Looking back on January

Now that we are a few weeks into February, I realized I haven´t done an update for awhile. January was rainy and then cold with a few snow days. The end of the month was much more sunny allowing for some nice days to go hiking and one day of climbing in Las Lagunas de Ruidera with Gonzalo and the kids from the climbing gym. Gabriel still can´t climb because of his shoulder. He needs to recooperate strength from his dislocation for a month or two more.

This are two pictures from my patio looking down Ave. 1 de Julio or the Canal St. In the above pic you can see the construction yard where Gabriel works. In the bottom pic the last building complex on the left is where my work is located, so as you can see I have quite the long commute:)This is Moral, the climbing sector closest to Valdepeñas. In the snow.Due to the large amounts of rain that we received here in the end of Dec. early Jan. Gabriel and I enjoyed checking out the local resevoirs, rivers, and lagoons on the weekends. Here I am at a resevoir that the river Jabalín (which passes by Valdepeñas) flows into. As you can see I am standing on an access road that is unpassable now.

This past weekend we went to the Sierra Magia which is next to Jaén, about two hours south of Valdepeñas. We saw beautiful views and could even see the Sierra Nevada covered with snow. We hope to return to explore more since we didn´t have much time to hike around.

This past Sunday we helped our friend Antonio out. He takes groups on mountain biking routes among other thing (http://www.alucinatura.es/). We were the chaffeurs (sp?) and ended up in a small village in Andulucía waiting for the bikers to arrive from their 45km mountainous ride. El Centinillo is a old mining town that is set way in the mountains of Sierrra Morena. Very beautiful. And once again another place to come back to to spend more time hiking around. We ate some delicious food there in one of the two places to eat in the village. All the food very delicious. My favorite being the pisto (mixture of peppers cooked into a salsa type dish that is eaten with bread) and the fresh venision. The walls of the resturuant were filled with deer and wild boar mounts.