I have just returned from a 48 hour trip to the Mountains in the neighbouring Province, Asturias. My family here is part of a group called "Club Alpino" which is 5 families that spend the Bank Holidays together in the mountains. Each year they pick a different village in the same area and do some hiking.
This year there were 6 families and me which made 24 people and 1 dog (Paris, the mini Yorky). Surprisingly they found 1 house to fit us all! Christina (the oldest girl) and I stayed in the living room. She had a cot but thankfully I fit on the couch which was more comfortable. She is a very polite, nice natured girl. She helped me with my Spanish and we sang on rockband together! haha! There was a pool in the yard so it was the main hangout spot.
We arrived on Friday night and had dinner together. All the kids were excited and I am a very light sleeper... so I woke up everytime someone got up to go to the bathroom, rolled over, snored, etc! Anyways Saturday morning everyone was up and at em, getting ready for the hike! I think all but 2 people (injuries) did at least a portion of the hike on day 1.
About 2 hours in we lost the small children and some adults who went back with them. We made it another hour into the hills where we lost the rest of the group except 5 of us. Jose and Jesus (the avid hikers with amazing endurance) me, Yayo and Olga. It took another hour and 15 mins to climb to the summit. We had to go around to the North Face of the mountain to get up to the peak.
The last portion was tough! My legs were tired, there was no shade, Jose and Jesus are very fast! Yayo and I hiked up together, stopping for 30 seconds quite often and then going again.
The top was definitely my favourite, because we got to climb with our hands in the rocks!!! I find that far more interesting that walking up a grassy portion of a steep mountain! Unforunately we didn`t have the proper equipment to climb the last 20 meters to the very top, but we made it pretty high. It is 2052m and we went about 2030m. I noticed that it was a bit harder to breathe! Here I am at the summit.
On the way down, Jose was leading the way and ran into a dead end. I was the last one of the 5, so I ran down the hill at my part of the trail to check if there was another way to get down. Apparently he thought I went to "find my own way" so him and Jesus found the proper way and took off. I made it about 20 m down the hill only to find the trail also came to a dead end. We climbed back up and the other 2 were nowhere to be found.
Olga, Yayo and I started to find another way by backtracking and going around the thick brush... when we heard a stampede of animals with bells on their necks coming our way! The Animals are left in the mountains all summer to eat the grass. They wear the bells so that the owners can find them before winter and bring them back to the barns in the villages.
Anyways I heard these things and they were coming our way, running down the mountain side. They were about 30 meters to the left when a few of them saw us starting running straight at us! A HERD OF BULLS WITH MASSIVE HORNS! I high tailed it into another path and hid on top of a rock with my camera. Yayo was wearing a maroon shirt and they went straight for him! I was able to snap two pictures, but Yayo and Olga had both back into the bushes underneath where I was so I couldn`t get a pic of them. Anyway I hear Pablo start yelling, waving his hands etc and eventually the bulls slowed down, veered a few meters from Yayo and continued on the path. I can`t remember what I was yelling, but obviously something in fear because Yayo eventually said "Don`t worry Marianne, they are just cows" - COWS? Cows with massive horns, that travel in packs of 20+ on the mountainside, that charge you? That description certainly doesn`t equal a cow in my mind!
I stayed put, while they were telling me to follow them down the path...but I wasn`t sure I had seen the last of the cows yet. Eventually I followed them and went to take a picture of Olga, when she raised her arm to tell me there was another one coming! I turned with my camera and snapped the shot below before that friggen cow ran straight for me. I yelled, waved my arms, jumped up and down. I scared it, LOL, it almost fell over when it hit the breaks! After that I felt a little better, until I started going down the path and could hear 3 big ones gaining on me! I was yelling "YAYO!!! THERE ARE MORE! HELP!" lol and he kept saying "don`t worry Marianne". As long as there is something with sharp horns chasing me down a path, I am going to worry. We ended up scaring off the 3 and they took another path to catch up with the herd. Once again I was a little hesitant so I ended up 20 meters behind Olga and Yayo who kept making their way down the mountain. Some of the herd decided to turn around and come back my way, seperating me from the other 2. Frig! Not again. The problem was that we were on the only path there was, the rest was steep mountain side which was hard for the cows to run on. I figured out that making a big scene keeps them at least 5 meters away which I was okay with. COWS!
