The temperature each day is now in the mid- high 30s so we decided to have a day of complete rest, spending most of it by the pool reading and swimming. Because the pool is set right on the gorge we had a refreshing breeze all day and really enjoyed having a break from boating and touring. There is an excellent gourmet food store across the road from the hotel where I bought our lunch of baguettes filled with the best ham, Iberican jamon.
Before finding a place for dinner we wandered around more of the old town and it was a perfect time to do it with all of the tourist crowds gone. There are several beautiful churches and small plazas among the winding cobbled streets and the plaza for the town hall contains a lovely garden with large trees and a fountain. The town halls in Portugal and Spain have all been interesting buildings facing onto attractive plazas, usually with one or more cafes. We could learn a lot from this type of city design.
We were extremely lucky to find a spare table at Locos, which is at the bottom of the old town, on the left just before going through the arch to Plaza San Francisco. I had read that it is the best tapas restaurant in Ronda but they only have 6 tables so we didn't expect to be able to eat there. It was fabulous, with a different range than the usual tapas menu, but still using local products. I remember some dishes such as the mini-mini hamburger with duck meat and a quail egg, sashimi style fish pieces with avocado ice cream, very small baby broad beans cooked with onions and tiny cubes of ham, grilled lamb on skewers with a quince paste and violet ice cream for dessert. The owner/chef/waiter is a delightful person, very enthusiastic about life in general and food in particular. We also discovered a Spanish red that we really like - Morillo Crianza from Rioja.