We left early Saturday morning and drove to an area of Segovia province in Castilla y Leon. We would spend the whole weekend in this area, starting with kayaking on a river through a deep canyon where protected vultures liked to nest. It was a pretty brisk morning with alot of wind and not enough sun, but overall it was fun.
After a tasty lunch in a small pueblo nearby, we headed out to another pueblo where we were staying the night and attending some local festivities. After 30 mins of down time, there was an optional trip to see some petroglyphs that are approximately 17,000 years old.
Can you see the petroglyph?
The glyphs happened to be on a hill, so we were able to see great vistas classic to the Castilla y Leon area.
Also in the same general area is a recently discovered Roman wall that had now been partially excavated.
It's amazing to think of all the different people that have lived here in Spain over thousands of years!
After dinner, the pueblo's festivities began - an encierro de toros. At midnight 6 bulls and their accompanying castrated bulls ran through the streets, along with a few brave (or foolhardy?) young men. The encierro continued the next day at the local bull staduim. At first the bulls ran through the stadium a few times (along with the young men), but then the real show began.
One bull was let out at a time, and any young man that wanted to would taunt the bull and then run away/avoid getting gored once the bull was provoked. This continued for about 10 or 15 mins, then that bull would be put away and the next would come out. All the while the local band was playing and the stadium was slowly reaching capaticy. It seemed like the entire population of the town (about 1,000) had shown up! After about an hour of this we left, had some bocadillos (Spanish sandwiches), and headed back to Madrid.
Overall it was a very interesting weekend, and it definitely reminded me that I'm a long way from home. But that's okay.
¡Hasta hora!
Maren
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