Spanish National Parks: "Parque Nacional de Ordesa," A Natural Treasure in the Spanish Pyrenees

One of many spectacular trails in Ordesa National Park

Americans are rightfully proud of their country's natural treasures. I always tell Europeans that if they want to see something truly different, truly American when visiting the U.S., they ought to forgo the trip to New York City, Miami, or California (a.k.a. L.A/San Francisco), and instead visit its National Parks out West. It embodies the core of our "frontier culture" and national psyche. Well, the truth is this advice goes both ways. How many Americans or Brits have travelled to Spain, toured its many clubs beaches, and never thought to do rural or mountain tourism here, of which Spain has much to offer? Americans come to Europe to see its cities and its "civilization" or "history", and as a consequence by and large reduce its "natural beauty" to either quaint towns (with splendid backdrop), Mediterranean beaches (with splendid clubs), or Alpine ski resorts (with splendid ski lifts).

In the spirit of counterbalancing this tendency, I offer you today this photo entry of my recent visit to Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park, my first Spanish national park to visit, but most certainly not my last. Located in the Spanish Pyrenees, Ordesa is an incredible natural beauty, and also a cool mountain retreat, to escape the heat in the summer. In 1997 it was even marked a UNESCO World Heritage site, and should be added to the list of places to visit for those of you fortunate to stay in Spain for a year or longer. It is a wonderful place for "senderismo" (hiking).

On "Gran Recorrido" trails,
look for this mark

To arrive there you drive to the small town of Torla, to park your car and take a bus up to the Ordesa National Park entry grounds and opening "pradera" (prarie). (In the summer season park officials close this route to individual cars, in order to control the quantity of people who frequent this very popular family vacation destination.) There are many trails in the park (you can find more information at this website, clicking on the "Senderos de Gran y Pequeño Recorrido" link on the right). We chose to do what is the most popular destination: "La Cola de Caballo" (the horse's tail), a three-hour hike to a waterfall and three hours to return, thus one of the "Gran Recorrido" trails or "GR #", marked by red and white stripe paint.

A panoramic view of Torla, the small Pyrenees town which is the
launch point for bus rides up to Ordesa National Park

The view from the Ordesa Park entry "pradera"

On this trail you are effectively following a river up to its source in the mountains, which means you are nestled in a valley between magnificent mountain peaks and cliffs with periodic spectacular views of waterfalls ("cascadas"). This particular trail is a real treasure because of the varied terrain that you move through…

Los Hayedos:

Early on you enter a series of forests or "hayedos" (forest area, which comes from the word "haya," or beech tree). This part is heavily shaded, which keeps the strong mountain sun off your back!

 

About an hour in, you arrive to the first series of waterfalls. They make for a great stopping point, to snack, and you can walk down some steps to see the waterfalls up close.

Then you pass along a cliff trail, to arrive a the first raised valley, which has lots of wild flowers and is nestled between striking orange and white cliffs.

Las Gradas de Soaso:

The next destination along the trail, and in my opinion one of the two main contenders for "most incredible sight" along it, are the "gradas" or waterfall steps, a series of waterfalls formed as the river flows down a bunch of terraced drops. They are nice place to stop with the family for a picnic.

El Circo de Soaso: 

Continuing up a steep trail, you suddenly arrive in the land of the Wizard of Oz… That is, a brick road appears in place of the dirt and rock path, things level out, and you are in a valley high up in the mountains, with even higher mountains and cliffs surrounding you. Frankly, there is no way to capture with photos the peculiar sensation you feel in this enclosed, elevated valley. It is incredible, beautiful, surreal, and gorgeous. (Don't take my word for it! Come visit it!)

These two stray cows had the upper valley all to themselves,
living a perfectly happy life away from the herd.

Confession: I found myself humming songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music (1965)… such as "Climb every mountain", or "The hills are alive with the sound of music." Cue panoramic shot of protagonist spinning, pull back camera to reveal breathtaking mountain backdrop.

At the very end of the "circo" (geological term, "cirque") and end of our trail is the Cola de Caballo, a waterfall whose dispersed arrangement on the rocks resembles the hairs of a horse's tail. Though not as impressive as the "gradas", it is still a nice final destination for a trail. (Though the more adventurous and travel-tested can continue up a steep trail to the "Refugio de Góriz.") Up above the waterfall is the "Monte Perdido," whose name "lost peak" is ironic given that it is one of the tallest in the Pyrenees (3355 meters high), and hardly easy to loose.

