El Valle del Jerte

This was to be our most favorite day of the entire trip.  We woke up early and piled into the car sans suitcases (a relief for my poor parents) and took a windy, narrow mountain road up over the ridge and down into the Jerte valley.  Those of you who have visited me in Andalucia know that the landscape is pretty monotonous--dominated nearly entirely by rows upon rows of olive trees.  In the Jerte valley, the same is true of cherry trees.  The hillsides are completely covered!  It must be a fabulous place to visit in Spring when all the trees are in bloom.  But I was thankful to be there when we were: cherry season. :)

The boughs were drooping from the weight of the ruby-red fruits.  The cherries were so perfectly round and red it looked as though the trees were hung with Christmas ornaments.  When we stopped for gas just outside the small town of El Torno (some prankster changed the "T" on the sign to a "P"), we picked a handful from a nearby tree--delicious!

So beautiful...and so delicious!

We had a rough idea for an itenerary, since Juani had equipped us with a guide book and also recommended a hike to some natural swimming pools.  Somehow, throughout our whole trip, the heat was following us!  The day we left Lisbon, the temperatures dropped.  The morning we pulled out of Logrosa, Galicia, it was foggy and cool.  And of course we arrived in Extremadura when the day's temperatures weren't expected to drop below 38º C (roughly 99F).  Swimming was exactly the kind of activity that all of us (even Bela) could agree was a good idea.  So we wound our way down into the valley planning to ask some locals how to get to the "Garganta de los infiernos" y "los pilones".

...before the cops came.

11:30 (coffee time) caught us in Cabezuela del Valle and so we pulled over at a little restaurant overlooking the Jerte river.  Our guide book mentioned that all through the valley, but especially in this town, people had build small dams along the river to create artificial swimming holes.  Sure enough, just below us on the river was a little slat-board dam with a very inviting pool built up behind it.  After coffee, we decided a swim was in order... especially in light of just how much my puppy loves the water!  Unfortunately, we didn't notice the "No Dogs" sign and only about twenty minutes after getting in, the local police showed up to kick us out. :(

picture break

There was an information center right near the restaurant where we'd had our coffee, so while Bela was drying off some and my dad was changing his clothes, I poped in to see if I could get a map or directions to these natural swimming holes we'd heard of.  Success!  Just 3km. up the road was the turn-off for the trail head.  Refreshed and caffeinated, we got back in Pata Negra, grateful to have a short drive since our wet dog was smelling up the car!

The hike was short, but very vertical.  It was just over two miles, but virtually all climbing.  Bela had a blast.  My parents were lagging a little behind on the way up.  It seems that being Rotary District Governor isn't very compatible with an active lifestyle.  So after nearly a year of sitting in front of the computer and sitting in the car driving between meetings and other Big Cheese functions, but dad was huffing and puffing.

Thankfully, most of the trail was shaded.  It was a beautiful hike, really.

However brutal the walk up to los pilones, it was well worth it.  They were amazing!  Unfortunately, I think because we'd dallied in the river after coffee, we arrived at the pilones just about "rush hour".  There were quite a lot of people and sadly we had to keep our Bela on the leash.  Everyone else was fully prepared with picnic lunches and at about 2 o'clock we realized that as much as we'd like to stay, we needed to hurry down the hill if we wanted to have any hope of having lunch!  If we'd thought ahead a bit more we would have brought sandwiches with us...because none of us wanted to leave.  We took one last dip in the cool, crystal water and then headed down the trail as fast as we could in the 40º sun.

Los pilones!!!

Angelines jumps in after me. :)

Mom enjoys the "king's throne"

My dessert! :)

We made it into the town of Jerte just in time for lunch.  A woman sorting cherries on the restaurant terraza assured us that we weren't too late for the menu del dia.  And so we enjoyed yet another fantastic meal and made plans for the afternoon.  Originally we had wanted to make a circle all the way through the valley and back around to Villar de Plascencia, but it seemed as though that would be too much driving considering how late in the day it was already.  We decided to head up to the northern-most town in the valley, Tornavacas, because it was supposedly very well "preserved" (?) and then wind our way back home the way we'd come.  After my postre of (you guessed it!) cherries and a shot of cherry liquour each, we headed up the road to Tornavacas.

The facade of the house.  You can see the date over the window: 1655.

In Tornavacas as we were looking for a place to get a post-lunch coffee, a local man approached us and offered to give us a tour of his house (?!).  I guess we stuck out as tourists. ;) He claimed it was the oldest house in the villiage and "filled with old things".  He assured us that there was no charge...but they did ask that you leave a tip if you liked it.  We agreed to see the house...and we were not disappointed.  This man and his wife had basically made a museum out of the house.  It was brimming with antiques of all sorts.  The house itself was incredible--built in 1655!  Only 135 years after Cortés participated in the fall of Tetnochilán (Mexico City), and just 34 years after the First Thanksgiving.  The house had been in his wife's family since its construction.  Amazing.  It was like stepping back in time.

The wooden staircase.

Mom models the cherry picking basket.  A wooden hook goes over the shoulder to hold the basket freeing both hands for picking.

This is the kitchen.  The haning pot is above the fire pit.

This picture looks like something from Gulliver's Travels!

My dad had to bend over to fit into most of the rooms.  The ceilings were only about 5.5 ft!  When I commented that he was the tallest man ever to enter the house, our hosts, laughing, immediately agreed with me.  The staircase was a narrow wooden affair, similar to the stairs in the casa rural where we were staying.  The "kitchen" was an open room, the ceiling black with centuries of soot from the fire.  There was a hole cut in the roof for ventilation...but it didn't seem to have helped a whole lot.  The rafters above the kitchen were exposed so that you could see into the attic space.  This is where they dried chestnuts and cured meats.  We spent about 30 minutes with this man and his wife on the house tour.  It was pretty incredible.  More than anything, it was wonderful to see how passionate this couple was about preserving their own history.

After our tour, we thanked our hosts, made our way to a little café for coffee and then headed back to Tia Emilia's.  It was a fantastic day.