Aracena

Saturday morning I went with on a program excursion to the town of Aracena in the province of Huelva. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there were murmurs of some very impressive caves. First we stopped at an enormous mine that is also the headwaters of a river. The river is called “el riot into” because it is red with all the clay that’s stirred up from the mine. This mine contains copper, sulfur, and something like “gozan”, which can supposedly be refined and used in commercial gold and silver. Our guide said the people of the region thought the water to have healing powers and keep you young, but unfortunately now there is so many different particles dissolved in the water that if consumed now, it would kill you. But NASA did go to this very lake and do some tests to see if the water might be similar to water that could be on Mars, and see if it could support life.

After the mine, we headed to Aracena, and started off with a couple hours of free time to have lunch and explore the city. Aracena is known for its pastries and ham, taken separately that is. After hearing this, Mark and I decided it was a place for us and resolved to spend every minute of free time eating pastries.

However a stroke of luck hit us and a couple guys (Joe and Tom) told us we should climb up the little mountain with them that sits above the town. They said they saw something up there that “looked neat”. Although I like pastries, I really like adventure, so we decided the sweets could wait.

It wasn’t a very difficult or far way up the mountain, but once we got high enough we could see that on the top were ruins of something that I’m guessing were once a lookout for the town. It was an incredibly great idea to go up there because the views from the top were absolutely great, and we got to see the town’s first church, which also sits on top of the mountain. From the top, you can see that literally every building in the entire town is white with a red roof, making Aracena perfectly fit my preconceived images of Mediterranean cities. It’s great to have moments like this where you realize just how close you always are to something adventurous and out of the ordinary if you only look around.

It's not much of a feat considering the stones basically form a ladder, but I did climb up this fortress wall.

After we headed down the mountain, we deserved some pastries, and pastries we had. I only took one (dark) picture, but I had a lot more than you can see, and we basically had to drag Mark out of this place.

Walking through the streets, it became evident that Aracena loves ham. There are designs everywhere of a flag that is a strip of ham with fat in the middle, and they actually have a ham museum. Unfortunately, I didn’t try any ham, but did manage to get a photo that gives you an idea of the importance of ham in Aracena. This statue is right out in front of their town hall.

The Aracena town square^^^

Although our trip up the mountain was great, what turned out to be underneath that mountain was breathtaking. Aracena has a cave system called “The Cave of Marvels, and the name could not be more accurate. I felt like I was a character in the caves edition of “Planet Earth”. There are big caverns and enormous stalactites and stalagmites, and large pools of the clearest water I’ve ever seen. I would’ve taken a hundred pictures for you (…me), but no photography is allowed in any area of the cave. I did pull a few pictures off google that will give you an idea.

Aracena overall was great, and after a nap on the bus ride home, I was excited for the evening that lay ahead at the festival Carnival in Cadiz. The night would not disappoint.

One last look at our mountain from town^

And a glimpse of the picturesque drainage Aracena boasts^