The rest of the descent was uneventful. Yayo and I walked together but we were tired and we ran out of water! LOL, one of my favourite parts was when we caught up to Jose and Olga who were waiting for us...we asked where Jesus was and Jose said he went down to see if he could get water from a river we could hear. We continued on and 20 minutes later Jesus came running behind us. Yayo was standing in the shade while I turned to ask him if he got water and he said "No", so I turned and kept walking slowly on. 3 seconds later Yayo says to Jesus, did you get water??? and Jesus told him No and he pauses...then says "Oh shit.." Lmao. Listening to Spanish people swear in English is certainly one of the funniest things about being here.
It ended up taking us close to 9 hours to get back to the village. To the summit was just over 4...but we stopped to have lunch afterwards, and going down takes me longer than going up! Maybe because it was my first time going down a mountainside, I was more cautious than the rest - I haven`t figured it out yet.
Saturday night, everyone settled earlier and slept, thank Goodness. I got some sleep and decided that I wasn`t going to hike on Sunday. I was learning 2 days earlier than the rest of the crew, because Victor had to take the ferry to England for Sailing Camp and Jesus had to chaperone the kids. Sunday mornings rolled around and I relaxed while the adults got ready for hiking. I didn`t eat breakfast. Fari came by to get something and asked why I wasn`t going. I told him I was tired and sore, 9 hours the day before was enough for me! He said "Lazy girl" lol. Then he came back out of his room and told me that they were taking cars to another village, climbing 2 hours up then coming right back down. Due to the crew that I would be with (Yayo, Rafa, Fari, Marga and Olga) I decided to go. I knew there would be a lot of laughs shared!
I was malnourished due to not having breakfast and really sore and tired from the previous day, so I was complaining quite early on this hike lol! Anyway there were lots of good conversations and laughs, but it was sure hot. The climb itself wasn`t as interesting and we didn`t reach a summit so it wasn`t as rewarding. It was exercise anyway and I did get to see a bit of different scenary.
Later that day I just relaxed. I have some flashcards for learning Spanish, and I had lots of people willing to help me with explanations and pronunciation. The Spanish Alphabet uses the same letters, but none of them sound the same as english letters!!! I have been able to roll my R`s only twice, lol, so I need to keep practicing!
There are lots of pictures posted on Facebook and even more on my picasa albums. It was fun to spend time with other families and socialize. Jose and his family had traveled to our coast about 11 years ago. They rented a motorhome and went across BC visiting all the National Parks. They loved it there and want to go back to do the Juan De Fuca trail. I am looking forward to becoming a better hiker so that I can do that soon!
One more funny story. I was sitting outside on the first night reading a book, because we were the first to arrive. Everyone else started coming in and getting organized. Olga was up on the 3rd floor unpacking when Rafa`s phone started ringing. She came to the window that faced the pool to tell Rafa. He told her to throw it down, and she said no. He put his T shirt out (but didn`t make it a pocket, he stretched it so it acted like a trampoline. Anyway she kept saying no but he insisted that she throw it. So she did and of course it hit his t shirt then bounced and smashed on the bricks below. LOL. My favourite part was that next, he started blaming her for not throwing it properly!!!!!!! It was such a male thing to do, too funny. The top window is where she dropped it from!
Anyways I had a fantastic time, and really thankful my family took me along! The guys are very funny and 2 of the 3 amigos speak in English. A lot of the people speak in basic English to me so that is nice, but the guys are funny because they are able to transfer their sense of humour. It is tough to do that outside of your native tongue! Here is a shot of some of the people from L to R. Yayo, Kristie, Helena, Jacobo, Marina, Yaya, Alberto.
I am heading to Barcelona next Monday, so I hope to get lots of surfing in this week and then write an update about my time there! I am very excited to see my friend Patricia (who is from South America, but we met in Madrid)! We will have a wonderful 5 days.
Cheers until the next time!
