Aka. "Destination Anywhere", "The Boy and Girl from County Bavaria"... After a very intense year in Würzburg (Germany), I'm back in Salamanca. I probably won't have that many experiences to write, but there's always an excuse to post a new entry!

After the real Easter week it was far easier to find somewhere to stay. Marco felt like going to a quiet place surrounded by nature for a few days, and I had been recommended Las Arribes del Duero, a small region in the north-west of Salamanca famous for its natural attractions and for being very close to the border of Portugal. And that's where we ended up -in a completely god-forsaken place named Aldeadávila de la Ribera. First we had to take a bus to Vitigudino (I really pissed myself laughing when I first heard that name) and there we changed to... something that claimed to be a bus but looked like it was going to break down in the middle of the road. When we got there it was around four in the afternoon. My cousin had recommended me a hotel named La Jara, and according to the owner it was pretty close to the bus station (which was actually just a bus stop). It didn't take us long to get there. However, we were surprise that no-one was there to ask us about our reservation and give us the keys to our room. We rang some kind of doorbell twice, but no-one turned up, so we decided to eat our sandwiches while we were waiting. When we finally got to the room, we were very nicely surprised. It was truly beautiful! Unfortunately, I have no photos of the hotel (you can see them on their official site though: www.arribestour.com, they are pretty close to the truth). Our first idea was to go to the tourist office, which used to be a small church.

Beautiful, isn't it? As it was closed, we went for a walk around the village. We were looking for a quiet place, and Aldeadávila didn't disappoint us. As there was not much to do, especially at that time, we went for a coffee in a restaurant-hotel-café called El Portal de Las Arribes (I really recommend it!) There was no-one there but the two of us and the owner, so we decided to ask that lady whether she could give us some tips on what to do in the village. She was really kind and not only gave us some information, but she also showed us some pics of the main tourist attractions, which were hanging on the restaurant walls. She suggested that we should try to get in touch with a man who was organizing boat trips in the river so that we could see the wild birds and the Dam. Unluckily, the weather was not too good at that time, so going on a boat trip wouldn't be an option. After enjoying the coffee, we headed for the tourist office again. This time there was a very nice man who showed us some maps and told us about the different routes and their difficulty. He explained to us that whatever we did, we shouldn't do it at that time, since it was already six and it would probably get dark soon. One of the possibilities that sounded most appealing to us was the idea of hiring a bike and going one of the easy routes, so we went to a youth hostel in which we had heard that they had bikes. When we went there, one of the ladies working there told us that the bikes were not in the best conditions and showed real concern about us having an accident because of that when she refused to let us borrow them. At the tourist office we had also been told that a nice and easy walk we could do was going to the next village, Masueco, which was only two kilometres away. And that's what we did in the end. Once in Masueco, which looked to us even smaller than Aldeadávila, we had some kind of dinner in a restaurant-motel-petrol station (yeah, most buildings were a little bit of everything at the same time...) When we got out it was already dark and we had to go back to our village. Marco really enjoyed that walk in the wild without a sound, while I have to admit that I was very frightened. After all, I'm quite a city girl... The next day, after enjoying a delicious breakfast in the hotel (the owner is also the village baker, so she made most of it herself) we decided to try one of the more or less easy routes we could do on a bike named Rupurupay. There was no bike, so we had to do it on foot... later we were glad we hadn't tried to cycle... Although it was not too steep, the path was very winding and not too good to drive there...

There were olive trees all around us and once again we were completely alone. It was a shame that the weather was not what you would expect from Spain... As you can see, it was pretty cloudy, we even had some drizzle. Anyways, it was something different, which was exactly what we needed on that holiday. But we must have taken the wrong route or something, since according to the map there was no end, but a point in which it turned so that you could go back. The path led us to a scenic view. I have no clue what its name was, but it was very beautiful. I think I forgot to mention that one of the biggest attractions in Las Arribes is the River Duero, one of the rivers that both Portugal and Spain share. The villages in Las Arribes are famous for being close to the river and therefore having lots of scenic views and cliffs.

