We escaped hitchhiking hell and arrived in Huelva. A little ways from Huelva there are some pretty nice beaches, so we stayed a few days there. We stayed with this awesome guy and his roommates in their apartment. The guy was pretty fun to talk to, though we really didn't do much with him since he had recently hurt his ribs and was incapacitated. We decided we would go to the beach, so he offered us his bicycle and his roller blades. The roller blades were WAY too big, but I put them on and we worked our way through this nature preserve to the beach. My feet were killing me by the time we got there. The ride was really lovely though. The path was covered by stunted pine trees which provided our only relief from the scorching mid-summer sun. When we arrived at the beach, we walked along and played in the water a little. There was also a festival going on in one of the little towns, so we walked around and ate some super fresh seafood. Clams and shrimp are a perfect way to refresh before rushing to catch a bus back to town.
After a couple days we left Huelva and went north to the mountains around Aracena. We did our best to hitchhike and catch buses around these mountains, but we again struggled to get a ride. One night, we had to ask a family who owned a hotel to let us stay there even though it was closed. Nobody would pick us up, and it was our only option.
We did get two rides while in this area. One ride was by this elderly man who only spoke about how dangerous it was for him to be picking us up. Javier kept reassuring him that everything was ok and that we would do nothing to him, but he was still concerned. The other ride was from another man, who was much more generous. He actually went out of his way to take us to a couple of places he was not going to. He gave us a little tour of the area. Very cool. Otherwise, hitchhiking kinda sucks in southern Spain.
We finally arrived to Aracena to see La Gruta de las Maravillas - the cave of wonders. Aracena is a nice town. There is a large hill in the center which has a ruined castle on top, and beneath the mountain (literally beneath) is a very magnificent cave. We walked around the town, and then decided to take a tour of the cave. It was not a long tour, but some of the formations are very impressive.
Emerging from the darkness of the cave, we took a hike up to the top of the hill to check out the castle ruins. The view of the city was beautiful on such a perfect clear day.
