A steep ascent and a waterfall (Ezaro and O Pindo, Spain)

(I wrote this yesterday, but have internet today! Tomorrow morning I leave for Santiago.)

I did not end up going to the countryside! Instead I took a bus away from Santiago, towards Cee and Finisterre, and got off at a tiny town called Ezaro, which looked interesting because it is at the mouth of a river. It is also right next to the Monte Pindo, which Sylvia, my friend from La Corunha, had recommended that I hike – I thought, “Excellent! I will experience tiny-town life and also get to go up!” I love going up.

My first walk through town revealed that there is exactly one fishing boat in the port, but many wooden rowboats in the river water just next to the bridge. The rowboats were drifting happily on their lines in the water; the fishing boat bobbed in the waves at the port, probably feeling both superior and lonely. The point is, though, that there were no people in the boats; I have to wait until Monday morning to see the solitary fishing boat in action. The nearby town of O Pindo has a larger port (four fishing boats!), and I will go there in the early afternoon, when the catch comes in.

On my second walk through town I more fully appreciated the landscape – enormous boulder-covered hills loom over the houses, and on Saturday, when I arrived, they were covered with fog, so that the peaks drifted in and out of vision. Nine-year-old Irene would have thought, “Oh boy! There’s probably a hidden entrance to another world in some boulder on one of those fog-covered hills! There’s probably a witch!!” But, tragically, I’ve lost my capacity to imagine (and temporarily believe in) the supernatural when I am in mysterious and old places. So I just thought, “Oh boy! I can’t wait to walk around!”

Ezaro also has artificial large-scale beauty! The river Xallas has been dammed for over a century, and there is an electrical plant up the river a ways, next to huge rocks that used to be covered by a waterfall and are now covered by a trickle. (I have this problem of finding things that I know to be environmentally destructive or exploitative of people somewhere down the line beautiful. Dams are an example – I really think that they are neat to look at! Technologically impressive, and generally aesthetically pleasing, if only for their scale. But this dam took away one of very few waterfalls in Europe that emptied into the sea, and has also been responsible for wreaking havoc on fish populations; last year many died when too much water was released at once. The docks are another example: I love seeing fish coming in, the auction, the boats, and in Vigo I was fascinated by the huge rocks, stacks of aluminum ingots, rows of cars, containers, giant cranes, cargo ships – but I know about overfishing, and mining destruction, and pollution, and that people somewhere down the line are being worked too hard and paid too little. How to reconcile awe and fascination with knowledge of exploitation?) I went into a small museum about energy that the company has set up, and a man there took a liking to me and showed me the actual machine room, which also contained many machines from the past century! Very cool.

I was told that the waterfall would be “opened” at 11:00 that night, so I went back at night and sat with dozens of other people on the wooden benches next to it. While we were waiting, I met Anselmo and Angel, who were visiting from Asturias. They were very friendly, and told me about Spanish history, their work (they train primary school teachers), Spanish food, good Spanish science magazines (excellent!), etc. We watched the waterfall when it opened up – beautiful! loud and misty! I love waterfalls! – and afterwards had drinks at a bar in town. Friends!

On Sunday morning I walked to O Pindo, the town across the bridge, to start my hike up to the top of Monte Pindo (A Moa) from the church courtyard. The first forty-five minutes were toughies – a very narrow, steep path with tricky footing, and the fog made everything just a bit depressing. But then I ran into a family that was farther along the path, and another hiker with two dogs ran into us, and we spent the rest of the day together! Manel (I’m not misspelling it – it’s “Manuel” without the “u”) had explored these mountains thoroughly, and carried not only a fancy contour map but also a bar of chocolate, so we knew we could trust him to be our leader, and mother Pilar, daughter Zoraya and father ____ were full of energy and cheer. We spent a total of six hours climbing up and stumbling down, and it was one of the most wonderful hikes of my life. The fog cleared up as we neared the top of the mountain, and there were rounded boulders everywhere, and little creeks, and green grass, and everywhere we looked we could see distant coast and more green hills covered with windmills (I find these beautiful, too! but I feel better about finding them beautiful). The only misfortune was that one of my flip flops – the most faithful shoes I have ever had, explorers-with on many wild adventures – broke on the way down. I tied it onto my foot with a hair binder, but it was too loose by the time we got to asphalt, so I put socks on and (STUPIDLY) tried to go shoeless on the asphalt. Now the bottoms of my feet are burned (ouch) (really no joke). But I’d do it again! It was a glorious day. When we got into town, we had drinks at a beachfront bar and then stripped to our underwear and bras and swam! Cold, cold water! Yeeeeaaaah!!! I will sleep well tonight.