La Hoz de Santamera

A few weeks ago, I decided it would be a great idea to go hiking here in Spain. I found a tour company that offered day trips and through a Facebook post gathered a group of friends to join me. We were pumped and all set to go until this past Friday when we realized that it would be raining the next day. We decided to go anyway, and although the Saturday was dreary, wet, and cold we managed to make lemonade out of lemons and had a pretty good time. It helped that shortly before getting on the bus, I bought a 60 cent emergency poncho from a Chinese dollar store. Any photos of me make it look like I'm wearing a garbage bag, but it sure saved me on the hike.
Please don't judge me for my crappy-ass map. Hopefully it will give you an idea of our route, although we definitely did not walk in straight blue lines through the countryside. Our trip started about 2 hours to the Northeast of Madrid in the village of Riofrío de Llano then meandered through hills and fields to the teensy tiny village of Santamera. The region through which we hiked is known for its honey, so although we did not see any bees, we did see some of the bees' favorite things, including wild lavender. Throughout this first half of the walk, the rain had stopped but the ground was still a thick mud. The mud was actually kind of neat because it changed colors every few yards ranging from a deep purple to practically white.Santamera is surrounded by hoces (ravines/gorges) and provided a gorgeous view as we descended to lunch. Unfortunately, it was raining at lunch time and apparently the entire village (maybe 10 buildings total?) shuts down in the rain. This meant that we could not sit inside to eat our lunch. Lauren and I found refuge under a slide and made friends with "Salchicha," the local dog. (Lauren picked the name.) Salchicha did not get any of our food but did accompany me when I went in search of a bush to pee behind.After lunch, we took a side trip to walk through the hoces, but the rain and wind had really picked up at this point. Plus side of wearing a trash bag = end up less wet. Downside of wearing a trash bag = when windy, it's noisy and gets caught on pointy plants.
At this point, we were starting to get a little tired, and when Megan realized that we still had about 2 hours ahead of us, she got so upset that she had to take some private time. Luckily, she quickly recovered and celebrated with a rousing rendition of "Like a Virgin." The second half of our walk was decidedly colder and wetter and more miserable, but we managed. The views switched from ravines and autumnal trees to fields upon fields of dead sunflowers. I feel the landscape reflected our mood well.In the end, after 14 km, we ended up in another tiny village called Imón where we put on what dry clothing we had and snacked on olives and tortilla before heading home on the bus. Other natures spotted (in addition to dog): prancing deer, vultures, a gazillion snails.

I don't regret the hike at all and am looking forward to planning more in the future, but we all agreed that next time we're going to wait to sign up until we see the forecast!