Back on Dionysus Deck

06.27.09

On Friday I hiked in Grazalema National Park, about two hours from Cadiz. We traveled there along the White Town Route; the rural villages were all white-washed to repel the hot Mediterranean sunshine. There were clusters of white houses were alongs ridgetops, in the bottom of valleys, and along a reservoir underneath the palm trees. We passed fields of sunflowers; I guess it's a major crop here? Grazalema is one of the most famous natural parks in Andalucia. The town that took its name is in the valley beneath it and used to be known as cadiz el Chico (little Cadiz); it was the second largest "city" in Andalucia at one time. It was also the provider of all the blankets used in the Civil War by the Northern army; every one of the soldiers had one of Grazalema's famous water-repellant blankets. The park area actually receives the most rainfall in all of Spain, as opposed to the rest of Andalucia, which is known for being really dry. There used to be a forest of cork trees, which were then harvested for economic purposes and replaced with pine trees. It was weird hiking up the mountain at first--I didn't notice that I was underneath the same trees as I hike under back home for a while. And when I did, it was such a weird juxtaposition of the familiar pine trees and the unfamiliar rocky hillsides that for the whole hike I was intrigued. The park authorities are actually replacing the pines, a fire hazard with the needles, with oak trees, one by one. The tallest peaks of the mountains were 165,000 and 155,000 m (?, I think) high. We didn't go up to the top of either peak (we had a very wide range of abilities in the group...some people had never even been hiking before! and others were complaining about their legs hurting when I was a little irked with how many breaks we were taking). It was SO nice to be off of the ship and out of the city; we could see far off villages, but they blended in so naturally to the landscape that it was simply relaxing and invigorating to be up on the hillside. Our guide was from Germany but has lived in Spain for a very long time; he was really interesting. He was telling me all about being a raw food vegan for a long time, and raising his three girls like that until they had to go to start school in Spain and were laughed at by the cheese-loving Spainards so they had to change their eating habits. He also told me that most of the people who bought land in the area around Grazalema were outdoor-enthusiasts and the main activity in the area was hangliding and paragliding. Grazalema is also home of the Pinsap tree, a "living fossil" pine that is a survivor of the past ice ages. After our hike we went into the village of Grazalema for a bit and I was finally successful at ordering entirely in Spanish! (Peach nectar, yumm).

Today I spent most of the day on the beach with some of my girlfriends, taking in the sunshine, sketching some local architecture, and just enjoying being by the ocean. I had gone on a long run along the parks and beaches that lined the shoreline in the morning, so it felt really nice to just relax after all of the (very enjoyable) exercise and walking of the past few days. I spent the rest of the time before boarding the ship wandering through Cadiz's streets finding lunch in the small grocerias (fruit and cheese) and getting helado (mango and dark chocolate!) and then going to explore El Parque de Genoves (a relaxing botanical garden between the ship and the beach along the coast).

Italia in three days! Adios Espana!