Look, there's an eagle!

 

 

...actually a vulture :). Today we've been in Vulture Land, known by it's christian name as "Los Hoces del Duraton", a natural park that is home to hundreds of species of birds, out of which the most famous is the Griffon Vulture. 

Equiped with an anoying GPS system (sometimes I wonder, how would it be if your GPS would argue with you...something like"Now turn right...now turn right...I TOLD YOU TO F....TURN RIGHT, cabron:D"), familiarly called by my friends "tomtom" and that was quickly replaced with "javijavi", who not only could read directions from a map, but knew a lot of details about the places we were visiting, we drove up to the Segovian hills, where this area lies.  

 Despite "los chubascos dispersos" (a scary expression, I know, it basically means rain that falls down with the frequency of the chinese drop, or more exactly at the time you just took off you jacket) and the dizzy wind, we had a great time in the open air.The same team as last time and the same spanish fun.

A nice waterfall... 

 

The walls that guard the "hoces" :)

 

 

The long and winding road...

 

 

 I didn t realised how much I miss climbing...And the calcar in the parc (forbiden though to all rock climbing activities, because the birds nest on the wall) looked very appealing.  A lace of small holes and little caves.

 A part of the park was forbiden to access, because the vultures have just nested again (they do it two times per year, prolific buggers), but we still got to watch them from above the tracks and hopelessly try to get  a good picture of them.

 We went then down to the small city of Sepulveda, 1 km away for a traditional lunch. Again small animals, cooked entire only with butter and some salt, this time it was lamb for the guys (lechazo or cordero),  and salad for the most fainted hearted. Something that HAS to be tried there is a cake called "Ponche segoviano" (Segovia is just 50 km away) - i can only describe as heavenly. Walking then a bit on the streets we discovered nice churches and a wonderful view of the canyon. I also had to explain my  spanish friends the smell of lilac..i cannot believe somebody could argue with me "it doesn't smell" :). And I found my 5 petal lilac flower which is supposed to bring me luck for this year...or was it 4 :)

 

Sepulveda

 

 

Nice shadows 

 

Que no se dice "cagarse" :)))))

 

 

 After fighting with the need to have a siesta we crossed the park to what used to be an "ermita" (i don know how to say in english, it s where hermits used to retire and meditate) of San Frutos (and his two brothers, less able to perform miracles and hence less mentioned:). The ruins are nice, but the view of the rivers Duraton and San Juan that one gets from there it s priceless. I don t want to imagine what kind of fish are those that we have seen in the waters from about 60 m high:).

El Duraton

 

An "artist's view" 

 

 

 

 After some silly jokes about this area being the vulture's ghetto (since it s not forbidden for tourists and hence the poor birds don t have the same privacy as their neighbours from down stream) we recuperated the death car and drove to Pedraza, another small medieval village in the Segovian area. The town would have been a lot better in the sun, it has nice stone houses and nice stone streets (and no, the people living there are not called "stoned"). It was really fun to see a hoard of ladies coming back from a wedding service with 4 inch heels walking through the irregular pavement. Ah, the small mean smile of the ones who cannot wear those :). 

 

Pedraza Plaza Mayor

 

 

The price of elegance...

 

 

 

 Under a cloudy sunset we drove back to Valladolid, because some people have a marathon tomorrow, some have to work and some have to go to Salamanca to get back their supersonic toothbrush.

 

El driver en el sunset