So my second tennis class went a whole lot better than the first. I didn’t hit any balls out of the court and into the woods like I did the last time. I think I am finally getting a feel for what I am supposed to be doing. I have another class tonight so we shall see if I am actually learning something.
Friday was the beginning of the camping trip I was talking about. Five teachers from my school, two that used to work at my school when I was here two years ago, Cal and myself were the participants in this adventure. We went to some mountains that are in the next region over, Andalusia, and called Sierra de Segura. In all, the trip took about three hours with the majority of it being us driving through small villages on the way up through the mountains on two-way streets big enough for one car. Upon arrival we quickly noted that we weren’t in Aguilas at the beach anymore. We picked our rooms, settled and ate dinner. Around 1 in the morning, we decided to take our first excursion. We ventured out in the woods that were right on the other side of a stream that ran beside our house. Needless to say, we got lost on our way back. We spent probably about 20 minutes just roaming around trying to find our way back. It was pretty funny because we could see the lights from our house but couldn’t get back to it. I took a couple videos of the night adventure but I am not going to post them because everything said is in Spanish and you can only see something every now and then because we only had 2 lights. Once we made it back, we just chilled out and eventually went to bed.
Saturday was our big day. We got up and had a big breakfast in preparation for our hike. We headed out around 11 or 12 in the cars to a spot that was closer to the particular area we were going to be hiking. We parked the cars on the side of the road and began the hike. The hike up took about 2 ½ hours to reach the top of the mountain. The views along the way were incredible. If I have enough time I will put up my pictures today or tomorrow. They said the area we went to has the most greenery in the entire south of Spain. Once at the top we chilled and had lunch. The vultures noticed our presence and kept flying around and checking us out. When it was time to head back down, three guys who were familiar with the area decided to take a different route back that would take four hours. The rest of us returned the same way that we came. Once we made it back down someone finally had coverage on their cell phone and got a call from the other guys saying that they got lost and were heading to a different town that they found. One of the teachers headed to go pick them up and about 90 minutes later everybody was back at the house. At the end of the day the three guys who went on the other route walked/hiked around 30 kilometers and the rest of us did 20 kilometers, which is around 12 miles I think.
Sunday was our chill day. We got up, ate breakfast, packed, cleaned and then drove to the next village to see this museum that was an old house typical of what the people in that area lived in in the past. After that we headed out. We stopped at a restaurant to eat and watch the last Formula1 race of the season. I think that if Fernando Alonso, a famous Spanish driver, won or came in 2nd place he would win be number one for the entire season. He lost. After that it was back on the road to continue down the mountain and back on the highway to Aguilas.
Everybody had a great time and enjoyed the time out in nature. It was also good to see some old friends who aren’t at the school anymore. I think everybody was ready to get back to the warmth of Aguilas. In the pictures you will see that the weather was incredible. Very hard to believe it was the middle of November and we were walking up a mountain in t-shirts and sweating. Good times