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

On the road

Here are some of the pictures, the trip was a success, we saw a lot of  Northern Spain and crossed the river near Tui into Portugal for a cup of coffee, then we hightailed it for home seeing Zamora, Vallodolid, and Soria along the way, now I'm in Lerida about to head for Alcaniz.

Sanctuary in Pontevedra

La Coruna from the seaside park

Lunch on the side of the road in Las Hoces de Vegacervera

El Naranjo de Bulnes

The Sanctuary at Covadonga

Phil´s travels in the north of Spain

I´m writing from Oviedo, Asturias. We got here last night and are couchsurfing here a couple of nights here with a lady. Last Friday I picked Daniel up in Lerida, Cataluña, and we left early afternoon. We made it to Bilboa, Pais Vasco, that night and stayed with Joe, another language assistant. (On the way, we stopped in Logroño, Rioja and explored the town on bikes, and at a natural park in the Basque country and hiked around a bit). We explored Bilboa a little the next morning in a light mist and headed into Cantabria doing a little climbing at a town called Ramales de la Victoria. We drove into Santander in the dark and parked along the harbor for the night. The coast along this stretch is very beautiful. We visited several towns the next day on the way to the Picos de Europa. It is very, very green up here.

We arrived in Las Arenas de Cabrales in the Picos de Europa and ended up staying in the parking lot there two nights. Day one we drove up to Covadonga and saw a very beautiful santuary where there had been an important battle against the moors. This part of Spain never really fell to the Moors with the natural mountain fortress and was where the reconquest started. In the afternoon we started a hike in the mountains along a canal on the cliffs through the Cares Gorge, a very impressive hike, 3 hours to another little town, where we bought cider and made sandwiches and watched the rain start. When it stopped we headed back and made it halfway before it started raining again, we got back around 9 pm in the last light of the day, completely drenched.

The next day we drove up the to the same place and being a beautiful day we had a wonderful view of the famed Pico Urriello, or Naranjo de Bulnes, a big mountain of steep rock, 2,519 meters at the top. I will have to come back this summer to climb it, it is like El Cap for us in California... (trad climbing and a big commitment, it is about a 3 hour hike in) We then spent a good chunk of the day driving across the mountians to get to another climbing spot, Hoces de Vegacervera, Leon. I am climbing easy routes and the arm is feeling good. We got into Oviedo last night, late. Today we climbed another spot (Concejo de Quiros or El Llano) near here in a beautiful valley and now we are going to check out the city sights. We are fortunate to be having perfect weather at the moment. Next up Galicia. Pictures upon my return.

some March pictures

by Phil steep part going up Alba the group in front of Paco´s company car

Salardú

The bar in Arnés

Moncayo

read below for trip details

by Phillip

March Madness

This month I´ve been away every weekend. The first it was the Ebro river delta with Valentina. We went down to Vinaroz and then up to Amposta and Deltebre and also Tortosa. The weather was a little cold and slightly rainy. On the way back we hit a small town called Miravet with an impressive castle. One way to enter the town is by crossing the river on a cable ferry. It has no motor but is drawn by the river current against the rudders. You drive right on and its 3 euros to get your vehicle across. We left town via the normal road.



The following two weekends I was in Margalef, climbing a little, trying not to overdo it as I have medial epicondylitis. Good sunny weekends with friends and lots of climbing pictures as I was not climbing much.



The following weekend I went to the Pyrenees. Gonzalo is taking a course in Benasque and a group from Valdepeñas came up to the snow. We attempted a 3,000 meter peak the first day wearing crampons the whole day but we didn´t summit (we left too late and ran out of light), but it was still a good time. I also checked out the Arán Valley staying in the town of Salardú and also the Boi area.

This weekend I stayed somewhat local for the first part of the weekend climbing an easy multipitch route in the hot sun Friday, and driving 30 minutes to Alcorisa where snow was falling Saturday night to see some drum sessions (groups getting ready for Holy Week). The weather took a drastic change to cold and rainy but I think in a couple of days we´ll have our spring weather back again. Sunday I went to a reformed presbyterian church in Zaragoza and then went and checked out the Moncayo mountians. On the way back to Alcañiz I detoured to Belchite, sleeping there, and seeing the civil war ruins in the morning. S

Now I am rushing to plan for Spring Break, I´ll be leaving on Friday heading for Galicia...

When you can go hiking. . . . by Amy

The past few weeks I have been doing a lot of hiking and not so much climbing. Here´s some pics of where I´ve been minus the two trips to Despeñaperros which, both times, I forgot my camara. Maybe it´s a good thing cause last time I fell into the river by accident. :)
RIO MUNDO: This is part of the Sierra de Segura (see below) but is a popular place that is well know and many people go there. Not many people do what we did which was hike to the entrance of the cave. What it is a waterfall, or river that comes out of cave in the middle of big rock face. The river goes back tens of kilometers and supposedly they have never found the end (or beginning). Maybe that will be my next hiking destination ;)
-wild goat, looks like the ones we have Mom-
-up high above where the cave is-

-me looking at the waterfall-

-the cave-

-this is prana advertisement :) the waterfall and if you look carefully you can see where most people go below, many people don´t even know it´s a cave-

LA PEDRIZA: this is a mountain range that is above Madrid. Makes you want to go climbing with all the rock there is.

-cool rock formations-

-where we ate lunch-

we hiked up this: it´s called the Yelmo-

-here´s the Yelmo, do you see the finger that´s pointing up it?-

-wild animals-

-we came from the very top-

SIERRA de SEGURA: This is located about three hours aways by car, it´s actually not that far away but it takes forever to get there cause the roads are really curvy and not very direct. It is to the southeast of Valdepeñas and is a huge park/mountain range. Phil equiped his first climbing route here. It has lots of trails and but this is not like a very visited park in Spain so most things are not marked very well. For example, Gabriel and I were planning on taking the trail that went to a massive cave but after about five minutes of walking it we had no idea where the trail had gone and couldn´t re-find it. The result was we took another trail that ended up going up high on the mountain range and circling around. Very beautiful.

-the view-

-we walked through alot of snow at the highest points, it was a hot day though-

-Gabriel up high over a resevoir-

-Look it how high up we are!-

-we encountered 3 waterfalls along the trail-

And that´s all folks! Until next time,

lots of love Amy

Barcelona, Girona, Cadaques