Although it is technically prohibited, it is simply a must to stop at some point along the river and take a foot bath. The water was so cold, I found it impossible to keep my feet under the water for longer than 10 seconds. But, man, were my feet happy to cool off there after heating up along the trail. (Among the other things which are prohibited, but which I saw tons of Spaniards and other park-goers partaking in: taking dogs with you on the trail, bathing or walking in the river…)

And yes, there are animals and plants to enjoy. We saw a chamois on the bus ride up. Though in general we didn't see much wild life beyond birds. There were lots and lots of beautiful butterflies! What our trip lacked in fauna, it more than made up for in flora. Lovely wild flowers… There are edelweiss flowers here, though we didn't see them this trip, since they bloom in the winter. (Cue Sound of Music sentimental scene, lone man with guitar singing, "Edelweiss, edelweiss, every morning you greet me…").

And lots of interesting trees…

Since the hike takes around 6 hours overall, you also experience a change of light over the course of the day. The shadows on the cliffs shift, the light in the forest changes, and along with it the mood shifts, adding a different texture to sights you've already seen, but don't tire of seeing again...

When we got back to the forest, there was this incredible, magical blue light. I snapped this photo, which only partially captured the surrealness of it.

By the end, my feet were killing me, but my eyes would have kept my body there all day. I knew I would miss these majestic cliffs...

HAPPY TRAILS!

Fallas 2012 Has Officially Commenced!: Videos and Important Terms and Dates

As of yesterday, Fallas season has officially started! Sunday very early in the morning falleros from all over the city congregated at Carrer de la Pau to toss their hand fireworks for the first "despertà". At 2PM the Valencian Ayuntamiento hosted the first official "mascletà". (Starting Thursday, March 1st there will be a mascletà every day all week long at 2PM in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento up to and including March 19th!) And then Sunday late afternoon there was "la cridà" ceremony, including sky acrobats and fireworks, formally inaugurating Fallas.

The 2010 Na Jordana falla, which you can see burned below.

I've already given you a rundown with photos of many of the different elements of Fallas (part 1 and part 2). If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth? Here I include three videos I recorded back in 2010 of major Fallas features.

• Mascletà, Day 2 of Fallas 2010, Valencia:

We enjoy going to the mascletàs (an aural fireworks show). This video was of Day 2 (March 2, 2010). If you are wondering why the video starts to shake towards the end, that is a combination of the vibrations from the gunpowder explosions, and my hand shaking as I tried to determine which was more important, the video or my hearing!

• Pre-cremà fireworks show, Torres de Serranos Falla:

Every falla does a pre-burning fireworks show. Imagine, within the fifteen minutes after midnight there are 700 near simultaneous miniature fireworks shows! (Well, actually, many casals coordinate their schedules, staggering the cremà of nearby fallas so that you can tour around and see more than one burning on the final night.)

Rather than show you the 5-minute Na Jordana fireworks show, which was admittedly pretty impressive, I've uploaded this shorter video of the fireworks show that the falla next to the Torres de Serranos gave shortly after the Na Jordana cremà. The show itself was not as elaborate, but it is pretty cool to see it next to Valencia's iconic Towers.

• La cremà de Falla Na Jordana, midnight March 19, 2010:

This is the video I took of the burning of the Na Jordana fallas, one of the top ten biggest fallas in Valencia that year. According to Valencians' high standards, it was not a "successful" cremà, since it took almost two minutes for the flames to really envelope the falla. Still it was quite impressive.

Author's thoughts: One problem with watching the burning of these large fallas (as opposed to smaller more local fallas), which you may notice, is that there are more foreigners than locals in the audience. On the van are a bunch of rowdy Americans. And note the moment around minute 3, right when the firemen aim their water hoses, when the crowd almost bolted because the inexperienced people thought that the bonfire had gotten out of control.

I highly recommend you check out my posts on Fallas at The Spain Scoop.

I've been guest posting at The Spain Scoop a four-part series on Fallas. Two posts are already up, and I include here for you some useful information from them. The first entry has a dictionary of Fallas terms:

Fallas dictionary of terms: 

• Falla: The festival Fallas is named for the large papier-mâché art statues called a “falla”, a Valencian word whose latin roots link back to fire. These art displays originated as piles of old furniture that were set out on the streets and burned as part of spring cleaning. They have evolved a lot since those modest 19th-century roots.  

• Ninot: This is the Valencian word for each paper-mâché puppet or figurine. A large falla might contain hundreds of ninots. They will all be burned on March 19th except for one ninot from the 1st-place falla, which is saved and placed in the Fallas museum.

• Fallero/fallera (mayor, infantil): These are the people who make it all happen. You will see them in tents nearby the fallas during Fallas, celebrating with their families and neighborhood friends, and parading through the streets in traditional attire on their way to the Virgin with their flower ofrenda. There are two females, falleras, chosen each year to be the main representatives for each casal faller, a young one about 8 years old who is the fallera infantil, and another around 20-30 years old who is the fallera mayor. 

