Reaching the Summit

As Jack mentioned, we set off for a hike on Monday morning.  Our plan was to leave from Trevelez, a village about 45 minutes from Tara's house, and camp out in an area called Las Siete Lagunas (The Seven Lakes).  Then, we would wake up the next morning and summit Mulhacen, the tallest peak on the Iberian peninsula (which means Spain and Portugal, for geography laymen), and descend back to Trevelez.  To put it plainly, things didn't go according to plan.
All was well for the first hour or so, as we followed the path out of Trevelez, until it basically dissipated. We were at a loss, but we decided to carry on, for we felt pretty confident about the location of Mulhacen relative to where we were.  We knew it was due west, so we headed across the mountain face, while also making our way up where possible.  We walked for hours, going through several different kinds of terrain. There was a length of lush grassland, in which we made our way up along a little stream.  We encountered a bunch of cows in this area, with whom Jack had some lengthy conversations.  Further on, or it might have been before to be honest, we had to scramble up some rocky areas.  This was pretty tough, the rocks were often not as secure as they seemed.  As we got higher, we reached the cloud line, which obstructed our view greatly; this would prove to be one of our greatest obstacles throughout the journey.  Finally, we found ourselves in another grassy area where we could see a ridge above us.  We decided to reach this ridge, hopefully have a look around, and make camp for the night.
We reached the lip of the ridge and saw in front of us a good stretch of flat, stony ground, with scrubby bushes scattered along it.  It was very beautiful, all around us were huge, fluffy, pink clouds. Even more exciting, we discovered a track, which in this area means a dirt road for cars, so that told us we weren't in the absolute middle of nowhere.  And the most exciting, we could see (what we thought was) Mulhacen!  We weren't fully sure, and there was still significant cloud coverage.  It seemed the only thing to do was make camp and hope the clouds cleared out in the morning.  Our spirits were significantly dampened by a malfunctioning fuel canister for our gas cooker; eating cold baked beans has a way of making you feel like happiness is a long, long way away.  Too tired to read, or do much talking, we went to bed as the temperature plummeted.  I went outside the tent in the middle of the night to take care of something, and dew had frozen on our packs.
We woke up the next morning, and during the middle of our breakfast of yogurt and cookies, we saw a hiker going along the track.  We ran over to him and asked him if the peak in the distance was Mulhacen.  We talked for a while in Spanish (actually he did most of the talking), and he said something about the summit and turning left.  We packed up and went along the track as he had.  There was a bigger path up to the summit, but we chose a smaller path that seemed to be more direct, if a little bit tougher going.  At this height, all vegetation had disappeared, so it was a lot clambering over rocks.  We went on for 2 and a half hours, thinking we had reached the peak about 3 times, only to see a higher point in the distance.  Finally, at about 1 o'clock, we reached Mulhacen.  The view was spectacular, although the cloud coverage was still decent.  We could see quite far in the surrounding valleys, and the clouds themselves were also beautiful.  We ate our sandwiches and had nice little siesta.  The satisfaction of reaching the peak, after all of our adventures, was enormous.
Our descent led to a few more problems.  We decided to take the bigger, more circuitous route, back to the track.  We had seen a sign for a path to Trevelez along the track, so that was our intermediate destination.  Just below the summit, we passed right by a huge patch of snow that had lasted from the previous winter.  We threw a couple of snowballs at each other; for me, these kinds of moments were invaluable along the hike, as they eased some of the stress of being lost and cold for a good amount of the journey.  We carried on, but we hadn't been on this path before, so everything was unfamiliar.  This, combined with the thick fog that settled around us, led to a good deal of uneasiness for me and Jack.  Right as we were losing confidence in our present course, we saw a familiar sign post that signaled the reemergence of the track.  We happily followed it to the Trevelez trail.
The descent to Trevelez was troubled only by increasing fatigue and hunger.  As we got closer to the town, the trail became weirder and weirder.  At one point, it led directly into a barbed-wire gate, which we crawled under.  We were walking through what was either somebody's garden, or the area between two gardens.  In any event, we snagged some rather tasty blackberries.  After that, we reached a road that weaved back and forth before leading into Trevelez, where we arrived at 6:15.  We inquired several people about buses to Berchulles, one town up from Cadiar, where Tara could meet us in her car.  Some people said that there were no more buses and others said that there was one at 7:30.  We put our trust in optimism and settled into the little bus stop.  Jack ran to the Supermercado and picked up sandwich meat, bread and cheese.  We devoured these hastily thrown together sandwiches and waited, exhausted, for the bus.  It delivered us to Tara, who was extremely kind in picking us up and taking us back to her house, where we basically fell out of her car.
Overall, the hike was a lot of fun, despite moments of stress.  I can often become very pessimistic when things go wrong, such as losing the path, and I have a tendency to expect the worse.  There were times when extreme thoughts past through my mind, but I was able to keep my cool for the most part.  As I said to Jack as we neared Trevelez, I was happy with the way it all played out in the end.  I think it was a good experience for me to have, almost therapeutic, to deal with the stress of being a bit lost and having to trust my (and Jack's) intuition completely.
It was back to the almond harvest today and for the next few.  We'll check back in soon.  Much love to everybody, and thank you if you managed to read all of this.  I'm impressed.
luke

