It´s been a while. . .

So here are some photos from the past month or so. I went on a long weekend a little over a month ago to La Sierra de Segura. Gabriel and I went as the transfer drivers for Antonio and his mountain biking clients. We would drop them off at a point and then go pick them up somewhere else. In the meantime we went hike. . . first hike was to this big cave that we had tried going to on a previous trip but got lost.

This is from inside, it´s more like a cave/dome.

I am standing on deer poop. It is obviously the home to large amounts of animals since the floors are covered with droppings and it smells pretty bad too :)

Then the next day we saw the where a river begins. Pretty, deep, and so clear. . .

Here we are dropping the group off on the last day and the high parts of the Sierra

This is the group: two clients, Gabriel, a client, Gallardo, and Antonio. Just about to head off for a 6 hour bike ride , leaving Gabriel and I to pick them at on the outskirts of the mountain range we were in.

We didn´t know what we were in for. . . this is a picture of Gabriel when we crossed over from the Sierra de Segura mountian range to the Cazorla mountain range. It ended up taking us 7 hours to get to where we were supposed to pick them up. I think we drove on all the tiny, winding dirt roads that went up one mountain then down again, up then down, up. . . . you get the point:) Very beautiful though.

ABOUT A MONTH AGO. . .

Phil came to visit. It was rainy on Saturday so a bunch of us decided to go to Cueva Negra since we couldn´t climb. We watched this storm move in.

Here´s the cave. And what can you do in a cave?

Climb! of course! :) Here´s Blas doing a little bouldering action.

The next day was sunny so Gabriel, Phil, and I went to Puertollano (45min away) to do some routes. We had a good time and it was fun seeing Phil.

And finally, a cute little duckling that got seperated from his mommy close to where we went climbing this past weekend.

This coming weekend I have Monday off since it is a holiday in Castilla la Mancha. Gabriel and I are planning to drive up to see Phil on Saturday and stay until Monday. Should be fun. . . so stay tuned next week for some more pics from the north of Spain! Love ya all, take care

Amy

P.S. If you want to see some pics of me climbing and where I workout check out http://www.tytoalba.org/ You can brush up on your Spanish too if you want ;)

May travels

The weekend of the 9th and 10th I dropped down to visit Amy in Valdepeñas. A good little visit. I met up with Gonzalo in Zaragoza and road down with him. Amy is doing well. She bought a laptop to manage her photos and communicate with greater ease.



Last weekend I went to see the Basque country. Valentina wanted to go to Salamanca but I convinced her to come along and see the Pyrennes and San Sebastian, she wasn´t disappointed. The mountain towns and valleys were very beautiful and everything was extremely green. We ended up going up through Roncal Valley going through the Piedra de San Martin Pass entering France. Heading west, to reach the next pass, we reached Larrau and hiked to a suspension bridge which was quite impressive. We entered Spain again through Larrau Pass and headed for Pamplona. I´m not sure which is more difficult, the French pronuciation or the Basque, at least reading French I could more or less figure out what it was saying. Next stop was Estella and San Fausto for a little bit of rockclimbing. Sunday evening we ended up in San Sebastian to attend a little evangelical church. We went out to dinner afterward with a friendly group from the church. The beach/bay at San Sebastian gives the city its feel and has the ´wind combs´ sculptures by Chillida.

Plaza del Castillo in Pamplona

Monday we went west along the coast and ended up in Gernika for a menú del dia. We joined tables with a talkative, well-travelled Irish couple in their 70´s. My first plate was a whole pot of red beans with sausage which I had no hope of finishing but which was delicious, next I had the cod in the traditional red sauce, with flan for desert. Next we went to the woods near Oma to see some colorful artwork by Basque artist Agustin Ibarrola. Hiking through the woods I was excited to find a mountain bike trail with jumps and dropoffs. The art is in the middle of a forest and is made up of groups of painted tree trunks. Then we hit the road for Alcañiz stopping briefly in Vitoria and arriving at home at 2:30 in the morning.

Bosque de Oma