Today I was off exploring again. Yes, I think Spring fever has set in. I just can't stand to be at home when the weather is so lovely and the fields so green! Anyway, today's exploration was with Kristen my co-auxiliar in Casariche. I think the picture speaks for itself. Aside from the sun being in our eyes, we look pretty happy. ;)We went back to the same area I went with Angelines on Tuesday, but we explored further along the road than I had ever been before. Originally we were going to go for a hike...but it turned out to be more exploring in the car and hopping out when we saw something too cool to drive by. All-in-all it was a perfect day, especially given the quality of the pasta salad we ate on our picnic (made the night before around three am...and under the influence of a few glasses of wine). It was to DIE for good. Honestly, we're thinking of opening a restaurant and serving just that; I'm sure it would be a hit.
Among other exciting things, we stumbled upon an ancient city from the 9th and 10th centuries. (Ah, living in Spain!) Unfortunately for us it wasn't free and they were closing early on a Sunday. We arrived just fifteen min. before closing so we weren't allowed to go in to see it. At least we know it exists now--it looks REALLY cool.
This is a picture (from the internet) of the typical mozarabe horse-shoe arches of the ancient church in the city. Apparently, from what we read, a lot of it is carved into the rock of the hillside--very impressive. I can't wait to go back to see it!
We wound our way along barely two-lane roads for the better par of the day and found some really great stuff. You remember the scary part of the hike that Angelines and I went on the other day? Well we found the end point today. Here's a picture for you:
To the right of the bridge known as "Los Balconcillos" (not sure why that's plural...), you can see the planks in the cliff face that make up the vertiginous Caminito del Rey. We were shocked to see two people climbing around up there...but, after watching for a while we decided that they were using ropes and clipping into the cliff side in case the rickety walk beneath them should give out. Just watching made me feel dizzy. All the same, I'm looking forward to the day that they restore the Caminito. That gorge looks tantalizingly gorgeous!
On the way back home we stoped by Fuente de Piedra a town just 10 min. from La Roda that's got natural laguna of 1,486 hectares. This year, with all the rain, it's got to be at least that big...maybe bigger. It is the largest laguna in Andalucia and flamingos (yes, pink flamingos!) come here to nest! In the past when I've gone, the water has been so low from drought that we couldn't really see the flamingos; they were to far into the laguna basin to be visible without binoculars. Now that there's so much water they were right up there on the shore where we were and we got some really great pictures.
So you can see, we had a full day of exploration all of which was accompanied by lots of good conversation.
It was a beautiful day.
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