American in Spain

Octopus and Mountains

August 30, 2006

On Monday night, we had a Spanish (Galician, really) delicacy called "pulpo" ("octopus"). Despite being told many times, my parents were still kind of surprised that, yes, it really was a real octopus. But before the octopus, we went to play on the beach some, despite the weather. I was ready to go in the water as well, but everyone else chickened out, so I decided not to.

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That's not a proper "ready" position!

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Who's that stud with the paddle?

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Marga and Erik show how it's done.

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Marga's simple lifting underhand forehand works well in beach paddleball.

And home to the octopus!

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Marga pops out his eyes first.

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The boiling pot awaits.

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The final served dish with olive oil and paprika. Delicious!

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Erik makes his move on the cute chef.

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Oh no! No more wine!

We got up early the following morning, drove two hours (1 hour to cover 80% of the distance, and another hour winding through the mountain roads) to the Ruta de Cares.

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We asked directions to find the right trail.

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Pretty mountains all over the place.

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I have no idea how they built this bridge or why. That's a fast-moving mountain spring running under it.

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Can you spot Paul?

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That crumbling house was a nice place to rest.

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On this path, the cattle have a "caution, human crossing" sign.

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Moo!

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This trail was hard on all calves. The cows and our muscles.

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What a cutie!

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Paul shows off his "bull" hat next to an iberian bovine.

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We enjoyed the rest while the cows went by. But when we started back again, you had to watch where you stepped!

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The vet we had with us said that these little ones could be as little as three weeks old.

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I took lots of pictures.

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Resting at the little house.

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Hola, Marga!

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The old man eases himself down the steps.

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The views were uncapturable by camera.

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A nice Spanish man took this picture for us. I love it.

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We had to leave my father behind because he was slowing us down.

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He's there on that grassy patch, occupying one pixel of this picture. Can you spot him?

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This is zoomed in. Click on the image to see the larger version.

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Why would you build a house there?

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This is a caption reuse, but: Margarita on the rocks.

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This goat was way up on a cliff.

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On the way back, we stopped at the monastary of Covadonga.

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And before leaving Asturias, we had to have some cider. It has to be poured in this way, according to tradition.

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The foreigners tried, but failed.

Off to France for two days! See you soon!