So, the past few days have been pretty laid back, outside of finding out that Luke is allergic to almonds. We didn't spend too much time working this weekend. On Saturday morning we spent several hours picking almonds. I spent most of my time up in the tree with my almond beating stick like that baboon from the Lion King, while Luke knocked the almonds out of lower branches. Fabian and Javier, from up the road, helped us gather loose almonds and put them into the net. Later that afternoon we met another local organic Farmer, a German guy named Mathias. His farm is in a very different ecosystem from Tara's, and his land is a lot more lush. He grows almonds, figs, pears, and plums. His pears and plums were delicious, but I cannot judge his almonds and figs, since they all taste the same to me. Luke and I may work at his farm at some point in the upcoming weeks to get a different experience. That night was largely uneventful, outside of an inch-long moth lodging itself into Stuart's ear canal. One minute he was telling us a story having something to do with a bathtub, next minute Luke and I are holding a bug repellent incense coil up to his ear trying to "smoke out" the moth. Since our methods didn't work, Tara took Stuart to the local medical center, where they blasted out the moth with a hose.
Today was an off day, so we didn't get much work done. Luke and I sat down for a little bit cracking open almonds with rocks, looking like the apes from Space Odyssey: 2001 (I'll try to relax with the primate allusions). Later, we met up with Stu and his roommate, Ray, drove into Cadiar to get some dinner. We ate at this nice tapas place called Anitas, and were thoroughly entertained by Stu and Ray's dry humor. Ray actually came to Cadiar for inspiration for his novel, which he just finished.
Tomorrow, weather depending, Luke and I are planning on doing an overnight hike up Mulhacen, the tallest mountain in continental Spain. We are very excited for the hike, and hopefully will return with tales to tell.

Love,
Jack


Dedicated to Bug

A Birthday and More

Yesterday was Jack's birthday!  Unfortunately it was raining, so it was a rather slow day.  In the morning I went with Tara to pick figs, both white and dark.  Tara put some to cook in the oven right away, and we set up a little drying station for the others.  It rained through the afternoon but we were able to get some smaller jobs done.  I shelled a bunch of almonds, which is actually really tough.  You have to bash them just hard enough to break through the shell, but not smash the almond itself.  During this time, Jack smashed some grapes to make grape juice.  It was pretty nice working and listening to music on the porch as it poured all around us.
In the evening, we went down to a local hotel in Cadiar, La Morayma, where we had drinks and tapas to celebrate Jack's birthday.  Mark, Fabian, and Javier joined us, and it was a lot of fun, we ate outside with a spectacular view and pleasant weather.  The boys had to go to school today, so we made our way back home where Tara had prepared a little surprise cake for Jack.  We sang him "Happy Birthday" in Spanish and enjoyed the cake, before settling in for the night.
Today we started with some odd jobs, because the almonds were still damp from yesterday's rain.  If they're picked and bagged in that condition they will get moldy, so we held off until the afternoon.  We cleared weeds away from Tara's grape vines and built a small fence in her backyard to protect her herb and vegetable garden from the dogs.  After lunch and a little siesta we headed out to get at some almonds, which went well but was very tiring.  Tomorrow we plan on harvesting all day.
Much love to all of you, thanks for following us
Luke

First Full Day of Farming

The day started off by learning something very useful: almonds are not, in fact, nuts, rather they are fruits.  Which goes to show how much research we did before coming here.  We will not, however, be changing the name of our blog to Jack and Luke Go Fruity, for we do not want to give the wrong impression as to the nature of our experiences.
I rose first today and spent the morning gathering almonds off some of the smaller trees by hand.  After a little rest and lunch, Jack joined me, and we started going after some of the bigger trees.  We would lay down the nets and whack the branches with the poles, and then go about collecting the fallen almonds.  With the bigger trees, one of us would climb up to reach the higher almonds.  It is monotonous work, but it can be very rewarding, especially when you can get close to filling up an entire sack from one tree.  Here on the farm, that passes as Grade A excitement.  The repetitive nature of the work does make for pretty good meditative time, and, in truth, I was able to do a good deal of personal reflection in the several hours I was out among the trees.
We were joined at intervals by various pooches and by Tara, and we knocked off around 6 o'clock.  At that point we went up to Tara's neighbor's house, whom we had met last night.  Their names are Mark, from England, and Albánia, from the Dominican Republic.  They are very nice and they have two adorable sons, 7 year-old Fabian and 6 year-old Javier.  We hung out with Mark for a bit, talked music and had a couple of brews.  Afterwards we came back to the house, its about a ten minute walk, and ate a delicious dinner.  That pretty much concluded our day, now we're just chilling, doing a bit of reading and emailing. We hope to get some pictures up soon, but Jack's computer has been a bit shaky.  Hope everything is well back stateside.  My love to all y'all
luke

