Day 25: Thursday May 10 2007, Cuevas El Buxu and Picos de Europa, Spain
Noon Position:43 degrees 21.252' N latitude, 005 degrees 05.709' W longitude (El Buxu Cave, Spain)
Bob: The day dawned hazy and foggy, but there didn't seem to be a layer of clouds on top so we decided to use the day to drive into the Picos de Europa Mountains in the hope that the fog would eventually burn off and leave us with clear sunny vistas of the mountains. We took the coast road to S. Vicente de la Barquera and then on to Llanes. Driving along the coast road was very scenic, in a foggy kind of way, but also much slower than we had anticipated. There were far more small towns than were listed on our Michelin map, and the speed limits slowed down to 70 kph and often 50 kph for each one. At Arriondis we turned roughly South toward the Picos de Europa National Park on one of the narrow two lane roads marked in yellow on our Michelin map. The one major stop we had planned for the day was to visit a cave with authentic prehistoric cave paintings, reputed to be about 15,000 years old. Although we saw a beautiful example of a Roman bridge along the drive, that was only around 2,000 years old. There are really very few human-made things that even get to 5,000 or 10,000 years old, so I was eager to see these old cave paintings even though Frommer's guide warned us they were quite small and not very impressive. |
Monika: Today came under the motto, "Never forget the 2x factor---if you think something will take x amount of time, it probably will take twice as long!" Frommer's had suggested a nice loop through the Picos de Europa, the mountain range separating Asturia from the rest of the country. According to them, about 3 hours should be enough for the loop. Near one of the starting points they also suggested some non-touristy caves, small but original and they let at most 25 people in per day. So that was our first goal. We took the coast road, which proved to be scenic, but a lot slower than expected since there were a lot more little hamlets each with a speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour. To enforce this in the bigger villages (10 instead of 3 houses) the Spanish authorities put red lights at the entrance, that would only turn yellow once you had slowed down to 50. They also were equipped with cameras, to catch those who tried to ignore them. Well, 2 hours later we reached Cangas de Onis, the starting point for the loop. |
Bob: Frommer's guide had also warned us that a maximum of 25 people per day were allowed in the cave, so we were worried that we might arrive too late and not be admitted, but as it turned out we needn't have been concerned. In fact, when we finally got there and asked the Ranger if we were the first people that day, she responded something to the effect of "You're not just the first people today, you're the first people this week!" Having been there, I can understand why because you really have to want to see those paintings to persevere enough to get to the cave. First off, Frommer's guide is not quite correct about the distance from Cangas de Onis; we measured it at more like 3 kilometers than the 1.5 kilometers specified by Frommers. Secondly, coming from Cangas de Onis there was no sign for the turnoff; we had to miss the turnoff, turn around, and then by chance see the sign for the caves while traveling back East. Thirdly, once you turn off the main road you have to guess where the major road is going up the mountain until you finally reach a small wooden sign on the left that specified the caves were to the left. Fourthly, when you drive up the very steep road to the left about 100 meters, you suddenly encounter a sign for the cave that points straight into a "no entry" one-way traffic sign. That's confusing! We ultimately decided to turn the car around, which was an exercise in space management right there, and head back to the intersection where I found exactly 1 space where I could conceivably park the car and not block somebody's driveway. Now on foot, we had to hike 1 kilometer straight up the side of the mountain in the indicated direction. The road quickly became extremely rocky and finally it turned into what was clearly not a road but rather a hiking path. We really wanted to see those paintings, however, so we persevered and finally found the barred entrance to the cave. The aforementioned Ranger was sitting in a tiny hut just outside the entrance reading the book and seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see her. She only spoke Spanish, but we agreed to pay 3 Euros apiece to get the guided tour in Spanish and she unlocked the door to let us in. In the end, however, we did get to see some 15,000 year old paintings and etchings of animals and hunting. The paintings were similar to pictographs I have seen on journeys in the U.S. and Canada, and were done using either manganese mixed with fat for black and white drawings or ochre for painting red-colored animals. But in addition to the paintings, there were etchings or what I would call petroglyphs where the forms had been incised or caved into the face of the rock. Those were hard to see, of course, except that the Ranger held her lamp in exactly the right angle to have shadowing, and the shadows allowed us to see the etched lines. I couldn't take any pictures, of course (sigh), but it was still great to see some artwork from prehistory. Frommer's guide was correct in that many of the paintings and etchings were quite small. However, it is also true that we were allowed to come quite close to them, sometimes only a foot or two away, and that allowed us to see many of the details that we would have otherwise missed. Some facets of the paintings had been lost to erosion due to humidity from the visits of modern humans, but under the Ranger's guidance we could make out many of the details that remained. The fact that many of the animals were shown as pregnant was, to my mind, quite interesting and I can only speculate what kind of religious or hunting themes had motivated the artists to paint or etch in such a manner. |
