Hola!
Whew – we’ve had a mighty busy day; not sure where to start! Possibly, at the beginning…Up at 6 a.m. to be out of the hotel by 7 a.m. – which means missing breakfast, which neither of us are happy about – but we have a 10 a.m. appointment at the Cueva Hornos de la Pena and wanted to be on time. Wound our way to the autovia toward Santander, and we were off! I can only say that it is a VERY good thing that we left early, as finding the cave was more than challenging! I’m not sure why Emmy had such a difficult time, but she kept trying to get us to drive over pedestrian walkways, or through fields with no roads…fortunately, Robert is an expert at navigating through stretches like that – he can see the broader picture, and he managed to get us on the right roads at last – although we did make it through some very small and odd patches of pavement. Finally found the road to the cave – which of course meant parking at the bottom of the hill and then walking up…why is it always that way with caves, we ask ourselves. Arrived about quarter to 10, and guess what?? No one there!! Oh my…fortunately, there was a number posted on the entrance hut, and I had thoughtfully remembered my cell phone … so, R called and we were told to just wait where we were, and someone would be there…so…a very nice man named Jose showed up about 20 – 25 minutes late. We were thinking – if we hadn’t called, would he have shown up at all?? Fortunately, it seems like the reservation system works, though, as he had our names – and only our names on his list! The really great thing was that we had our own private tour – just the three of us in the cave!
Cueva Hornos de la Pena is a decorated cave, not a painted cave – that means that while the cave was forming and still wet, someone drew figures on the walls with either a hand or a stick, but there are no paintings. We entered into a very wide cave mouth, and right away, there was the first figure – very plainly at the cave entrance, a horse had been drawn that is estimated to be 22,000 years old. Also, unlike any other cave we have ever visited, there is evidence that the people actually lived part of each year in the exterior portion of the cave, but used the interior cave for their decoration. This cave has to be the wettest we have ever entered – mud in lots of places, and it was for the most part, very narrow with very low ceilings – lots of bending and stooping. In addition to the horses there were aurochs and deer, as well as the figure of a man! The man was very unusual – it appears that he was wearing a bird type mask, and a tail – it is surmised that perhaps he was some sort of shaman or leader of the group – but as there is no way to confirm, you can just let your imagination run wild!! Additionally, there were several “symbols” on the walls, basically straight lines within a box, which are just seen in this area and are very unusual. Jose turned out to be a wonderful tour guide – his English was spotty, but he spoke Spanish very slowly, and we did manage to understand what he was saying – and as we spent more time together, his English got better and better, so a good time was (I hope!) had by all!
By the time we were finished here, as we started so late, we figured we would probably be late to our next appointment, which was another 48 km away in the village of Ramales de la Victoria, especially as we had to grab some sandwiches for a really quick lunch. And we were. Made it to Ramales, which is also the cave of our last appointment of the day, Covalanas, but absolutely no signage to Cullalvera! R finally found someone in the Tourist Information Office who showed him how to find the cave, as well as told him that they had now closed for their lunch break…so…we went into the local grocery store looking for Magnum Classics – but could only find the boxes of four … which we bought…yes, we did! Drove back to Covalanas and parked and ate our ice cream bars … all four of them!! (I know…no dessert for us tomorrow!) We had about an hour to kill, so we napped in the car – beautiful warmish and breezy day – and we both needed naps!
Then, Cueva Covalanas … from the parking place to the cave entrance was about 750 m. – most of which went straight UP! UGH! Finally got to the top, where Victoria, our next tour guide, was waiting for us! This time we were joined by another couple from Connecticut, who were spending their holiday in this area. They told us that it had rained for the entire last week, and that it was good to see the sunshine! We were VERY thankful that our weather had been so terrific – especially in England and since we’ve been in Spain! So…into the cave, the four of us and Victoria. She was great. Her English was excellent, and she really loves showing people around. Covalanas is a painted cave, and is unusual because of the large number of female deer that are represented. The cave itself is very dry (looks rather like a slot canyon in AZ, with rounded openings where a river had at one time rushed through) and the painter(s) used the rock to help get some perspective into their paintings. As there were no lights in the cave – just hand-held flashlights, Victoria was able to use the light to really demonstrate how the paintings must have looked in flickering light thousands of years ago! The figures seemed to be animated. Very unusual, and very, very interesting!
By the time we were out of Covalanas, it was almost 5:30 p.m. and it was over 2½ hours back to the hotel…whew…very tired, even though most of the way was on the autovia and we made good time. Back to our Casona about 7:15 p.m. and started the search for an Italian restaurant. (R had suggested Italian food earlier, and once you get the taste for something…) Only problem was finding a restaurant that was open! So…the best place in town, Café Nonna, wasn’t answering their phone – turns out, they don’t open until 8:30 p.m. We looked for several other places, but couldn’t find information anywhere on opening times – and nobody answering the phone! Tried Café Nonna once again, and miracle of miracles, someone picked up the phone! So – back into town we went. Finding a parking space was impossible, so we finally parked in one of the centrally located underground car parks and walked the quarter mile to the restaurant. By this time it was 9:15 p.m. – and I think we were the first people in the restaurant! R ordered vegetable soup, followed by ravioli with spicy sauce. I ordered Ensalada Italiana and spaghetti bolognaise – and the salad came with Thousand Island dressing all over it! YUM!! I have SO been missing creamy salad dressings! Dan was able to find me a honey mustard dressing at their house, which was great – but this was such a terrific surprise! All food very good, but I did want to get out of there while it was hopefully still light enough to get back to the hotel. Didn’t quite make it, but it doesn’t get really dark here until almost 10:30 p.m. so driving wasn’t too difficult. Now back, blogging, and hopefully getting to bed VERY soon!
Have moved first appointment tomorrow to the afternoon, so that we can have breakfast, a leisurely check out, then move to our new hotel in Suances before our first cave of the day!
A general observation. The scenery along this part of the north coast of Spain is breathtakingly beautiful. A lovely coastline with Rias (inlets from the sea at the mouths of rivers), backed by high, craggy limestone mountains inland, all very green with forests and fields. Neat farms, gorgeous stone buildings. What a place!
More later!
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xxx
Gorgeous scenery and the caves sound incredible. I can't believe 22,000 years old. So glad that you got the Magnum Classics and only a crazy person would turn down second helpings!
ReplyDeleteBrenda