Arrival at the Farm

Alright, well this will be my first post on the blog, I wanted to jump in before it got too late. Apparently, Luke is a much more passionate member of the blogosphere than I. By now I'm sure that many of you have forgotten that it is not only Luke who is "going nuts."
Anyways, yesterday we spent around four and a half hours on a bus from Madrid to Granada, and then we transfered buses and spent three hours on a bus to Cadiar. There, Tara picked us up and drove us to her farm. We crammed in the car that was filled with Tara, her boyfriend Stewart, and her dogs Sissy and Harvey. Because the roads are so hard to drive on and so circuitous, it is about a 45 minute drive from Cadiar to her farm, yet it is an hour long walk.  At her house, we had dinner with Tara and Stewart and we were introduced to her dog Toby, her cat Boris, and Stewart's dog Jack.  Most of their pets were rescued or found in the area. From what it sounds like, her home has sort of become a haven for abandoned or abused dogs. After dinner, she took us down the road to a little cabin, where we spent the night. There is no electricity in the cabin, so we brought down a lantern and some candles for a romantic conclusion to our tiring day.
Today, we woke up at around two in the afternoon, because we're still pretty jet-lagged. Luke and I walked up to Tara's house, where she had some breakfast/lunch waiting for us.  She walked us around her property and then showed us what we were going to be doing on her farm. First we lay down nets around the bottom of the almond trees, then we can either climb into the tree to shake out the almonds, or we can beat them out of the branches with sticks. The almonds all fall into the net at the base of the tree, and then we pour the almonds into bags. Tara told us that these almonds will probably sell for around 60 to 70 cents per kilogram this year depending on the type of almond and on how strong the market is.

Hopefully this wont be my last post,

Jack

this goes out to HH

Toros

After sleeping in mad late (it was the first time we didn't have to wake up early to check out of somewhere) we saw that there was a bike race going by the hotel. It was really official, all of Gran Via was closed off, and there were helicopters over head.
The main event of the day was going to see a bullfight. This was a really bizarre experience. We sat in the upmost seating area, which was actually a great view, and most of the people around us were natives. It was a cool atmosphere, kind of like a minor league baseball game. The fights themselves were very unnerving. They stab the bull repeatedly before plunging in these tasseled spears that Stay in the bull as it runs around for the remainder of the fight, like decorations. By the time the actual matador comes out, the bull has lost tons of blood and is exhausted. At times it was clear that the bull had no intention of fighting, it was just looking for a way out. Evolutionary instincts don't lead animals to fight battles they have no chance of winning. Obviously it has no choice, and obviously the matador would end up killing it eventually. This elicited loud cheers and Oles from the crowd. All in all, the best way to describe it is, as Jack's mom put it, barbaric. We noticed that we even became desensitized to the brutality as the fights went on; my reaction to the first bull being stabbed was near sickness, but by the end I didn't flinch when it happened.
After the bull fights we went and ate steak. Not actually, we found a tapas place on the way to the hotel. It was a really cool spot, jam packed with a real tavern look. We ordered empanadas, calimari and chorizo on purpose, and a huge plate of octopus by mistake. It said Pulpo on the menu, which I thought would be meatballs, judging by the italian polpettini. Not at all. We ate it though, and it was pretty good, if a bit rubbery. We had a half pitcher of sangria, and tried this special drink they had for the night. They turned out all the lights and lit this big bowl of alcoholic beverage on fire, and then served it warm. It was pretty awful, very strong and very sweet, but it was fun to try.
Tomorrow we have 8'hours of bus riding to get to Tara's farm. Should be fun.
Lots of love to you all, especially my best friend, you know who you are.
luke

The 18th

Yesterday was kind of a slow day.  The craziness of the first few days really caught up with us I think, and we found it very difficult to move.  Eventually we got ourselves to the Reina Sofia.  On our way there, we met a group of Americans on the Metro who were from Clemson, doing a semester abroad for their architecture program.  It seemed like a bit of a joke to be honest; as Jack pointed out, one of the kids we were talking to had no idea what they were going to see (the Reina Sofia as well).
The museum was very cool.  They were giving away free tickets, for reasons unbeknownst to us, which made us feel very important.  We saw most of the permanent collection, including the David Smith pieces on display.  That was very fun, I never stop getting a kick out of that to be honest.  There was also a cool exhibit of photographs of Manhattan by different New York based artists.  A bunch were taken in Tribeca, and Jack and I could both see our blocks in a handful of them.
After the museum we had a tasty dinner at a restaurant called Dos Velas, which we found through our Lonely Planet book.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped in at a pub for a pint of Guinness each, which was quite delicious.  I ordered awkwardly in Spanish, only to realize that the bartender was Irish, which was funny.  I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility of us heading back there at some point today.
much love
luke