After watching the river and taking some pics, we started our way back. Everything was just as lonely as silent as before and the landscape was the same, so we decided to try to take alternative ways so that we could find something new and interesting. When we finished our walk, we sat on a bench at the entrance of the village and ate our last two sandwiches (we had thought that taking some sandwiches with us would solve the problem of where to eat temporarily). Meanwhile, a man with a donkey walked past us and said hello. Marco was really surprised, not only because he had never thought he'd see a donkey in the 21st century, but also because of the greeting. He wasn't used to village people, who have no problem to talk to strangers in a very friendly way. As it was cold and we were feeling slightly tired, we thought we could relax a bit and go for some more adventures the next day. But first we dropped round the same café as the afternoon before for a hot drink. Once again, the lady was very friendly and seemed to be interested in how our trip was going. We loved that. We loved that so much that we decided to have dinner there (some hours later, of course!) As there's not more to say about that day, I can go straight to dinner. It was fantastic. That restaurant was specialised in Spanish food, and Marco had never tried it. Even though he has never been a big fan of meat, he liked the rabbit. And he even found the soup interesting. And as for me, I decided to go 'classical' -fried eggs and ham. I know, not too classy, but it will always be one of my favourite meals. And the dessert left an even better taste in our mouths -tiramisu cake! And we also had some local wine. Then we went for a little walk in the village before going back to the hotel. Although pretty illuminated, there was not a soul on the streets after ten. That's something Marco really liked. Personally, I like lively places better. Another thing that really caught our eyes in that village were the doors, so we really had to take a pic of them (the one you can see below). Some time later, I learnt that they are the stereotypical village doors, but I had never seen so many together.

The next day was our last whole day in Aldeadávila. We stayed there for three nights. We were not completely sure whether to stay for one day longer, but we thought that we might have problems to go back on a Sunday, so we returned to Salamanca on Saturday. On that Friday, our destination was what they call El Pozo de los Humos, a big waterfall located in Masueco. We took the same 2-kilometre walk to Masueco as two days before in the morning. The first part was not too bad, but the second was much harder than we expected. More than a walk, it turned into some kind of hike. The weather was really lovely... maybe too hot for something like that. In order to get to the waterfall we had to go quite a long way down... so that meant we would have to go a freakin' long way up afterwards. Yeah, it was definitely tiring... but it was worth it. In my opinion it was much nicer than the walk we had had on the day before. Ok, maybe this did have something to do with the weather... and of course with the fact that I'm rather fond of waterfalls :) Before we started the way down, we came across a car trying to go up... nearly having an accident. It was really mental to drive that way -it was full of mud and very steep. On our back, we would meet the driver of that car, who happened to be the guide for those who wanted to see the waterfall. It was his first day and he was checking whether it was possible to get there by car... Once we were down there, we took some cheesy pics of us by the waterfall like the one you're seeing. I have to say that it was not as impressive as we expected, since there was not that much water. Anyways, that wasn't bad, since it gave us the chance to jump around the rocks and explore the area a little bit. By the way, the ants living there are huuuuuge. After some more pics and so on, we started the difficult part... When we finally got to Masueco, we were tired and starving. Luckily we had enough water and we came across a water fountain, otherwise who knows what might have happened... It was already five and every single bar / restaurant in Masueco was closed, even the petrol station, so we were forced to go all the way to Aldeadávila. Besides we had run out of sandwiches the day before and our attempt to buy something ready-made in the village supermarket before the hike failed. After a baguette in the sports centre, we desperately looked for a place where they had pinchos or other edible things, for we were still hungry. This made us learn something about people from that village: they are really kind. I don't know how many bars we visited asking whether they had something to eat, but in all of them we were given the name of another bar in which apparently we could get what we wanted. We ended up in the Main Square (well, if you can call it like that), in a café called Evasion. Those pinchos were really tasty and we could even have a coffee with some sweet stuff. We were tired enough, so we didn't do anything until dinner time. For the third time, we went to the same restaurant as the evening before. The lovely lady made some dish consisting of pork meat which was really tender but with a crispy touch. Marco doesn't like pork at all, but he enjoyed this meal a lot. That says a lot about the lady's cooking abilities. As it was our last time in that restaurant, we wanted to say goodbye to the owner and thank her, but she wasn't there, so we had to send her our regards through her husband and son, who were working there on that night. After that, we went on a small photo-tour in the village. It was definitely a great ending for our holiday. On the next morning we went back to Salamanca to spend the last days of my Easter holiday... and I can say they were not bad at all ;)