Cantabria

For the past two days I have been in the northern province of Cantabria (pronounced can-tAH-bria) with the Garcia Ruiz family.  We left Madrid "early" at 10AM and traveled north out of the hot sun and brown countryside into green mountains filled with "niebla" (fog).  I have to admit that I got a little car sick sitting in the middle seat while Pablo drove through the seemingly never-ending and always-curving mountain roads.  Nevertheless, I made it through thanks to the many stops we made to explore a few pueblos along the way.  We stopped at a beautiful pueblo called Bárcena Mayor which is the only town within a national park, because its buildings have all been preserved from the 1800s.  Afterwards, we stopped in Ruente, which is another mountain town that is built around a natural spring, La Fuentona, that has geologists perplexed over how it produces so much water without being connected to a river, and can even stop flowing for a while, and pick up again with the same amount of force as before.  After Ruente, we made our final stop for the day at Carmona, where we spent the night at El Puente, a "posada," or rustic hotel. 

Today we woke up to rain, apparently the first rain they´ve had in 30 days, of course ; ).  We put on our long pants and sweaters, something you only do in Northern Spain in Augusts, and headed to the coastal capital of Cantabria, Santander.  The city is very beautiful along the Bay of Biscay, and apparently hosts many wealthy families, the most notable being only the richest man in Spain, who started the bank chain, Banco Santander.  We enjoyed walking around the city as the day warmed up, and although we were very tempted to swim in the Atlantic waters, we decided we weren´t hot enough (as the northern coast does not boast for providing a warm swim) and instead headed a bit inland to Cabarceno, a zoo that feels more like a national park as you drive through an enormous park to see each type of animal.  For a while I couldn´t remember if I was in Spain, Yellowstone, or Africa.  But it all came back to me as soon as we climbed a mountain top looking over the lions and baboons on one side, and the coast of Santander on the other.  Then we slowly made our descent back towards our posada.  For dinner we stopped at a small tavern where everyone stared at us outsiders as we walked in, the bar being only old men sitting down to play cards while the rain picked up again outside.  I thought I should mention that my favorite meal, which I had tonight, is "huevos fritos con patatas y morcialla" which is fried eggs with french fries and "morcilla" which is a mixture of rize fried with pigs blood, so that it looks black.  I thought I`d put that in there for Ava, who last time said I didn't try any amazingly different types of foods. Well Ava, have you ever eaten pigs blood? Mmm mmm mmmmm! ; )

Goodness that looks like a lot of writing! Luckily that`s all I have for now.  We`ll call it a day and wrap it up with just a few photos.

Hasta luego!

Bárcena Mayor

Carmona - the mountain pueblo we have spent the last two nights in

Our posada in Carmona

Arriving at the beach in Santander with Guillermo and Belen

With the whole family above the beach in Santander

With the Garcia Ruiz family outside a castle on the coast of Santander that used to be a retreat for Spain´s royal families, but now it is used a summer school for college programs - beautiful!

Making friends with some zebras (pronounced "thebras" in castillian) at Cabarceno.

Just to show you how high the zoo/park Cabarceno got at some points.  Looking down at some baboons and lions...in separate quarters of course ; )