Week 2: Málaga, Real Alcanzár, Rio Tino Mines, Gruta de las Maravillas, Linares de la Sierra

I know it is a lot, so read what you want to.... (but lets be honest with ourselves, that´s everything).

Málaga: The program took us to Málaga this past weekend. It was pretty much amazing. We pulled up to a 4 star hotel about 5 mintues from downtown. Maybe the nicest hotel I´ve ever been in. After we checked in, we were dropped off downtown to hang out and eat lunch. We walked down to the beach and ate ON the beach. I had a fish that was cooked whole over a fire about 20 from me. I had to cut of the head, pull out the bones, the whole 9 yards, and it was delicous. After that we went to picasso´s museum to see some of his artwork. Some pretty mind blowing stuff. We saw everything from his sketches, to his sculptures, large artwork to the famous pieces we all know. Afterwards, we went out to eat at a very nice Italian restaraunt before a night out on the town. The next day, we went hiking through the mountains. We were actually hiking though an area that used to be completely submeresed. After the technonic shifts of earth´s plates, the mountains were created and what we were hiking on was lifted up and the lake drained away. Very fun. After that it was back to Sevilla.

Real Alcazár: As I´m sure you all knew, Spain has had many different peoples rule over their land. You have the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims who had the most lasting impression. What we walked through is where the current Royalty sleeps if they are in seville. The building was a mixture of early gothic and muslim arquetecture. There was room after room of intracately hand cut, designed and built artwork and stone flooring. After seeing the house, we went outside to see the most amazing garden ever built. It would take you hours to walk through it all. It is filled with hundreds of trees, plants, and flowers, not to mention all of the fountains and pools scattering the garden. Words can´t begin to describe it, so you should just go to Spain and check it out for yourself.

Rio Tinto Mines: These mines had been in service for over 5,000 years until recently when it was deemed to be depleted of the many, many minerals, gold and silver that used to mined. What is especially interesting about these mines is that it has scientific importance. The rover that went on mars found the same chemical makeup that is found in the water of the rio tinto (red river) in the mines. The importance is that in our river is the only place on earth that has been found to have this chemical makeup, the same as that on Mars. For those of you slow on the uptake, that means that there used to be water on mars. Cool stuff

Gruta de las Maravillas: This was an underground cave that was made open to the public in 1914. Originally discovered by a monk in the early 1800´s, it was originally full of water. Over time, much of the water receded, making it possible to enter inside. After going inside and discovering there was much to be mined, they began. Not long after, they realized how georgous the caves were and wanted to preserve them because the mining was destroying everything. Not long after they began preparing it for the public to preserve the caves which are unique, different than any others that have been found in the world. The caves are inside a montain, under the cathedral where the monk that discovered them lived. I wasn´t allowed to take pictures (or touch or sneeze or breathe, you get the idea), but suffice it to say many of the caverns were over 100 meters in height, and more than double that in width and length. It was about 30 minutes of walking, seeing the amazing mineral desposits and pools of 100% pure, drinkable water.

Linares de la Sierra: This was a small small villiage town of about 300 people that really showed us the meaning of old spanish towns. The roads were hand laid with cobblestone. We were told that instead of having doormats, the homeowners would lay intricate stone designs in front of the doorways to be used for wiping feet instead of doormats that would be ruined in the winter weather. All the houses were white-washed to protect the houses from the extreme summer sun. Suprsingly, there was a lot of construction going on, but I was told that much of it was to resotre many of the plazas and fountains to their original quality. One of the fountains that we saw was for the washing of all the towns clothes. The pueblo is very old fashioned, and becuase of this, this fountain is where all the women would go. They did not work, so they all washed the clothes together in order to gossip and hang out with their friends. I was told that the men once got so jealous that they drained the fountain so as to make the women to the laundry in the house... All in all, very quiant, very different from sevilla, haha.

My friends and I are going to Portugal this weekend to the tourist spot of Lagos. Expect stories and pictures soon!