Wandergliding: Hiking and Partying in Spain

We awoke to beautiful sunny blue skies even though the air temperature was still a bit brisk. I get the impression that anything but blue skies is a bit of an anomaly in the south of Spain. We enjoyed breakfast at the only restaurant open in the town and for me it was a lovely eggs and bacon brekkie (with 5 slices of decent bacon) and yummy baguette bread. We then headed off to meet up with Elena’s friends, Elisa and Adelea. Elena met these two women through the union however Elisa no longer works there and Adelea just works for them for a few hours a month. Elisa now helps with recovering drug addicts while Adelea deals with mental ill patients...so they must be two pretty strong willed women.

Looking out of our hotel room in the morning:

We dropped Adelea’s car at our final hike destination in the town of Mecinilla and then set off for the starting point in Busquitar. At first I wasn’t sure how much English Elisa and Adelea spoke and initially the three ladies rambled on in Spanish as I struggled to try and pick out any words I might know. We parked Elena’s car and began our walk. Elena claimed that it would be a short hike, under 3 hours and when I saw the sign that it was only 2.75 kilometres away, I couldn’t see how it would take more than an hour. The trail did take us a bit up and down along ridges that stretched towards a river valley below. Leaves of many trees in the valley had turned yellow adding to the beauty of the area.

Gorgeous fall colours:

On the hike:

Only half an hour into the hiking, we ran into an older couple hobbling their way along the trail. The man began to chat with Elena who is happy to at least give a bit of the time of the day to anyone, a trait I admire in her. I really had no idea what they conversed about but we bid them farewell and continued on. Elena had earlier told me that there was one fountain (fuente in Spanish) that spewed water that was carbonated. I tried to clarify, “Agua con gaz?” (“water with gas” as it’s commonly known as in Europe). “Si” she responded. Well I didn’t believe it so we made a little wager on it at the time...so now we were about to find out who was right. She put an empty water bottle under the free flowing tap and passed me the container. I took a swig and sure enough, even though there were no bubbles, it definitely tasted like carbonated water, of which I am not a fan. Damn, I guess I lose.

The funny tasting fountain:

Nice big agave plant:

By this time, the older couple we had passed caught up with us and again Elena was immersed in a long conversation with the older gentleman. She then said to me that we had been invited for a drink in their nearby house. I jokingly responded “Sure, this hike has been really tough.” Half an hour of walking surely deserves a sit down and an alcoholic drink right?!? It was a chance to see, firsthand, a local Spanish abode and how could we refuse that?

The couple, Manuel and Theresa, I’m guessing are in their seventies. Manuel figures that their house is over two hundred years old...older than my home country Canada! On the bottom floor they converted what was supposedly the stable for a horse at one time into a small bedroom. The wooden beams on the ceiling were old and twisty. The upstairs was modestly decorated with white walls, a small fireplace and it was slightly congested with furniture. Manuel offered us a drink of some kind of local wine that was a bit like a sherry but stronger. Theresa broke out some olives, bread and jamon. Jamon is a local delicacy in the south of Spain made by salting and drying out the hind quarter of a pig. Our discussions ranged from the architecture of the house to global warming. Most of it was in Spanish but Manuel did speak some English as he lived in Scotland for a few years.

Lovely flowers were here and there:

Hiking through one of the towns:

Manuel and Theresa's house:

The friendly couple, Manuel and Theresa:

After about half an hour, we said farewell to the friendly couple and continued on our hike and it didn’t take long to get to Adelea’s car. We headed off for lunch in a small nearby town which Elena mentioned is the highest town in Spain (excluding the Canary Islands). We shared some wine and a beautiful salad...well it started out looking very nice then Elena did a number on it! Finally some tasty soup and then we were on our way back to Granada.

Killing time before lunch:

Jamon (pig hindquarters) hanging:

My lunch partners (from left to right: Adelea, Elena, Elisa):

The beautiful salad before...

...and after:

In the evening we headed to a bar in a neighbouring town for a surprise 50th birthday party for a co-worker of Elena’s named Anna. The bar/restaurant is owned by another friend of theirs, Rocco and it was a perfect sized venue with free food and drinks all night. Anna was indeed surprised and very pleased with the turnout. I spoke with a number of people even though sometimes the language barrier made communication a bit slow. I really enjoyed speaking with 18 year old Jesus, a very intelligent young man who was quite impressed to hear that the basketball player Steve Nash, one of his idols, went to the same high school as I did (even though I had already graduated by the time he was there).

Some of the many party-goers with the birthday girl Anna in black holding a gift: