As sombras - Lobios - Ourense - PART I

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This was an amazing excursion with a lot of variation to it, from driving with a 4x4 through a dirt track, some hiking, exploring an abandoned old tungsten mine, crossing the border to Portugal to enjoy the local pools and waterfalls, then a river with naturally ocurring hot water and finally to one of the oldest visigoth churches in Spain from the 7th century... a very long day with lots of photos!! but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

I think it's important to mention that up until 9 pm of the previous day, Miguel and I didn't know we would be doing this excursion. Miguel's brother is who invited us, so with no time to prepare we said yes and arranged to meet the following day at 08:00 am. I'm saying this because as you'll see further down we were ill prepared for it, although that didn't spoiled the perfect day we had. :-)

See Map

We all got together in Ourense and from there we continued our jorney in a landrover. When we got to Celanova we decided to stop and visit a local supermarket in order to buy a few things to make sandwiches for the day. Unfortunatelly as we were making our shopping in the supermarket someone bumped into our properly parked car.

The damages to our car

Not too bad. The other car was worse.

Tino and Berni were filling out the forms for the insurance while Miguel was taking photos in order to document the damages.

It took us almost an hour but we finally manage to do all the paperwork and make it out of Celanova to resume our excursion. :-)

Along the way we also stopped to get some water in a very nice resting area by the road.

The views from there weren't too shabby either

And from there we went to Lobios and then onto the dirt track which climbed the mountains for about 10Km. We did many stops along the way to take some random photos. The landscape was amazing.

I think is worth noting that although the place is call "As sombras" which literally means "the shadows", there is no shade whatsoever in the whole area so suncream and a hat are compulsory items in your rucksack...luckly despite of the little time to prepare, we did have those. :-)

After the small break was time to get back to the car and continue our journey in the 4x4, the driving was quite tiring since it was very slow due to the uneven terrain and you keep going up and down, left and right all the time so after a little while you can't wait to put your feet back on solid ground...although the nice views made it all worth it.

 

We found a herd of wild horses along the way and the silly ones decided to cross the road just when they saw us coming, not before nor after it's almost as if they were waiting for us to cross...so while we waited for them to cross it I took the oportunity to take a few snaps.

Once they all crossed safely we resumed our journey through the dirt track

Some parts of the track were in really bad shape

That plus the nice views made us take many mini-breaks along the way

Which I used to take some more photos

Further up the track we found yet another good spot with fantastic views

Down there you can see, with a little bit of imagination on your part, the trekking path people use to walk all the way to the abanndoned tugsten mine from Lobios.

Miguel and I did part of that trek after we visited the mine to check some waterfalls we could see from the track we were following with the car and it was amazing.

We'll be coming back through that track some other day It's a nice path worth every drop of your sweat, because believe me when I tell you there is no flat area around here nor are there any places with a shade where you can take a break for a few minutes and cool down. You'll need to carry pleny of water with you.

Once we reached the beginning of the path that leads to the old mine we parked the car (you can only go by foot) and sat under the only tree in miles around, there was a small stream there as well so we put all the drinks inside to cool them down.

Perfect spot for lunch

Serrano Ham sandwiches... you can never go wrong with that! :-)











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World Cup Champions - 2010

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WE DID IT !!!

First time in history. Spain wins the world cup!! the country goes crazy!!!

I watched the match with a few selected friends. :-) This is us celebrating right after the match.

There was a lot of talking on the Spanish camp about Casillas (The Spanish keeper) and his girlfriend Sara Carbonero. She works for one of the TV stations retransmmiting the Spanish world cup matches and is the one doing the interviews to the players. At the beginning of the world cup there was a lot of talking about her distracting Casillas by just being in the pitch behind the goal. As it turned out it was all bullocks.

Right after winning the world cup, Sara interviewed Casillas (which incidentally is the capitan) and this is what happened!



After drinking the champaign it was time to go and join the party so we headed for the traditional place where people celebrate Celta's sucesses (Celta is the local football team). Miguel and his sister Bea bailed out on us and let Alvaro and myself on our own. We had to walk about 4 Km to join the party but it was worth it!

There was a lot of dancing! :-)

The place was flooded with water from the fountain

On my way back (another 4 Km) I found another area where people were celebrating in a different way...with a football ball!

Oh what a night!! it may never happen again but at least it hapened once in my lifetime. :-)
Totally worth it. :-)


I think I shouldn't end this entry without adding a couple of things:

The first one is Camacho celebrating the Spanish goal (Camacho played on the national team for many years and he even became the coach of the national team on the Japan and South Korea World Cup in 2002.




The second is a piece of history that will probably be shown in Spain time and time again for the next 20 years or so...

Iniesta's goal!





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Pozas de Tourón

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I know what you are all thinking...shouldn't Yago be working by now?

yes, I should. But the weather is so good over here that it would be a crime to give up all this good weather and go back to such a mundane task as working... It's a hard job keeping you informed of all the good things you can do in Galicia but with resignation and the aim to not dissapoint my dear readers I took this hard task upon myself and now I am on a personal mission. To get the most out of this fantastic month of July.

I am not sure whether I already forgot what it is like to spend a summer in Spain or whether we are having an usually good summer this year. Yesterday I went to the beach at 20:30 pm, yes I know, some people go to sleep at that time but it was sunny and still hot and there were quite a lot of people swimming at that time! Not me though....due to my prolonged exposure to tropical waters now I have a condition called 'cold-water-phobia' also known among the scientific community as 'terror al acqua frigus', swimming on waters under 25C may lead to frostbite and amputation of my beloved limbs. Doctors recommend a prolong period of exposure to work in order for the symptoms to subside.

Anyway, just to show you I am doing interesting things: The other day Miguel and I went to an area known as "Pozas the Tourón" which is like Kakadu in Australia but with cold water and without the crocodiles. :-)

They are situated on the old road from Vigo to Ourense close to Melón.

Tourón is a tiny village in the mountains and "Pozas" is what is known in english as pools. These are natural pools created by a waterfall.

Below is the village of Tourón, as you can see it's really tiny and is mostly abandonned nowadays.

This is not exactly a touristic place is mostly known by locals and weird people like my friend Miguel. O:-)
The path to get there wasn't easy.

and you need good shoes to go there, flip-flops won't cut it. The place is magnificient, it was a pity there was a cloud just on top of us that day because everywhere around was blue sky, clouds free.

Due to my condition I couldn't go for a swim and risk a dramatic limb amputation but Miguel who's been exposed to work for a long time had to problem with it. :-)

After a nice afternoon in the pools it was time to get back home but as always in Galicia travelling also involves trying the local especialities and there is a small town called Cañiza which is renowned by its Serrano Ham, so we stopped there to have some tapas before heading home.

This is the "bar" we've tried

The Spanish omelette was fantastic but the ham itself quite dissapointing despite of the perfect cut. Nonetheless we already found the next place we are gonna try on our next trip around this area.

This is what I call a hard day at the office. :-)
Nice scenery, nice walk, good company and then a nice dinner. Perfect day!

I hope I can tell you about many more trips like this one. :-)

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