Posted by Chris Showers on September 5th, 2009.
La Yecla is a narrow pass that many rare birds call home.
As most of you who read this blog probably already know, I recently took a trip to the Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos. What you probably don’t already know is that I made another stop on that trip in addition to visiting the “singing monks.” That other stop was to a nearby natural park known as “El Desfiladero de la Yecla.”
As you can see from the photo above, La Yecla is basically a very narrow canyon which happens to have a path constructed right through the middle to allow visitors to explore its depths. The interesting thing about La Yecla is that it is home to many rare bird species — especially vultures. I didn’t manage to see any vultures during my recent visit; however, I did enjoy the rock formations and the various man-made fountains that are fed by the river which runs through the bottom of the canyon. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 6th, 2009.
A diver emerges from the water after exploration of the Pozo Azul in Covanera.
On my recent excursion to the Cañón del Ebro, one of the stops that I made was in the village of Covanera, located just outside of the city of Burgos, at a place called the Pozo Azul. Basically, the Pozo Azul is a bluish colored karst spring that has a submerged cave underneath it. Indeed, the cave below the surface of the water is said to be the longest submerged cave in all of Spain.
The Pozo Azul is quite famous in Spain amongst cave divers and, to my surprise, a diver ”appeared” from the blue depths after I had been at the location for about five minutes or so and I was able to snap a picture as he made his way out of the water. Once he got out, he told me and my travel companions that several of his fellow divers were still beneath the surface wrapping up their exploration mission and that diving in this location is not uncommon. He also explained a little bit about this history of the area and said that the bluish color is due to the way the sun reflects off the surface of the water and the rocks.
I thought it was really cool to actually be able to see and talk with one of the cave divers who frequent the area and learn a little more about the history of this karst spring. It’s also pretty interesting to think that they began exploring the cave in 1964 and still to this day there are unexplored areas. I would definitely recommend a trip to Covanera if you’re ever in the Burgos area. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 2nd, 2009.
Here I am at a lookout point over the canyon. You can see the Ebro River behind me... I'm squinting from the sun, but that's ok.
I wanted to share with everyone some pictures and stories from a recent trip that I took to the Ebro River Canyon located near Burgos. I took the trip with some other teachers from the school where I work and, honestly, before going I wasn’t really expecting a lot. You see, before we went, the other teachers told me that this would very much be a “rural” trip — we would be visiting small “pueblos” in the countryside and walking along rural routes. Since I consider myself a “city boy,” I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this trip very much… but I went anyway.
After going on the trip, I have to say that I was quite impressed. The villages that we visited were all very pretty, the landscape was very green (I didn’t even know things got that green here in Castilla y León), and I had the opportunity to see something that is a little less “touristy” and a little more “Spanishy,” if you know what I mean. Plus, it was nice to leave the city behind for an afternoon and get a breath of fresh, country air.
Really, I think the pictures from this trip speak for themselves. Below, I’ll leave a few more pictures for you to take a look at. If you still want to see more, you can check out my “Pueblos of Burgos” album on Picasa. Continue reading this post…
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