Mountains, cliffs and lighthouse views

Professional photos from the surfing competition last weekend--here you can actual see the people rather than just the scenery. :)

A local village man, probably wondering what the heck those crazies are doing out in this weather.... :)

Now some photos from this Saturday--went to a nearby town called Santoña, about half hour from Santander, for a hike in the mountains. It was a cloudy day and there were conflicting forecasts, but hey, why not take a chance and hope for the best. It turned out to be a good decision as we got rays of sunshine peeking through and it wasn't too hot---so perfect weather even if it didn't end up to be the best for photo-taking. :)

Along the boardwalk just before the start of the trails, there is a commemorative piece dedicated to Luis Carrero Blanco, ex-president and intended-successor of Franco. He was born here in Santoña and was said to be even worse than the dictator himself, but was assassinated in 1973 by ETA. Hence the start of change.....now we still wonder why this is still so prominently displayed here though many statues and such associated with the dictatorship have been removed throughout the country.

The trail is along the coast, surrounding the mountain Buciero and the one we selected was the route of the lighthouses and cliffs, which supposedly was 12km and takes 4 hours. Either we were super-speedy (didn't feel like it) or the sign was wrong, but we cut only took about 2/3 of the time, at slow speed, and including a steep detour.

Of course I met a few locals along the way and made sure to say Hola as they were eating their morning snack... :)

So when we got to the detour for the first lighthouse, we descended 700 steep steps.... (I forgot to count) to the Faro del Caballo

All this for the spectacular view that greeted us from the lookout jutting out into the bay....

So what goes down.....must come back up. So here we huffed and puffed back UP the 700 steps to get back to the trail and continue our way around the route.

We were only at the first little bit (eastern part of the map above) and continuing on, I stopped to let this little guy cross the road....actually it was pretty big, about thumb sized--hence the reason it caught my eye!

Around the other end of Santoña, we saw this nice beach-front cemetery, with the campground right beside it....

And also this complex with a wonderful beach and mountain view.

TRIVIA TIME! What is this place below? Email me with your answer! (Hint: The walls above are the borders surrounding these buildings below...look at the map for a clue.) ;)

We finished the hike, went back down and sat down for a snack along the boardwalk and watched the thirsty dogs, tiny children on bikes (one kid asked why we were laughing at him...) and nuns stroll by on this lazy afternoon.... From there, you can look across to Laredo and see the long stretch of beach, and the ferry boat that connects Santoña and Laredo...didn't see like it was having very busy runs, since the captain was blasting music as he floated by... :)

After leaving Santoña, we headed back in the direction of Santander, to check out some famous surfing beaches in Somo and Langre, just across the bay from Santander. The sun was setting and it was still a pretty nice day, but the wind was very strong right on the exposed coast....we did see a few surfers braving the winds, and catching some nice waves. :)

After a long day of hiking and some rest, that night, a few of us went out to check out a free jazz concert in a local bar/club right on the beach. Here in the north, it's all about beaches and mountains, which I love! :) Even at night in the dark, you could see the waves lapping against the sand as you sit inside enjoying the music or a drink or two, and I can only imagine how nice it must be in the summer! Later that night, we hit up a few more bars for some chatter and more music, just like the locals. The streets got quite full later on as the rain stopped and people piled out into the square to take advantage of the mild temperatures--the later it gets, the busier it gets at night!

Windy days are a surfer's paradise.....

Well, maybe they aren't....I'm no expert, but all I know is that they are crazy and leave their fate in the hands of Mother Nature just for the love of the sport. Impressive, admirable but also I shake my head in wonder... :)

Check out the huge waves that I saw this morning, just along the coast a little way west of Santander's main beach El Sardinero:

A short video of the crashing waves....ignore us talking in the background and you can hear the howling winds beating against us as well! :)

Pretty rainbows are seen after the waves crash against the rock and cascade down, leaving some mist shining in the sunlight. :)

Spectators jostling for a good photo-op of the pro surfers that are attempting those wicked waves...... (of course my camera isn't good enough to capture the surfers out there)

The spectators and sponsors of this championship--La Vaca Gigante (The Giant Cow...)=Red Bull and Quiksilver. Prizes for catching the biggest wave, but I think they should award points for survival..there was a motorboat out there who picked up one guy who never got back into the water afterwards....

And on a completely unrelated note, a few photos of our flat. More on the way, but once I do a bit of cleanup so it doesn't look so cluttered... ;D And with better daylight to show you how it really looks!

