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. ;)
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