Misadventures.: Los Pirineos (The Pyrenees).

This weekend we went with our CEA group (technically groups 2 and 3) to the Pyrenees. Once again, I signed up for this adventure without asking even the simplest questions until the night before the trip. My roommate Matt has become somewhat of a nanny for me-- planning trips, telling me where to go and when to do so. I don't hate it. With little to no research on what we were doing, Matt and I woke up at 730 on Saturday (the earliest I've been up since being in Europe), pounded some coffee, and met up with the other CEA kids. We filled a charter bus and headed vaguely northeast. After a few hours we stopped in some little town and were given a 2 hour lunch/exploration break. Seeing as how I've gotten this wonderful camera from Dr. Michael Pang, MD I set out to take some photos. All of this after eating, of course.

Matt and I exploring the town. If anyone knows what this town was called, let me know. It was literally four square blocks, but it was a cool little place to stop and the weather was beautiful.

After riding on the bus a while longer, we began to hit some pretty steep switchbacks and eventually arrived here:

This little town is called Taüll. It's situated in the Boi valley and historically it's famous for its 12th century churches, most notably Sant Climent de Taüll seen here:

In more recent times, however, Taüll is a ski town. The Pyrenees ski resorts are only a few minutes farther up the road. In the summer time tourists come to hike in the nearby national forest. Seeing as we came in neither summer nor winter, this place was DEAD. There were possibly a dozen other people in the town and a good majority of the shops/restaurants were closed. One place that was still open was a very down to earth looking bar/café called the Café Sedona. A strange name for a restaurant in the middle of nowhere Spain, I thought. When the bartender didn't know how to make any drinks, he called the owner who, as he informed me, was from "North America". Imagine my surprise when an Arizona boy showed up! This guy grew up in Phoenix and went to U of A. As we were both from the best state in the country, we hit it off talking about home, climbing, and snowboarding. After our dinner we went back to the bar where the owner gave us all great drink deals and proceeded to get drunk with everyone and occasionally hand out free drinks. Awesome.

In the morning we woke up and "hiked". Our hike was in the Parc Nacional D'aiguestortes I Estany Sant Maurici and was relatively flat for the majority of the time on a well established and might I add, wide trail. We made several stops as not all the members of our group were experienced hikers. We walked to a big lake called Pino Negro (Black Pine). From there we split up into two groups-- those who wanted to do a short, more intense hike to another lake and those who wanted to stay. Of course I continued on, running through fields and forests, kneeling, crouching, bending, and turning in an attempt to take some decent photos. Overall it was a great day, the previous days clouds and rain had disappeared and the sun was out. I hope you like the shots.