Cabuérniga - San Vicente del Monte

My friend Debbie (aka Nusense) was going to come to Cantabria (Spain) once again (see related posts) so I decided to check by bike some places near Cabuérniga that we could visit.

I took a FEVE train from Santander to Cabezón de la Sal. Bikes can be carried in the front carriage of the train without problems. My new backpack has some nice features for biking too. I can put the helmet in a especial pocket and I can drink from a tube without needing to stop.

From Cabezón de la Sal, I rode my bike to a small village called Sopeña. The intention was to check out a camping that I had seen on the internet called el molino de cabuérniga. The place looked good and it was very close to the river. At the entrance to the village there was a sign saying that the writer Manuel Llano was born there. That was a very nice coincidence because I had been planning to write a comic related to the Cantabrian Mythology and both the writer and the region is very significative to that.

On the way back north I stopped for a little bit at Ruente, to see "La Fuentona" (literally the big fountain) where it is said that an Anjana (a mythological creature) lives in.

Before getting to Cabezón de la Sal I turned left in Santibañez and headed for San Vicente del Monte through the mountains. In San Vicente there is a youth hostel that I wanted to check out because it looks like a good place to start routes.

It wasn't an easy job but the views of San Vicente, on the skirt of the Escudo de Cabuérniga, were very beautiful. I rode my bike along the Escudo and after a pleasant downhill I arrived at Valdáliga. Then I went back to Cabezón to take the train back home. It was quite a long route in the end (at least for me).

PS: Debz couldn't make it for her plane this time (work), but I visited her in London the following week. Wait for the next post! :)

Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe)

When I came from Poland I had a work meeting related to the project I am working for (FRESCOR) in Santander. After the meeting we took some of the participants to see the highest peaks in the region, Picos de Europa.

Although you can go up on foot without any problem, we decided to take the cable car that goes from Fuente De to almost the top of the peaks.

Some years ago I was afraid of getting on that cable car but now it seems I've become more brave :).

That is the group picture with my colleagues from the point where the cable car ends, really impressive views.

We had a pleasant walk on a glacial valley among the different peaks until we reached a famous shelter known as Aliva. From there, people went back through the cable car again and I decided to go down on foot.. and running!! I thought they would be faster than me but in the end I had to wait for them for more than an hour.

On the way back home, one of the cars had some problems. Nothing that my magic couldn't fix!! (ok, maybe Mihal and Martin also had something to do with it :D).

Bieszczady - Poland - AEGEE Inspiring SU 2008

After my adventures in the Black Mountains (Wales), I took a Ryanair plane from London Stansted airport to Rzeszów (south east Poland), which is a great gateway to the Bieszczady mountains. I was going to spend two weeks in that region of Poland taking part into an AEGEE (the European student organization) event: the so-called Summer Universities (SU). My SU had the special codename of Inspiring SU, which was related to the activities that we were going to do (hiking, yoga, meditation). This is a google earth file with the main places and mountains I visited in the Bieszczady region: Bieszczady google Earth.

I met Santa at the airport and took a bus with her to the center of Rzeszow. She was coming from Latvia (with a change in Warszawa) and had told me to wait for her. In Rzeszow we met Simon, from England, who had came in the same plane as me but didn't know who I was. Then, we took a coach to Sanok where we would meet Maria and Aniko and then changed to another one going to Wetlina, in the heart of the Bieszczady mountains.

In general, my first impression about that part of Poland was very good. People, cars, streets.. everything was as modern as in Spain. The only but were the coaches, sort of old, and that it was a bit hard to find people speaking English (however I think that's a good thing as it means that we went to a place where foreigners don't go so often).


At Wetlina I met the rest of participants and organizers and we had a very nice dinner of dumplings (Pierogi). Then we played some games to get to know each other and remember our names. We were going to sleep in two beautiful huts by a river during the next week and my roommate was going to be Simon :).


Summing up, I had an amazing week in Wetlina: hiking mountains like Polonina Wetlinska, Tarnica, Kremenaros... practicing meditation with Ewa, the Olimpics games (major Pain!) where we had to compete in teams and we painted our faces, the sex-change party, the karaoke night, the European night where I prepared a Spanish omelet (tortilla de patatas), delicious lunches and dinner (very good food in Poland!!), watching the stars at night (I saw some shooting stars!!), having a early bath in the river every morning (one day I saw a deer!), the trips with the funny bus driver who used to take us near the base of the mountain in an overcrowded bus, playing my harmonica in the top of the mountain, exchanging secret messages in the secret messages panel and especially spending the night talking to Maria, Magda and Simon in our "pyjamas" sessions.

From Wetlina we went to Kalnica another village in the Bieszczady area. Some of the participants (including me) decided to go there through the mountains. It was a really hard hiking day because we had to carry out all our luggage with us (thank god I had Lion chocolates to help me out! :D). When we arrived to Kalnica, I couldn't believe it, we were going to live for the next days in a beautiful Shelter in the middle of the forest!!


