Just Another Spanish Sunday (Torres Vigías de Barbate)

I usually don't do much on Sundays. In fact, I usually just leave the house to go running and then not again until Monday morning, when I leave to go running. It's not like I plan it, it's just that I have nothing to do and most of the time I don't make a conscious effort to get out. I was feeling kind of lame; I wanted to feel productive on Sunday for once, so I signed up for a hiking trip. The city has a hiking and 'multi-adventure' program that offers two or three trips of varying difficulty every Saturday and Sunday. The prices are 17€ and 29€ respectively. The price includes the bus ride there and back and a guide or two to lead you down the right paths. This program works with several hiking/rowing/sporty groups around the city. The group you are traveling with determines the place from which the bus will leave. One of the groups leaves nine-tenths of a mile from my piso and others leave from the other side of town (I haven't run there, so I can't tell you the exact distance). Your piso's distance from the pick-up point could be a big factor in your choice of hiking trip when you consider that the bus leaves at 8 or 8:30 AM on Saturday or Sunday.

I was up for a challenge, so I chose the 15 km hike called Torres Vigías de Barbate (The Watchtowers of Barbate) whose bus pick-up location was on the other side of town. The group's website describes the hike like this:

El Parque Natural del acantilado y pinar de Barbate es un auténtico tesoro ecológico de la zona. Una bella y estupenda extensión de pinos piñoneros replantados a principios de siglo para frenar las dunas móviles que avanzaban por la ladera del monte.

Indelebles torres vigías que permanecen ancladas sin tener ya piratas enemigos sobre los que alertar. Un lugar desde donde quizá, un día, hace 200 años, alguien se quedó mirando hacia el Oeste, hacia aquella batalla naval que libraban las flotas inglesas y franco-española frente al cabo llamado Trafalgar.

Sendero cómodo que se puede recorrer, sin grandes excesos físicos y con vistas muy gratificantes.

To sign up you go to the group's website and entered your first name, last names (in Spain everyone has two), ID number, e-mail, phone number, zip code, and agree to the terms of use. I attempted to enter this information online, but received an error message that what I entered was not correct. I assumed it was my ID number (which is different because I am a foreigner), but I entered all the information again and submitted it again to see what would happen. This time I saw the error message said that my last names were incorrect: last names must have at least 5 characters and no more than 50. This presented a problem, since I have only one last name and it has only four characters. Since I have no money to buy a vowel (Alex), I used those 50 characters to explain that I had only one last name and it was only four letters. I pressed 'submit' and away it went.

On Sunday morning I met my friend, Katie, near our pisos and we took a taxi to the bus pick-up near the main train station. It only cost about 8€ total, so it was worth the extra sleep we got. We loaded the bus on time, but didn't actually pull away from the bus stop until 8:50 AM. And then we had to stop to fill up on gas. Once we were on the road, we traveled for an hour or so and then (in true Spanish fashion) stopped for a quick breakfast/coffee/bathroom break. By the time we got to Barbate it was 11:50 AM.

The route was absolutely awesome to start. It was right by the ocean and supposedly the grey area you could see at the edge of the ocean was Africa. We walked for a little bit and came upon watchtower #1.

Tower #1. I don't know who those men are.

The view from behind the watchtower was better:

A little further down the path we saw:

A giant beetle

El mar

We had reached the end of the first leg of the hike and we were faced with a decision: stay at the beach until the bus left at 4:30 or continue on the hike and see the other watchtower and a great view. We didn't think there was a wrong answer and so, since we came to hike, we chose to hike.

The second half of the hike was an hour uphill climb to tower #2.

I haven't seen a lot of watchtowers in my life, but yet, I was still disappointed when I saw this one. It was not what I was expecting after reading the colorful description of the hike. ('Extra, extra, four men swindled!') I thought we would hear some harrowing tale or even get to enter the tower. Nada. No one climbs uphill for an hour to see this tower on purpose. The view is nice, but so is the view from the beach.

Where the Battle of Trafalgar took place

We ate lunch near the watchtower. One of the hikers had brought a bota of wine and passed it around for all to enjoy. I think he knew the disappointment we were all feeling after walking uphill for an hour and giving up an afternoon on the beach, only to feast our eyes on a giant concrete cylinder marred by graffiti.

The trip down went a little faster. At the bottom, the bus was nowhere to be found so the guide told us to sit down, relax and have a coffee while we waited for it. After about a half hour the bus rolled up near the cafe/restaurant and honked. We hopped on and headed down to pick up the beach-goers, who were eager to hear where we had been and what we had seen (to which the tour guide replied, "You should have come with us if you were so curious.") After about an hour of travel, we paused for another coffee/bathroom/snack break. (I remember this about my study abroad experience. Every time we took a bus trip we stopped for a snack/coffee. It was always at the truck stop with the bullring in it. Somehow, no matter where we went, that truck stop was on the way. I regret that I have not had the pleasure of returning recently.)

We rolled back into Sevilla around 7:30, took the city bus home and reflected on a productive Sunday.