• Casal faller: This the local neighborhood committee of "falleros" who spend the entire year preparing their street’s falla. There are hundreds of these casals, each with their own independent falla and neighborhood festivities. 

• Mascletà: This is what I've taken to explaining as a "sound fireworks show", since it is more about the noise it makes than lighting up the sky. (Indeed, they are usually done during the day.) The city will do an official mascletà once a day during the festivities, but each casal faller will also have a neighborhood one at least once during the week of Fallas. 

• Petardo: This is the Spanish word for hand-fireworks, and you will be hearing a ton of them throughout the week of Fallas. It is not uncommon to see groups of kids in plazas setting them off. Masclets are the very, very loud ones, which resemble (in sound) a bomb going off and can set off car alarms and wake the whole neighborhood. 

• Traca: This is the word for those strings of fireworks where you set off one and it triggers a series of small snapping fireworks. On la nit de la cremà, the burning of most fallas will be initiated by a traca string of fireworks. 

• Castillo: Though it literally means “castle” in Spanish, this is also the word for a fireworks show in the sky. There is at least one official castillo each night the week of Fallas, normally around or just after midnight over the riverbed. Again, each casal will have its own castillo in the neighborhood, usually the last night.

The second entry provides a schedule of events:

Calendar of important events: 

February 26th (last Sunday of Feb.): La despertà (“the awakening,” a collective hand-fireworks event with all the city’s falleros) at 7:30AM on Calle de la Paz, and La Cridà (which means “the call”, the opening ceremonies with all the falleras mayores, followed by a fireworks show) at Torres de Serranos early evening… These two events formally open the Fallas season.
March 1–19th:   Each day at 2PM, in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento, a public mascletà is held.March 15th:  La plantà, when each neighborhood mounts its falla, officially inaugurating the public viewing and street festivities.
March 16th & 17th:  La ofrenda, falleros from different neighborhoods, at different times and places throughout the afternoon, parade to the Plaza de la Virgen to place their “offering” to the Virgin Mary.
March 16th, 17th, 18th: Castillos, a.k.a. fireworks shows, at midnight to 1AM, or so. The show on the 18th is the big one, called La nit del foc, the night of fire.
March 19th: La nit de la cremà, the night of the burning, when all the falleros across town burn their falla. (In a later entry I’ll explain the traditional procedure and schedule.)

The third and fourth posts at The Spain Scoop, not yet up, will direct you to the best fallas to see and give a day itinerary. I'll post that information for you once they come out.

Things are heating up, people are feeling festive, and fireworks are going off all the time and all over the place. It's exciting. It's Valencia. Hail Fallas 2012!

Los Reyes Magos, and then Rebajas: The Three Kings, a Day of Gift-Giving in Spain

Today is el Día de los Reyes (the Day of the Magi Kings) in Spain, a.k.a. la Adoración de los Magos (the Adoration of the Wise Men), a.k.a. El Día de la Epifanía (the Day of Epiphany), a national holiday and the country's traditional equivalent to Christmas in the U.S., that is the day kids open gifts here. Today the three wise men kings, Melchior ("Melchor"), Caspar ("Gaspar"), and Balthasar ("Baltasar"), bring their gifts to all the kids throughout Spain much the way Santa brings them to kids in the UK and U.S. on the 25th of December.

For a laugh, I recommend
"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" (2010),
a Finnish movie about the "real story"
behind Santa Clause.

From a Christian point of view, Reyes makes much more sense than Christmas as a day of gift-giving. Today, the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, is the day that, according to the Bible, the three wise men, a.k.a. los reyes magos, arrived to the little town of Bethlehem, a.k.a. Belén, bringing the newborn baby Christ gifts from the Orient… specifically gold (gimme!), frankincense (an incense), and myrrh (an embalming oil and symbol of death… kinda morbid gift, huh?). Compare that to a story about a jolly ol' elf who lives in the North Pole, flies around with magical reindeer (some of whom have glowing red noses), cavorts with other elves, and who spies on children (to know if they are naughty or nice) in order to decide whether to give them candy and sweets and tooth cavities or a lump of coal.

The Three Kings offering Christ their gifts in Valencia's Townhall belén

I'll confess that, before moving to Spain, the only time I ever thought about
the Three Kings was when singing this Christmas carol ("villancico"),
"We Three Kings," and usually then the parody version.

I'd say that, in practice, Spaniards are split about 50/50 on those who gift-give on Christmas and those who do so on Reyes. (Of course, _everyone_ celebrates _both_ days, both of which are national holidays and important family meal days.) Historically and traditionally, however, Reyes is _the_ important holiday on this gift-giving front. So traditionalists and maybe the more religiously-inclined lean towards Reyes. But non-christians and pragmatists often lean towards Christmas. Let's face it. Giving your kids gifts on January 6th, and then having them go to school often the very next day is a bit of a killjoy. A lot of parents thus choose to give gifts on December 25th so that their kids have the entire holiday break to play with them. (While there's no official war between Christmas and Reyes, Papa Noel and Los Reyes, it makes for an interesting question to poll your Spanish friends: which way do you swing?) 