The days in Kalnica were also great. The environment and the company was just perfect :D. We had bonfires every night where we used to cook and eat sausages (yummy!!!) and sing lots of songs!! Especially good at singing were Thomas and Chris!. From there we made some excursions, for example to Cisna where I made a portrait of almost everybody in a very nice furnished bar.


The days after Kalnica were nice but not as especial as the ones in the Bieszczady mountains. We went to visit some "human" things like a touristic town called Solina, an open air museum in Sanok, the Lancut castle or the city of Rzeszow and we went to fly on a Glider as well (I didn't fly though). Finally, the last day was very emotive. We wrote down nice things for each other in a poster, said our goodbyes and so on.


The only problem with the Inspiring SU is that it is over and we will never be able to go back in time to live it again :D. This is the list of great people that had the luck to live this experience:

Chris, Aga, Yvonne, Eeva, Anna-Lena, Santa, Thomas, Simon, Daniel, Aniko, Jorge, Paola, Magda, Karol, Tomek, Ewa, Kasia and Maria.

Wales - Black Mountains

In one of the first posts of this blog, I talked about my first trip to Wales, when I went to the North, visiting the national park of Snowdonia. I really enjoyed my time there so since then I had been looking forward to going back to Wales. Finally some weeks ago I visited Wales again. This time I went to see the South part to visit a range of mountains called the Black Mountains.


Day 1

Flying from Santander to London Stansted with Ryanair I arrived at Liverpool Street (Terravision coach) at night. After topping up my Oyster card in the automatic machine (pass the Oyster, click "pay as you go", then write the amount and then put the money) I took the Tube to the house of my friend Yvon. Then we took a bus and hang out in Brick Lane, a cool place in London with lots of alternative youth people and indian restaurants. Yvon and I stayed chatting in his garden until late at night. He moved to London some months ago to find a job as architect.


He also introduced me to his two flatmates. Miriam, a girl from Essex (she didn't want to say she was from Essex because of the famous joke) who studied psychology and now is working with mentally ill people. And Duca (from Matilde-Matilduca), the girl above, who came with her new friend Charlie. Although I had a couch for me I decided to sleep on my mat and sleeping bag as a training exercise for the next few days.

Day 2

The next day Duca prepared a delicious fruit juice for breakfast (thank you!) and then she went to work (she is also architect). Then Miriam left out for Paris where she had to spend the weekend as part of her job. Finally Yvon woke up, we said our goodbyes and I took the Hammersmith line to Paddington where I had to take the train (First Western train) to Newport and from Newport to Abergavenny (Arriva train). I bought the train tickets from Spain through the national rail website and then went with my debit card and the reference number to obtain them in paper from an automatic machine at Paddington station. The train from Newport had 15 minutes of delay but apart from that I have never had complains about trains or coaches in the UK.


Abergavenny is a nice little town but without too many things to do. Quite boring I would say. However it becomes a perfect gate to explore the Black Mountains range. As I arrived there at 16:30 I just walked around the village, watching the old castle, the churches and of course, the beautiful British cottages and houses. I had booked two nights in the YHA hostel which was really good quality. It had everything I could ask for. I even had my own single bedroom!!

Day 3

This was the main day in my short trip to Wales and I enjoyed it a lot!. I got up early and had my breakfast in the hostel (it was included in the price!). Then I had to wait for the next bus (9:30) to a nearby village (Crickhowell) where I would start my ambitious hiking route (Google Earth route to Waun Fach and peaks peaks_black_mountains.kmz).


I wanted to go to the highest peak in the Black Mountains, Waun Fach, but before that I would have to pass by 5 peaks more being the first one, the popular Table Top. I used my GPS to take the right paths and it was very helpful. Especially because during the first part of the day the weather was very misty and it was very easy to get lost without it. I would come across with other hikers from time to time and I liked stopping and chatting for a minute with them.


Thank god in the afternoon the sky became clear and i could admire some amazing views of the black mountains.

Day 4

On my last day in Wales I climbed a hill near Abergavenny which has a very particular shape. It is called the Sugar Loaf and it is a very popular hill among the local people. As I had to leave the hostel I took all my luggage with me (a big and a small bag). Soon after starting the route I realized that I couldn't make it with such a big weigh, especially because I had to be back at the train station by 14. So I decided to hide the big bag in a certain point, which I marked with my GPS, and carry on with the little one. The route was very pleasant and I enjoyed it a lot despite the fog which was hiding the beautiful views.


After the hiking route I took the train Abergavenny->Newport and then Newport->Paddington. From Paddington I took the Tube to meet a friend and talk about our adventures. After that I took the underground to Victoria in order to catch the coach that would take me to Stansted airport. I almost missed it because the Victoria line was under construction and I had to run all the way from Green Park with all my luggage!! Finally I arrived at the airport at 0:50 and I slept there on my mat because the check-in for my next adventure was at 5:15 in the morning. Próxima parada: Poland!