Our kitchen, complete with washing machine (right by the window, with the little door to hide it and make it look like nothing) and drying line outside the window (the best thing ever, with a canopy too!)

Our living room, with sofa and lounge, and tv and such. There's also a dining room table off to the side but you can't really see it. I figured you really didn't need a super-detailed view of the flat and one photo will suffice over 10. :)

Not much for this weekend, but just work as usual, hanging out and relaxing and recovering from the past week. Meeting with a few friends to hang out for a bit of a chat and some drinks. :)

New extracurricular activities for me include flamenco lessons (every Tuesday, ole!) and some intercambio so I can practise my Spanish a bit more than the short spurts of everyday functional language at the fruit stand or bakery with the ladies. :)

All-weather weekend in the Spanish mountains

First, a look at Spanish Halloween festivities.....here are two of my classes, dressed up because I told them to come in Halloween colours! :) Halloween fell on a Saturday, but they were into it a few days ahead anyway and so we learned some vocab and of course I was prepared with treats! :)

Last weekend, Michelle came back and we headed out on Saturday to Potes, a town on the edge of Cantabria, where we explored and hung out in the sun, enjoying some yummy food and observing the life in the streets. It's a small little place, but there were a lot of people out for lunch and tons of bikers passing through and stopping for food and drink. Some little old ladies were hanging out on a balcony as we walked pass their seniors home, and greeted us, so I stopped to chat with them for a while. They were very surprised that I spoke Spanish, and were so happy to have a little chat. :) Later on, Michelle and I walked along the river and stumbled upon this curiosity:

Hey, neither of us had been there before, so of course we followed it but didn't end up finding the crazy city....maybe we should have kept going further till we hit the Atlantic......??

Later that afternoon, Ruben picked us up and then we drove through the windy windy highways that led us into the mountains of the Picos de Europa. The curvy roads made for a not-so-fun car ride at times, but we all survived. Luckily the night was clear and we made it to Cain and found the hostel no problem.

The lady at El Diablo de la Peña was super nice and had saved us some space because I emailed her the night before. I hadn't received a confirmation when we left in the morning, but there was no problem with the reservation. She was very helpful when we bombarded her with questions and asked her opinion about the hike we wanted to do the next day. We asked her what she thought of us doing the whole thing, the weather forecast, what she suggested about our travel plans for the following day, etc etc. She was super helpful and suggested that we head off tomorrow if we planned on doing another excursion elsewhere on Monday morning. How's that for doing business eh? ;) Obviously she wasn't just trying to get us to stay, and we appreciated her advice.

So off we went on Sunday morning, getting up relatively early to have breakfast and then begin this hike, called La Ruta del Cares, through the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) mountain range. We started at about 9:15am in Cain, but you could also start from the other end in Poncebos. One way is 12km approximately, and though the trail is a not very wide, it's relatively flat except for a short portion near Poncebos. Along the way there are signs clearly marking the route and we saw plenty of people taking advantage of the long weekend (for the children and in other communities but not Cantabria).

In the earlier portion of the trail, there are caves and all along the way you are surrounded by dramatic cliff faces and rock towering above you, as you walk along the gorge.

We lucked out as the day began with beautiful sunshine and clear skies, and it got quite warm as we hiked along the trail, taking in the fresh air and enjoying the scenery.

We even made a few new friends.... :)

Wouldn't you know it, but about 3/4 of the way through the trail, we ran into one of my students, hiking with her family. Small world eh? :) We continued on, but didn't see anyone else we knew. :)

Just around noon, we arrived in Poncebos to find that there wasn't much there. Only one bar that had no one, and a bunch of cars parked along the side. Further along, there is the funicular that takes you up to Bulnes, but we decided it wasn't worth it for a ride that is within the mountains and cost so much. I learned the difference between a funicular (on tracks, sometimes hidden in the mountain like this one) and a teleferico (gondola, suspended on cables and swinging above the ground). :) Anyway, we hiked up to a lookout point in the now sufficient hot sun (combined with the physical exertion) and sat down to have our picnic and relax a bit. The view was spectacular and we saw other folks coming up to take photos, but in jeans and heels....that led us to think they didn't do the hike over. ;) Well we probably appreciated it more after hiking through the gorge for a few hours!