If you are looking for a Bad Santa (2003) style comedy about Reyes,
you might enjoy Noche de reyes (2001), starring Elsa Pataky among others,
and which, if I remember correctly, even has a hilarious scene where
some guys dressed up as the Three Kings beat up a Santa Claus.

Much like I mentioned earlier with Santa, you can see the Three Kings climbing
Spanish balconies in their quest to bring kids their gifts for the holidays.

Reyes has picked up all the accoutrements of Christmas, what with the competition and opportunity for marketing. Kids write letters to the Reyes. Some people playfully move the Three Kings pieces of their home belén the days leading up to Reyes, to simulate the journey of the kings closer to Christ's crib. It can be cute to watch the RTVE news people play along the week leading up, talking as if the Kings are real while practically winking at their audience. (This morning on the national radio they were interviewing different kids across the country about what the Reyes brought them, which was pretty cute.) The night of the 5th, kids might leave drinks (e.g. wine) for the Three Kings and something extra (milk or bread) for the camels, much like American kids would leave cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. And kids open gifts morning of the 6th. They might find carbón (coal) if they've been a bad kid… but here it's a sweet, carbón dulce! There will be a family lunch, and following it parents will bring out the roscón de reyes, a round donut shaped cake with candied fruit ("escarchada") on top, often filled with a cream or "caballo de ángel" (Angel's hair jam) and surprises hidden underneath. (A lot of families have the roscón in the morning for breakfast.) Whoever gets the slice with the "haba" bean buys the cake next year, whoever gets the king or figurine is king or queen for the day. (Thus, roscones are usually sold in hornos with a paper crown.)

What a typical roscón looks like

Last year my mother-in-law got the figurine (a hippo) and my father-in-law the haba.

One thing that has fascinated me as an outsider is Balthasar, the, by popular tradition, black king. Spain has only very recently experienced a surge in immigration, and with it an increase in the number of Africans who now make up its 21st-century population and look. So finding this African face among its traditional holiday images is kind of intriguing. Now I don't want to start any big arguments about this, and I definitely don't want to insinuate any racial politics into what is effectively a happy, friendly, family, and all-around positive time of the year… but I can't help but share with you my early and initial mild shock at the use of blackface by white Spaniards dressing as Balthasar. Until recently this was a common practice in Spain, and for that matter it is still quite common in a lot of places here. For you Spanish readers: in the U.S., the use of blackface is _heavily_ associated with racism, since it was commonly used to play the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" and other such slavery and segregation era stereotypes. Such is the stigma that Robert Downey Jr.'s clearly comical parody of its use in Tropic Thunder (2008), still managed to receive criticism for making light of the subject. In Spain not so much. I don't think anyone would see any harm in a Spaniard "dressing up" as Balthasar with blackface. So this is definitely a cultural difference to keep in mind. 

American actor Robert Downey Jr. in blackface for Tropic Thunder (2008)

An example of Balthasar-by-means-of-blackface in Spain,
all in good fun and not remotely intended to be offensive.

However, the figure of Balthasar today has also become an almost irresistible opportunity for improving race-relations and Spanish attitudes about sub-Saharan immigrants in Spain. Subsaharan immigrants are increasingly invited to play the part of Balthasar in official Reyes visits to elementary schools or in the arab tents ("la jaima") where kids go to make official requests of the Three Kings, or at the official Three Kings parades ("cabalgatas"). While I don't want to knock any Spaniards out there who still rely on blackface to play Balthasar, my personal hope is that Spain will embrace this growing population of new Spaniards of African origin by further incorporating them into what is a model of multiculturalism: three wise men of the Middle East Orient, each of different kingdoms and of an exotic—Zoroastrian—faith, coming to offer their congratulations to a family of migrant workers persecuted for its innovative religious beliefs.

¡Felices Reyes!

A "jaima" with lines of kids eager to speak with the Three Kings (all played by subsaharan immigrants),
set up by Valencia's Bioparc this year in the Parque de Parterre next to the El Corte Inglés Colón location.

Postscript: Did you not get what you wanted for Christmas Reyes? Have no worries! Tomorrow, January 7th, is the start of Rebajas season. Rebajas are a strictly regulated affair in Spain. Discounts have to be for a certain minimum amount, and covering a certain percentage of store products. And they can only take place on specified dates. January (and now much of February) is _the_ big Rebajas season, and this year there's talk of discounts of more than 50% off. So it's not quite as great a deal as gifts from wise men, but I'll be out there shopping for those things Santa and the Three Kings forgot to get me.