Day 30-31 - 11/6-7/2010 - Tu Vista Favorita

      

For some reason it has taken me some time and effort to even begin this blog entry. It is a continuation of my weekend that started in my last blog. I had an amazing weekend and want to share it, but for some reason have lacked motivation in doing so. I have about an hour, hopefully the motivation will kick in and you’ll have something semi-decent to read!

            Where did I leave off? Oh, when I met up with my friends in Malaga on Friday night. Well, there isn’t too much else to say about that. We did the usual bar hopping, drinking in the street and trying not to get caught by cops, and crazy picture taking. One of the girls in the group moved to Ferrol in Galicia on Saturday, so Friday night was her going away night. The night ended at 8 am, and there I was, unable to keep my eyes open and head bobbing on the hour long bus ride from Malaga back home to Velez-Malaga. The more times I take this bus ride, the more I realize how inconvenient it is that I live that far from Malaga. I need to make more friends in Velez.

            Saturday I slept until 4 in the afternoon and woke up to a sunny day. I spent some time in the library and went back home. It was a calm afternoon; I definitely needed calm after the previous night! Plus, I was going hiking on Sunday for the first time with Jakob and two of his friends, so I wanted to make sure that I was well rested in order to keep up with the group. I’m not much for watching TV, but decided to end the night with a movie on TV. As I was flipping through channels I came across this show called “Tu Vista Favorita,” “Your Favorite View”. I am definitely a person that revels in the beauty of an amazing view, so rather than watch a movie I decided to check out the show.

            Tu Vista Favorita is a show that consists of traveling to different parts of Spain and seeing 40 of the best views. 4 views are shown each episode and at the end of each episode people vote for their favorite view of that episode. Each week views are eliminated and others are voted on to finals. I’m not sure how far into the season the show is at right now, but the views I saw on this Saturday’s episode were amazing. One was called Los Pueblos Blancos de Cadiz, another was called Monte Abantos in Madrid, and I didn’t get to see the other two views because I had to shower and get ready for the next day. I highly recommend looking up the show on Google and checking out the website. The views are breathtaking and if you watch the full episodes you can learn a little bit about the history of each place.

            So Saturday night was very calm. Sunday morning I met with Jakob at 9 am to go meet up with his other 2 friends at 9:30. We met up with Jacob and drove to pick up Juaquin. Juaquin is older and has been hiking for at least 15 years. He knows about all of the hiking routes in Andalucía, especially Malaga, and in other parts of Spain as well. Jacob just started hiking on a weekly basis this past summer, so he is still somewhat new to it as well. During the car ride to where we were going to hike Juaquin shared all sorts of information about different routes in the Malaga and Andalucía areas. I was excited to be hiking with him; I could tell he was going to be interesting to listen to and learn from.

            The mountain we were about to hike is called Sierra de Alcaparain. Juaquin said that it would probably take about 5 hours altogether. Considering that this was my first real hike, 5 hours sounded crazy to me, but it wasn’t half as bad as I thought.



Map & info about mountain & route

 

Info about surrounding view of mountain



  

              The path on the way up the mountain was a dirt road so it was pretty easy besides the increase in inclination as we got further up the mountain. Along the way there were posts that marked how many more kilometers were left until the top of the mountain. Although the path wasn’t very interesting, the view from the mountain was really nice.

Jakob and Jacob

 

                           

            After about two hours and a half we made it to the highest point of the path. Jakob, Jacob and I arrived about ten minutes before Juaquin did. There was such a drastic change in wind speed from the bottom of the mountain to the top. We stopped to take pictures, put on more layers, eat a snack and wait for Juaquin.

The highest point of the path!

Juaquin and Jacob





            We thought that was the top of the mountain and that once Juaquin caught up that we would find an area where there wasn’t as much wind, take time to eat some more and rest. When Juaquin caught up with us he said “You guys are already eating?! This isn’t the top of the mountain.” Woops. It was the highest point of the path, but the highest point of the mountain was about another 20 minutes further. This is when the hike started getting interesting because there was no longer a set path and we had to figure out the best way to get over and around rock formations and wild, prickly plants.

Once we got to the actual top of the mountain it felt like we were on top of the world, it was a good feeling. There was a big difference in the view from the end of the path to the actual top of the mountain. You could see all around the mountain rather than just around one side. It was cold and the wind was crazy, so after taking a few pictures we found a pocket in the side of the mountain really close to the top to eat and relax. The sun came out from behind some clouds and we ended up staying in that spot for about an hour. The combination of the amazing view, warmth of the sun, and the good company made for an extremely relaxing hour.

Jacob

Highest point of the mountain!



Jacob, Juaquin and Jakob



Me, Juaquin and Jakob

Me and Jacob

 

            On the way down the mountain we decided to take a path that took about half the amount of time that it took on the way up. This path was a lot more interesting though because it was a lot more natural, steeper, less noticeable, narrower, and went through forests on the side of the mountain. We were all a lot quieter on the way down the mountain. I think we were each taking it all in and just enjoying our surroundings. I’m super glad that Jakob invited me to go hiking with him and his friends, it was something that I enjoyed very muchand definitely plan on doing more often with them.

The length of our path on the way down

            Once we made it back to the car we decided to stop in a town on the way home to have something hot to drink. We stopped in a town called Casarabonela, which I found out is the birth town of Antonio Banderas! For some reason I found it funny that I had been in a winery with a barrel signed by Antonio Banderas and the town he was born in all in one weekend. I can think of a few friends of mine that would be super jealous if they knew haha. While we sat down to have a hot drink, Juaquin told us about these two older women who sell home grown food, we decided to go by their houses and see what they had.

the entrance to the old part of Casarabonela



The first woman’s house that we stopped by had so many different things. She had natural honey, membrillo (which I don’t know what is called in English), figs, pumpkins, lemons, aguacate, and more. We each bought a jar of honey, which I have already had and tastes refreshingly good by the way, and Jacob bought some aguacates.

The next woman’s house that we stopped by had olives, loads and loads of olives. On the way into the house we passed by huge baskets filled with olives and barrels that I suppose the olives are put into at some point. I absolutely love olives, but the olives in this area are different from the Spanish olives that I am used to eating. Unfortunately, I do not like the olives from this area at all, but it was nice to see where they come from. This woman also had a really pretty cat. The majority of the cat’s body is an off white, while its tail, legs, ears and face are black, and it has bright blue eyes. I tried taking pictures of it, but they didn’t come out too good.



            Our hiking trip and town visit came to an end. I can only speak for myself in saying that at this point I was very exhausted, but I’m pretty sure that the three guys were as well. As soon as I got home I took a hot shower and hit the bed. It had been a great day and I was excited to know that I’d be able to enjoy these amazing views very soon again on the next hiking trip with Jakob, Jacob and Juaquin.