Summer backpacking 2006: Extremadura

From Castilla y León (where the weather and the people were quite cold), we headed south to Extremadura where we felt again the searing summer heat. By this time both I and José María were already exhausted and looking forward to returning to Málaga.

Cáceres. At the heart of this city is a medieval town so little changed since the 15th and 16th centuries, it's worth visiting even under the sun's scorching heat. This town, often used as a film set according to Lonely Planet, is set apart from the rest of Cáceres in a walled space. The old buildings are all made of the red-brownish stone that you see in the picture below. We were there on a Sunday so the town was very quiet, I felt like I was transported back to the Middle Ages! Mérida. I'd heard good things about Mérida even before, but all that went down the drain as soon as we got there. Aside from some major sights like the Templo de Diana and the Teatro Romano, the only thing that Mérida can boast is archeological ruins dating back to the Roman times. We gawked at A LOT of rocks -- or whatever's left of the settlements that used to occupy the city -- I almost wanted to study them. Here's a picture of the Teatro Romano.

Footnote: Well, that's it! Till the next backpacking trip!