Greetings From The
SPANISH WILD
The next morning we woke up and went for another hike. The destination was the left "tit" of the Viana. The left "tit" is one of two plateaus that rise from the landscape. When the Roman's where in Spain they named them tits. The hike was pretty steep at times, but the views were amazing. Here is a group shot at the top. The right "tit" is behind us.
After that hike we took the back to Madrid. I met my parents at their hotel and got ready for a week of fun with them. Stay tuned for pictures from their visit. I'll leave you with a picture of the valley area.
SPANISH WILD
Last weekend I was a field trip with my Ecology of Spain class to the Alto Tajo National Park in Guadalajara. It was an amazing trip full of lots of adventure.
I got up at 8:30 on Friday morning and took the metro to the school where we boarded a bus. I mainly slept on the bus ride, we stopped in small town for breakfast. This town was tiny and no one there spoke English, this would be a sign of things to come. After a little for traveling we arrived in our tiny town. We packed up our packs and headed down the road.
We basically hiked along this pretty massive canyon. At the bottom of the canyon was the Alto Tajo river. Our teacher Professor Montes would stop at special areas and give us ecology lectures on the region. It was refreshing to be out in the wild and also to learn a little bit about the world literally all around us. Here is Montes giving a lecture.
Here's the deal on Professor Montes. He is an accomplished nature writer and photographer who has been teaching at Syracuse Madrid for over 15 years. He is in a 9 piece Celtic rock band that frequently tours Europe and the US. He loves rock music, hates the city, and kind of sounds like "Borat".
We then hiked down to a ledge where we had lunch and also to proceeded to "clean our arteries" as Montes says. If this is confusing, "clean your arteries" is what happens when your body gets submerged in a freezing cold river after jumping off a cliff. This is me...airborne... my form is pretty bad.
After the jump we all the guys on the trip swam up stream to this rock for a "American's are adventures who pose with our shirts off picture" on a rock. Check it out.
We basically hiked along this pretty massive canyon. At the bottom of the canyon was the Alto Tajo river. Our teacher Professor Montes would stop at special areas and give us ecology lectures on the region. It was refreshing to be out in the wild and also to learn a little bit about the world literally all around us. Here is Montes giving a lecture.
Here's the deal on Professor Montes. He is an accomplished nature writer and photographer who has been teaching at Syracuse Madrid for over 15 years. He is in a 9 piece Celtic rock band that frequently tours Europe and the US. He loves rock music, hates the city, and kind of sounds like "Borat".
We then hiked down to a ledge where we had lunch and also to proceeded to "clean our arteries" as Montes says. If this is confusing, "clean your arteries" is what happens when your body gets submerged in a freezing cold river after jumping off a cliff. This is me...airborne... my form is pretty bad.
After the jump we all the guys on the trip swam up stream to this rock for a "American's are adventures who pose with our shirts off picture" on a rock. Check it out.
After that we went back to the town and kicked it with the locals, keep it mind there are only 12 people in this town. We played soccer, explored castle ruins, and practiced Spanish with our 12 year old guide Ernesto. This is a group shot on the castle ruins at sunset. From the left, Greg Alvarez from Lehigh, Chris D'Erico from CUse, Andres Trujillo from RIT, Clark Lampen from Lehigh, and Zach Rubinfeld and myself from Syracuse.
That night we had an incredible dinner of vegetables, salmon, lots of bread, salad, wine, a sweet desert of apple tart.
That night we had an incredible dinner of vegetables, salmon, lots of bread, salad, wine, a sweet desert of apple tart. We woke up early the next day to find that it was cloudy and cold which was bad because we were slated to go Kayaking in two hours. The weather did not stop us and before we knew it we were loading the kayaks.
I wish I could show you all pictures from our descent but the water was freezing and my camera wasn't water proof. We took the bus down to a power dam, did a basic review of technique and we were off. The kayaks had skirts so water wouldn't splash on your legs. The rapids were pretty tame, I would say they were class two at highest according to this scale. We kayaked for about 3 hours and three people tipped, one of them was Ruby, who is a pretty outdoors guy. After the kayaking we went back to the Hotel and slept for about 4 hours.
That night we went to one of Professor Montes's friends house for dinner and a party. This was not an ordinary house, it was built on top of an ancient cave. So inside the house is a door that leads deep into the cave system. It is here where the wine is stored, food was stored, and people of the region avoided bombings during the Spanish Civil War. While we were there we learned the local way to drink wine, which is to pour it out of a large jar with a spout. Here I am trying to get my technique down.
After dinner, the owner showed up and things got moving. He busted out his families traditional wine that we makes in the cave system. It was a blush and it was really good. It was here that we watched the lunar eclipse with the locals in the countryside. The night was capped off the by the owner of the house/caves presenting my buddy Clark and I with custom hats. Here we are.
I wish I could show you all pictures from our descent but the water was freezing and my camera wasn't water proof. We took the bus down to a power dam, did a basic review of technique and we were off. The kayaks had skirts so water wouldn't splash on your legs. The rapids were pretty tame, I would say they were class two at highest according to this scale. We kayaked for about 3 hours and three people tipped, one of them was Ruby, who is a pretty outdoors guy. After the kayaking we went back to the Hotel and slept for about 4 hours.That night we went to one of Professor Montes's friends house for dinner and a party. This was not an ordinary house, it was built on top of an ancient cave. So inside the house is a door that leads deep into the cave system. It is here where the wine is stored, food was stored, and people of the region avoided bombings during the Spanish Civil War. While we were there we learned the local way to drink wine, which is to pour it out of a large jar with a spout. Here I am trying to get my technique down.
After dinner, the owner showed up and things got moving. He busted out his families traditional wine that we makes in the cave system. It was a blush and it was really good. It was here that we watched the lunar eclipse with the locals in the countryside. The night was capped off the by the owner of the house/caves presenting my buddy Clark and I with custom hats. Here we are.
The next morning we woke up and went for another hike. The destination was the left "tit" of the Viana. The left "tit" is one of two plateaus that rise from the landscape. When the Roman's where in Spain they named them tits. The hike was pretty steep at times, but the views were amazing. Here is a group shot at the top. The right "tit" is behind us.
After that hike we took the back to Madrid. I met my parents at their hotel and got ready for a week of fun with them. Stay tuned for pictures from their visit. I'll leave you with a picture of the valley area.
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