We stayed there and relaxed a bit, and then decided that we should head off because it was about 2pm and we didn't want to get stranded with no sunlight on the trail. We trekked back as the wind started to pick up, which brought along with it some grey clouds. They followed us for a bit and the sky turned gloomy, the sun disappeared and out came our windbreakers. We kept trekking as fast as we could, but had to fight the wind on the way back to Cain. At about 4:30pm, the rain started to trickle down and we hurried along, just like everyone else who was on the trail. Rather than greet one another with "hola, hasta luego" as before, we were all saying "adios" while racing by. Everyone came prepared with rainjackets and brollies too! By 5pm we were hurrying along with our jackets and umbrellas, trying not to get too wet or slip on the rocks either. We made it back (it took longer than the initial journey) at about 5:30pm,--just in time for the sky to open up and dump a torrential amount on us as we were scrambling to get into the car. Needless to say we were soaked, but happy about the great day regardless. :)

We waited it out a bit, dripped in the car and then set off back eastward. The lady from the hostel told us to try and get to Espinama, because there is a hostel there and it is close to Fuente Dé, the location of the teleferico (gondola) that we wanted to go visit. We passed through Potes again, only this time it was a complete gong show because there were people all through the streets, standing and walking though the roads were still open to cars. There was some sort of festival or public market going on, and the police kindly told us that we could keep driving. Uh yeah, through the pedestrians?!?! Yup. So we inched along with folks all around us, buying things, eating, chatting and totally not paying attention the fact there were vehicles around them. It was a bit of a nightmare, but fortunately we were going in the direction without a queue...

We arrived in Espinama shortly after, to a shocking welcome by this absolutely nutty dog that decided to bark like crazy and chase the car. It didn't do anything as we were headed westbound into the town, but we had to turn around a few times to find streets and each time we were going eastbound past it, it would storm up and run beside the car. I really thought it was going to charge us and ram the side of the car, like a bull!! It was absolutely insane--not sure what possessed it, or if it was something to do with our car?? We looked around and couldn't see the hostel, so I went into a pub (with only 3 little old men sitting at the bar watching football--of course) to ask directions. The man pointed us down a road but there was a big pickup blocking the road. Seems like people of this town parked wherever and however they want. Finally we found a way down to the hostel but when we went in, there was no one there. They had left some doors open but no answer, so we knocked on a neighbour's door and she told us which house belonged to the owners. No one was home, so we decided to give up and ask at some hotels. It was a great decision because the place we stayed in, Remoña, was wonderful and for the same price as the hostel!

The owners were very friendly, and the place was great--we had our own place and bathrooms, and tv and privacy. We had a big meal downstairs in the restaurant, stuffed ourselves well with homemade food (even the desserts!) and then went back upstairs. We sat and watched some crazy Spanish shows (not a convert to the entertainment here yet...it's a bit odd at the best of times) before calling it a night.

The next morning, we left and drove to the next town, where we caught the gondola up Fuente Dé to catch a glimpse of the Cantabrian valley.

Well, we got up to the top and sure enough, we caught only a glimpse. We were up high at about 1850m but it was a foggy and snowy day up there. Yes I just said SNOW. In Spain. In the beginning of November. Believe it, it's true--look at the photographic evidence. :)

It was freezing cold since we had only prepared for rain for this little trip, but it was only just a bit to start and we enjoyed the view. We had a quick breakfast in the cafe and sure enough, Lady Luck paid us another visit. The fog had lifted and it stopped snowing, so we could get a clearer look at the valley below. The mountains in the region are just spectacular, and it's hard to describe just how vast and grand it all is. Like in Switzerland, I couldn't help but feel small when surrounding by all these towering giants! :) We took a bunch of photos (they don't really do justice to the scale of things as always), walked around and played a bit with the fluffy white stuff. After being thoroughly frozen, we headed back down.

Ruben drove us back to Santander, where we had lunch and then I had to start work at 5pm because it was sort of a long weekend. The students at the other school had Monday and Tuesday off, but we were still open at the main school and so our regular classes continued.

That morning, Ruben received a call from a Spanish school in London asking if he could go immediately up there to start teaching Wednesday! So he had to find a flight for Tuesday and get things sorted out with his current jobs in a hurry. Michelle helped him with some flight searching and they ran around while I headed back to my classes. Later that evening, we bid him farewell as he had to head home to start upon this new adventure!

We had a full weekend of adventures and interesting stories, all because the coin toss told us to risk going hiking despite the forecast for torrential rains! This lucky 5 cent coin is staying with me for future decision-making. ;)