A Marvelous Day at Ojos del Diablo
I recently had a fabulous day hiking in Cantabria, Spain, a short bus ride away from where I've been living in Bilbao.
I joined a website called Workaway earlier this summer where you can meet fellow travelers and get advice. Through the site, I heard from a local that the mountain Pico Candina near Laredo in the Cantabria region was a fantastic hike. It's colloquially known as the Devils Eyes, and a beautiful beach down below waits for hikers after they summit. That is where I went by myself a few days ago, and it was the most beautiful place I've seen in Spain.
With a car it would have been easy to get to this beach, but I had to take the bus. For about 4 euros I rode from the Bilbao Intermodal bus station to Laredo, and later I took a local bus to the base of the trail. I was the only passenger, and the bus driver was a young woman who said she had done the hike before too. Inside my back pack was my lunch, camera, bathing suit, and two bandanas. I wrapped one bandana around my head and the other around my neck (like my Dad often does) and set off.
The start of the hike was hot, and a few folks passed me as I was going up. One couple said they had visited Toronto before. This mountain was covered with sharp white stone, but it was no problem for the goats who had already reached the first peak when I arrived. The group of black goats bleated every so often and the bells around their necks jangled in the wind. I often see farm animals alone on mountains around here, and I think it might be a scenario like the famous Vermont dogs who hike the Stowe Pinnacle alone. There were some horses even further up the mountain who were sitting in the shade.
The breeze picked up the higher I went, and eventually I came to a bowl-shaped area. On one side was the famous arching stone which they call the Devils Eyes, but I walked down through the center and walked towards the top of the mountain. There I saw a spectacular view of the beach below and the light blue waters which surrounded the coast. A few boats were anchored in the water, and you could see umbrellas in many bright colors.
I also noticed two small caves at a higher peak closer to the sea, so I decided to hike up and eat lunch there. On my way I passed a Frenchman who had walked from Laredo rather than taking the bus like me. He turned and went down, and I headed for the caves. Nobody else was around. After reaching the summit and climbing down somewhat, I got to the mouth of the caves. They were smaller than I expected, but from inside you could get out of the sun while still seeing the full view looking east to Bizkaia and Bilbao.
I got out my lunch, and arranged my bag like a pillow against the rock. I took a little nap up in the cave, and it was quite relaxing to look out over the mountain at the small figures of hikers down below. That day I had brought a tortilla de patata cooked at home, three apples, peanut butter, two baguettes, and peanuts. By the evening I'd eaten everything, and the shelled peanuts were especially nice as I waited at the bus station.
In the early afternoon I had finished all of my water in the cave, so I started hiking down to the beach. The rocks were loose and hard to balance on, but the view was wonderful.
I had a bus ticket back to Laredo, but as I learned, there was no bus stop nearby where I could get picked up. I would have had to stand on the side of the road and wave my arms, something I didn't look forward to. But I postponed that question until later since I wanted to find some water down by the beach. There's always ice cream and water for sale around these beaches. The hike down was nice on the opposite side of the mountain, and it gave a great view of the tall cliffs. Many hawks and scavenging birds also circled high in the sky in a thermal air current.
I skipped hitting the beach right away and went to the nearest cafe to use the bathroom and charge my phone. They were playing a soap opera very loudly on the TV, but otherwise the simple restaurant was rather quiet, and I rested in the shade. I felt like I should buy something, so I got some candy for 1.5 euros and watched the soap opera. It was great, but eventually I got myself up and went to the beach.
I knew I had a bus ticket for the ride from Laredo to Bilbao, but how could I get there? Despite having a ticket to get to Laredo there seemed to be no bus stop nearby, and the place I was dropped off (on the side of the road) was on the other side of the mountain. It seemed like I would have to hike two hours along the shore to get back to Laredo which was okay with me. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to swim at the beautiful beach.
But there was another way! It involved getting up the confidence to ask a stranger for a ride. I really would have preferred not to ask for a ride at this nude beach, but a few folks were partly clothed, and I walked over to them. The first 3 families were not from Laredo, but a group of students my age said they'd take me. What's more, they wanted me to play beach football with them for the next hour! It was a blast!
Using their heels in the sand, they sketched out a rectangular soccer field and passed around the ball to warm up. One of the boys asked me about my skill level, and I told him to just wait and see. If on a particular day I'm no good, then I don't let anybody down. And if I make some good plays on the pitch then they seem to be even more impressed with a foreigner like me. That day I really did play well, and I enjoyed it very much too.
The beach was magical with calm water, a light breeze, and the sun slowly sinking behind the mountain I'd just hiked over. Before playing soccer I had gone swimming in some shallow water that was heated by the sun among some eroded rocks that were great fun to explore. Walking to the water's edge in my bathing suit, I realized it was probably best if I swam naked like many of the swimmers. I'm glad I did.
After playing soccer, the shade from the mountain had just about covered the whole beach. Only one area of the water was still lit by the setting sun, so we enjoyed a few minutes to swim all together (throughout the soccer game and swimming the young ladies who were with the boys laid on towels at a distance and later took photos of each other near but not in the water). While swimming after our game, the Spaniard boys asked me many questions about Canada's climate, our topography, common jobs people have, and about university tuition. They were very friendly.
Afterwards we all packed up with about an hour until by bus departed from Laredo at 7:40pm. Walking barefoot up the beach path to the parking lot, I chatted with one of the boys who later sat with me in the back seat as we drove to Laredo. It was so nice to ride in a car! For the past three months I'd only been in a van one time while driving to the English language camp where I volunteered in Navarra.
As the day came to an end I got the phone number of one of the boys who said he might be around Bilbao next week. They all lived in Laredo but studied at one of the two main universities in Bilbao. That night I stayed home and rewatched Slacker (1991) by Richard Linklater. I also formed a plan to sleep on the beach in order to catch some early waves with my surf board. Would that plan come to fruition or would I be swept out to sea? Find out in the next blog post!
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