down the rocky path in our bare feet. On the way up we talked about how nice the swim was and how great the views were. On the way down we mostly discussed who's idea it had been to walk up this way.We ended up swimming back to our beach - this time I was more on alert for jellyfish. Anna was going to arrive on the train soon, so Laurent and Brice went to go pick her up. I laid on the beach and chatted with Jaisha while Pol napped.

When Anna, Laurent, and Brice returned, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant on the beach. Lunch was very nice - all the food was really well made.After lunch, Pol and I really wanted to go kayaking again, and we convinced Brice and Anna to join us. While people were still getting things together, I went to rent the kayaks. I was very proud to be able to do it in Spanish (Neccesito alquilar dos kayaks para cuatro personas, por favor), to which the person responded in Spanish with the price, and I paid. Then she turned to one of the guys near the kayaks and said, "Hey, grab two of those kayaks for these people," in a British accent. Ah well.

As we were walking to the kayak, one of the guys saw that we were bringing a cell phone, and told us we'd better leave that on the beach. We explained that we had no watch and no way to know when our hour would be up. He said to just estimate, and that he'd whistle if it was getting late. (Which is kind of crazy, because you kayak pretty far away, and a whistle isn't going to be audible...)

Anyway, this time Pol and I were much more hardcore (he had a blister at the end!) and we ended up losing Brice and Anna, who preferred to float, chat, and swim. The water was a bit choppy, making the kayaking even more exciting. The coastline is really made up of a bunch of half-cresent shapes, so as soon as you get around one ridge, you can see another one in the distance. Curiousity kept us going from ridge to ridge, until Pol asked, "Is that the castle?" (Meaning the castle we'd been to the day before at Tossa.) To which I replied, "No." A few minutes later, as we got a bit closer, we reallized it definitely was the castle. We had kayaked to Tossa. We kayaked all the way up to the front of the castle to ask some people for the time, and then decided we'd better head back.When we got back, Anna and Brice were already back on the beach. I guess Pol and I have pretty poor time estimation skills, because they told us we were gone for an hour and a half or more. But it was really fun - I couldn't believe we made it all the way to Tossa.

After that it was time for a fun, if slightly crouded, ride back to Barcelona.