Excursion to Aracena!

If you're wondering what my main picture is all about this week, especially this being primarily a blog for my theatrical experiences, keep reading! I've done a lot of traveling during my month and half in Spain already, and am hoping to continue during my semester of study abroad with API. This past weekend, my friend Rachel and I went to Aracena, a small pueblo near Portugal that is famous for the Jamón Museum... and its beautiful caves!

taken from the van...lots of pine trees and purple flowers

On Saturday, we met up with this group based out of Granada that does a lot of volunteer and ecological work, as well as hiking excursions, for a 4-hour bus ride out to Aracena. That alone was really wonderful for me...we drove through massive hills of trees and pastures full of bulls and pigs, all of which was very calming after weeks in various cities. It reminded me of home, but the countryside was so much different from home that the time passed very quickly as I watched out the window.

We stayed in a fairly nice hotel; I think we might have been the only people staying there this weekend, but it worked out well. The first order of business was lunch together, and since everyone brought bagged lunches we sat right in the hotel. Everyone on this trip was really, really nice and shared all of their food with everyone else and talked to us in Spanish and English. We were the youngest people in the group, and the pace was slower than I expected, but that's never a bad thing!

We went to las cuevas on Saturday as well! We started out with a really thorough geology exhibition, with fossils and rocks from all over the world. I thought of my Dad quite a bit while snapping away at pictures- I didn't put many of them up online, but I'm sure we'll go through them when I get back :)

The caves themselves were incredible. I had never been in real caves before, so it was a really great experience- it was awesome, in every sense of the word, and made me feel completely dwarfed in the world. I also thought about the earthquakes in Japan and prayed to God that there wasn't one while we were in those caves. I soon forgot about that worry, however, with the beauty of the stalagmites and stalactites, the colors, and the water. We weren't exactly supposed to take pictures...but there was no way to resist.

 Our guide and organizer for the excursion, Julian, told me a lot about the various types of salt and chloride and things that made up each formation, and pointed out the rare formations as well as the most interesting looking ones (he was much better than the guide from the caves themselves!) My favorites were the biggest rooms with bodies of water, because of the colors and reflections that came from those.

There was also one room that had some interesting formations, to say the least! One of the ladies I was with pointed out that these particular stalagmites and stalactites are probably the most life-like representation of the phallus that we will ever see in nature (other than the real thing, I assume). There were lots of funny postcards about that part of the tour!

After the caves, we hiked up to a church (la Iglesia Prioral de Castillo) with ruins of a fort right above it (Fortaleza de Aracena). It was raining and sunny, and we saw a beautiful double rainbow! I knew then that this trip was my favorite experience of all, so far. The views from the fort were also really wonderful.

 Today we started off with the Museo de Jamón, the Museum of Ham, in Aracena. Jamón is a very important part of Spanish culture, and all of the carnecerias and grocery stores have big, expensive legs of Iberian ham hanging from the rafters! The museum was all about how the pigs are fed (a diet of acorns makes for the best jamón), how they are slaughtered, how the meat is cut and every piece is used, and how important the whole process is to the Spanish culture. It was a little sad, because I really love pigs, but I have established a disconnect between those cute pig faces and the ham and bacon that I also really love.

Next stop was la Cuenca Minera, a large mining region in Huelva with active mines, a museum, and an old hospital site. The geological exhibits were, again, really cool! Lots of rocks and models of how the mines evolved over time. The Romans had a mining site here, and there was a replica of a mining passage and some of their techniques; there was mining equipment from more modern periods, which made me think of the U.S. With all the ancient history that Europe is famous for, it's easy to forget that they went through industrialization just as we did! 

The best part of the mining site was definitely actually seeing the hierro, the red mineral that the mines are there for. The Minas de Riotinto are called this because the river that the mine rests on is tinted red or black from the hierro. Apparently NASA has done some research regarding this water and the mineral itself, which was pretty cool. I had noticed, during my time in Spain so far, the reddish earth in general, which is very different from my Vermont soils, but this was more than burnt orange: it was really distinct! 

Overall the weekend was a success. I feel a lot more comfortable now that I've spent some time in Spain outside of the cities, and Rachel and I practiced a lot of Spanish and made some really great friends from all over Europe. Before this weekend (not to sound too dramatic) I was really living day by day, frustrated with the residencia life and the bad weather. Now I feel a lot more optimistic about my time here! I hope to go with this group again in April to another excursion to el Parque Nacional de Doñana, which is also in Huelva. Check out more cool pictures on my flickr site!

The gift shop actually sold bottles of the red-tinted river water.