Monika: . The caves were supposed to be about 1.5 kilometers to the east. After 4 kilometers we hadn't seen a sign of them and turned around, where 1 kilometer back I did see a sign visible only if you came from the east. We turned into the small road and after 1 kilometer we saw a wood sign, caves 900 meters around a sharp bend; 100 meters later was another sign to the caves and a no entry road sign. We forged ahead only to come to a narrow stony one lane path, that we didn't think our car would like. There was just enough room for Bob to turn around. So we decided to park the car at the bottom and walk the last kilometer. We later found out, that that is exactly what the official brochure suggests (Frommer's didn't mention it). After climbing up the hill on the lane and the last few meters up some well constructed stairs we got to the entrance, where a very nice young lady welcomed us. Unfortunately, she spoke no English, but we seemed to communicate OK. Not only didn't we have to worry about being number 25, we were number 1 and 2 since Sunday! She took our money, closed her little shed, and led us into the caves where she gave us a guided tour in Spanish. There are about 6 sets of pictures in this still active cave. Our guide first showed us a picture of each and then shined her flashlight to the wall where the paintings were. They are small and some not easily discernible. Earlier visitors did not help, thus the restriction to 25 per day and almost no signage on the road. But being in a cave where an ancestor about 18000 years ago did paintings that can still be admired is a wondrous thing. We were impressed and happy we made the detour. |
Bob: Fortunately, walking down the mountain was a lot easier than walking up, and Monika watched for traffic while I turned the car around. Then we worked our way back down that mountain and further into the Picos de Europas. As we had hoped, the mist and haze gradually cleared as we drove deeper into the mountains, and the views were simply spectacular. We wound our way up the valley of the River Sella and it ultimately became a true mountain gorge with steep-walled mountains on either side and the river rushing along below us. The road, of course, was hanging to the side of the mountain and weaving in and out with each rib of rock. Although the drive was fantastically scenic, I didn't realize what a toll the difficult driving was having on me. After another couple of hours of constant switchbacks working our way South into the mountains, I was completely exhausted. Right about then Monika proposed we pull over and have lunch, and I was glad to have an excuse to stop. Some Coke, a sandwich, and some nice ripe strawberries revived me a bit, but after looking at the map we decided to turn around and go back the way we had come rather than make a big loop through the mountains because that would have involved two or three times as much mountain driving by the end of the day. Going back down the mountain gorges seemed a lot faster than coming up had been. Although it was well after noon, the mist and haze at the lower levels were unchanged and we drove back into it as we descended out of the central mountain massif. We didn't get back to the hotel until around 3:30 p.m., and boy was I ever glad to stop driving. Back in our room I threw myself on the bed for a nap while Monika had a snack and wrote her journal, and then I updated my journal while she worked crossword puzzles. |
Monika: By now it was 12 and we headed into the mountains. The Picos are straight cliffs coming up from the River Sella that we were following. They were impressively towering over us. At first there were a few villages, then a few restaurants, and then nothing but the road crossing and re-crossing the river with cliffs on one side and the river gorge on the other with many curves. At one point, the road was being tarred and when I got out to take pictures I got tar on my shoes. After about an hour of driving, we had gone about 30 kilometers and come up about 1000 feet. I suggested we stop for lunch; we had brought pita bread, cheese, strawberries, and Coke along. Bob collapsed on the side of the road. After eating we looked at the map. We had come less than a quarter of the way and this, according to the map, was the straight part. We looked at each other and decided we had seen the Picos de Europa and turned around to Canges de Onis. There we had seen a supermarket. It was remarkable, this morning we had passed through many towns, from hamlets to cities, but this was the only supermarket we had seen; car dealers-many but supermarkets-one. We stopped to get a baguette, some meat and jam for our evening meal and continued this time along the interstate back to our cozy little hotel room. Bob collapsed into bed and I cleaned my fingers from the tar that I had gotten when I tried to clean tar and stones out of the car. I looked at my shoes and they also had tar at the bottom, so I will have to make do with my black shoes. |
Bob: We had dinner in our room and walked back into Santillana del Mar to try to find an ATM as we were again running somewhat short of cash. Although the mist and haze were still hanging around so we didn't have the bright sunny view of the previous day, the town was still quite charming. Monika bought a nice embroidered runner for her piano back home. We almost missed finding the ATM because it was located behind a heavy wrought-iron grillwork. I've never seen anything like that before, but it was both picturesque and secure, if a bit less convenient to use. But with sufficient agility you could still insert a card and retrieve cash, so we did so and thus fiscally replenished we returned to our room for the night. |
Monika: After our evening meal of baguette, pave (turkey) and frommage we went for a walk back into Santillana del mar to find an ATM. We first found a store with embroidered stuff and bought a table runner for the piano. Then we found an artisan store where I picked out a really neat ceramic cake server. Finally we found an ATM set behind bars. Across the street two policemen were talking to a bunch of teenagers so we felt safe enough to get more cash for the rest of the journey. We walked past the tourist information (closed of course) and ambled back to our hotel. |
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