La Niña, La Pinta y La Santa María

Remember learing those names in school?  La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María: Colombus's ships.  All of you know that Columbus set sail for the "Indies" from Spain, but you may not know that specifically he left from Palos de la Frontera, a small inland port at the confluence of the Tinto and Odiel rivers in Huelva, Andalucía. Last week we made the journey west from La Roda to visit the replicas of his three ships and explore the beaches of Huelva.

These replicas are moored in a little lagoon created just for that purpose on the shore of the Tinto river.  They were built in 1992 to commemorate the 500th year anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas, and are as historically accurate as possible with the information available about Columbus's voyage.  Personally, I was surprised by how small they were!  The Santa María was the biggest, and carried about 52 men aboard, but it was still quite little.  I guess I had always imagined frigates like the ones you see in films like Pirates of the Caribean.

Aboard the Pinta

We boarded each ship and explored above and below deck.  I was surprised, too by the curve of their decks.  I suppose that's to keep water from pooling (maybe?), but I can't imagine trying to keep my footing during a storm on that slippery, convex surface.  They had displays onboard of the kitchens and capitan's quarters.  Let it be known that hardtack was for the Brits, these men were loaded with jamones and salt cod.  A pretty gourmet menu, if you ask me (scurvy aside). ;)  There were also some manequins set up on the ships "doing" different tasks: in the kitchen, on the masts, etc.  Emily didn't like them much.  Angelines told her one was named "Manolito" and she still keeps reminding me that she "no like Manolito". ;)

The man himself taking measurements.

There was an interesting video about the ships and their voyage in the small interpretive center.  It was slightly corny; but still, when they described how after days of seeing sticks, reeds and other floatsam indicating land was near, Rodrigo de Trinana finally bellowed "TIERRA!" from the crow's nest, my hair stood on end.  It is always fun to visit these kinds of historic places to get a feel for what it must have really been like.

Home sweet home

This adventure was another camping trip for us. :)  We found a great campground in Punta Umbría just about 200 meters from the beach.  It was beautiful and perfectly located, the only serious drawback was that our campsite was in the sand.  It was impossible to stay even remotely clean after a shower and our tent inevitably filled with sand, too.  Still, there was plenty of welcome shade from the costal pines and the beauty of the virgin beach so near made up for the inconvenience of permanent sand between our toes.

We spent the afternoons at the beach playing in the waves and sand.  The water of the Atlantic was surprisingly warm--like a bathtub, honestly!  Emily and Natalie are already best friends and had a wonderful time building sandcastles and running in the surf.  This time of year is the best time to visit Huelva, or perhaps even a bit later in the season would be ideal.  The yellow sand beaches of the Costa de Luz are famous throughout Spain, but in summer I think you'd be hard pressed to find a square inch of it that wasn't covered by a beach towel!  Come

We introduced Natalie to drip castles :)

September, however, the crowds have ceased and we were virtually alone; it was fantastic.

Our last evening, we opted to eat out in Punta Umbría and headed out after our evening shower for a seafood dinner.  We were not disappointed.  And Natalie was delighted by the coquinas, a kind of little clam.  We wined and dined and chatted until nearly midnight, when we had to hurry back to the campground because they didn't allow vehicles to circulate past 12am.

It was a quick trip.  We stayed only two nights and so only really were able to explore one day.  The weather was hotter than I'd expected, too and so our exploring was minimal and left for the late afternoon hours on the beach.  There are many beautiful pine forests with paths and trails to explore, but sadly we were never up early enough to do any of that, and going out mid-day was out of the question with the heat.  Still, it was a fun visit and certainly good to know that there is so much to do and see in and around Huelva.  I am sure that in the future we'll make more visits that way...just perhaps at cooler times of the year.

La Niña on board La Niña

This Says it All:

 I'll save my rant for after you watch this:





Now, with that in mind: preschool in Spain begins at three years old.  Children are in school from 9am-2pm just like the Primary school kids...They even have workbooks!  They spend a fair ammount of time playing in class and at recess; but they also spend a lot of time sitting at their desks coloring inside the lines and tracing shapes or letters with their pencils.  In a second grade class, I witnessed a teacher shouting at a boy and then ripping up his paper because he had the audacity to color a rabbit blue: "Rabbits aren't blue!"

Preschool education is not obligatory. Just like in the US obligatory education begins at six years old with Primary school.  However, there are extremely few parents who choose to exercise their right NOT to enroll their babies (because they are just babies) in school when their third birthday roles around.  This year Emily will not be attending school, although she could.  She will be three in November, after all.  I feel grateful that I can avoid the system (legally) for three more years.  At three, her job is to explore and discover the world.  I am happy to show it to her, but she must do the discovering...and nothing can be discovered by sitting still at a desk tracing letters with a blunt pencil!

I think it is telling that the above short is Spanish; however I do believe the message is universal.  Education worldwide is in need of some serious, fundamental changes.  There are better and worse systems around the globe, but fundamentally most of them vary quite little, I'm afraid. Everywhere  there are standards to be met and contents to be covered.  Traditional schools breed an environment of competetivity in which students are constantly being compared to each other and to the abstract standards set by pedagogues and politicians.


Society values innovation, yet too little importance is put on exploration, and creativity in schools.  The most creative subjects are always the first to go with budget cuts.  We smother the beauty that can be found in our individuality by championing the results of standardized tests.  Teachers, too, are
robbed of their creative licenses when faced with the task of homogonizing their classes in order to achieve the necessary scores.  Students are empty vessels to be filled with skills and knowledge, then
churned out into the workforce to become contributing citizens.

This is not to say that there aren't extraordinary teachers who do cultivate creativity and collaboration in the classroom.  There are--Thank God! The system should make work easier for these individuals, rather than, as so often happens, hampering the teaching-learning process.  We value and admire what these dedicated teachers do, and yet most people shy away from denouning the system which not only hinders their work, but also produces young people incapable of independant thought, innovation or creativity.  Isn't it ironic that traits we so highly value are not only NOT cultivated in the current Education System, but are seemingly purposefully eliminated by it?


Just as there are great teachers, there are also great schools.  All is not lost.  There are alternative schools, private schools, homeschooling options, etc.  But why must these outstanding examples be exceptions to the rule?  Why shouldn't they BE the rule?  Why can't we change the public system to reward innovative teaching, creativity and personal iniciative from teachers and students alike?


I can only imagine that the reason behind any reluctance to modify the current education system is an economic one.  It is, I am sure, quite costly to completely overhaul education...  But what about the social costs of robbing a three-year-old of her childhood!  I am sure that in the long term, investing in lasting educational change would save much more than it costs.