Estopona, Spain

Bus from Algeciras -1hr. 38 mins.
 7/03- 7/7

When we arrived in Estepona it was like a treasure hunt to find our place. Our first clue was a cubby hole across the street with a code to a lock box located a few blocks away from where we would be staying. We found that and it led us to keys and the directions to our new place, which was perfect. We started off walking the promenade and thankfully got a little lost because one would never know what beauty awaits a few streets parallel. Estepona’s backstreets are absolutely gorgeous . The beautiful flowers and greenery, narrow cobble roads makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time. We intentionally planned Estepona not only because of it’s beautiful clothes-optional beaches, but also because of the local fair. We were both excited to spend a night walking around, seeing the customs and traditions of the locals, along with some good fair food and a few beers. We enjoyed the local entertainment, a Ferris wheel ride and now hungry for some fair food. We spent time walking around looking and researching where and what to eat. We decided we’d skip what we know; corn dogs, hot dogs, burritos and go with a more authentic experience. We found a place that seemed to meet our cleanliness standards and they had a display of food, so we had an idea of what we were going to eat. We placed our order, got a few beers and found a seat. The waiter brought over two Pepsi cups for our beers. As I looked down and the cup looked dirty and dusty, so I opted to wipe the bottle and take my chances with that. Before I could say anything to Jim, I looked over and saw him squinting in his cup that he already poured his beer in. He looked at me and said, I think that cup was dirty. We both quickly got distracted by our food arriving. We wanted to try a little of everything, so our table was filled with enough food to feed ten people. We started making our plates, taking bites of this, adding a little of that and as I took a quick break from shoving my mouth full of deliciousness, I looked at Jim and the look on his face made me not want to swallow what was in my mouth. Once I choked it down I whispered what’s wrong…………… Jim tags in to finish up: The food was grilled on a huge multi-level pit. White ash was on the table as we sat. No biggie. The problem was that the food also had ash on it. A closer look revealed the ash was actually moving through and out of our delicious looking meat. Turns out the little specks of white were actually maggots saying hello with a wiggle here and a wiggle there. I asked Alisa if she saw what I was seeing or if it could be blamed on the filthy beverage which could have induced hallucinogenic visions. I looked back and saw the “cooks” staring at us then suddenly, in unison, looked away. I yelled to get their attention as all but one walked off. The waiter came over and saw what I was pointing at. He left with the tray and came back with a check for the whole meal, apparently the maggots were free as they were not included in the bill. I laughed and said nope, not going to happen. We did end up paying for the beer as more and more staff came around to basically just get out before things turned ugly. The rest of the Estepona was amazing, but we should have stuck to corn dogs. The fair just left a bad taste in my mouth. Well, actually Alisa’s mouth.