New Digs

So last night, after our first showers in Spain, we discovered that there wasn't a single vacancy in any of the hostels listed in our Lonely Planet guidebook. We decided, after agreeing that our vital organs were far to important to risk some really random/sketchy hostel, to look into some hotel options. We stumbled upon an amazing deal for a spot on La Gran Via, called Hotel De Las Letras. We came by and checked in a few minutes ago, and it's mad nice, so we're pretty pumped. Gonna head out in a bit.
Later, much love
luke

Night of the 16th, the 17th

Last night Jack and I were both extremely tired, so it was a pretty slow night.  We ate an awful dinner, but neither of us were very hungry at all, and the location completely made up for it.  We ate in the Plaza Mayor, which was absolutely beautiful, especially as the sun set.  Afterwards, we returned to the Hostel and hung around the common room for the remainder of the evening.  I only saw 3 other guys in our room, which had a total of 8 beds.  Its possible that other members came in and left during the time we were asleep though.  I talked to one gentleman, a totally incomprehensible Brit, whose name may or may not have begun with a "D".
This morning we checked out of Cat's Hostel and made our way down the block to Mad Hostel, which is basically identical in quality, except that it lacks a bar.  However, there are beer vending machines with 1euro cans of mediocre beer.  In the early afternoon we made our way to the Museo del Prado, after grabbing un bocadillo.  The Prado was as excellent as advertised.  Particularly enjoyable were the works by Hieronymus Bosch, or El Bosco as he is known here, and Las Pinturas Negras, the Black Paintings, by Goya.  It wasn't particularly crowded, and we ended up strolling around for close to 4 hours.  Afterwards, we walked through the Madrid Botanical Gardens, which were very pretty and a nice removal from the city.
For dinner, we stopped in at La Taperia, a tapas place with outdoor seating which was very nice.  Easily the best food we've had since we've been here.  We had a salad, duck confit and pork tenderloin, in addition to a pair of watery beers called Mahou.  We decided that the best way to describe this beverage would be to say that it doesn't taste entirely unlike beer.  In total, it ran us just over 43euro.
We're back at the Hostel now, probably gonna call it a night.  I'll get back at you all soon.  Much love and Erev Yom Kippur to all my Jews, L Shana Tovah.
peace
luke

Landing

After a reasonable amount of highway drama, we arrived at JFK in plenty of time. We boarded the plane without incident,and we immediately noticed it seemed to have been reserved almost exclusively by Orthodox Jews. Jack and I had seats several rows apart and we were unable to negotiate a switcheroo, but this wasn't a major concern. I took my seat next to a 6 foot tall german woman who thoroughly enjoyed practicing her English on me. I was able to get a decent amount of sleep, and the flight was happily uneventful.
Upon landing,we called a few hostels but they told us we should come by at noon to see about booking a pair of beds. We had 4 hours to kill so we took a series of metros and ended up at a small cafe where we snagged a pastry and a coffee. We talked to a vagrant man on the street for a while, and he told us about some good food spots and his butterfly catching efforts. They seemed to be quite unsuccessful.
We got to Cats hostel a few minutes before noon and were able to get two beds for the night at the cost of 18euros apiece. It is a beautiful place, with Islamic architecture themes and very clean rooms. The people here seem to be very nice as well. Our plans for the rest of the day remain unclear, as we are very tired. We'll see what shapes up.
Mad love
luke

Night Before Liftoff

Got my bag packed and everything, rooms cleaned, I think I'm ready to hit the road.  Jack and I were looking at online last night and we saw that Oktoberfest actually starts September 18th.  Hitting that was one of our priorities and it didn't seem to make sense to go all the way down to the farm, which is in the opposite direction, before checking it out.  So it looks like we might head right up to Munich from Madrid, where we land.  The only obstacle is that Oktoberfest is huge, so there are basically no vacancies at any hostels.  We could get a cheap hotel room for about 100 euro a night, which wouldn't be too bad between the two of us.  Fortunately we have the whole flight to discuss our options.

Mad love to everybody here, at home and at all your different colleges.  Keep it real

luke

Welcome

Hey guys, so its still 10 days until we depart for the European continent.  Just want to test this bad boy out, see how it handles.  Thanks in advance for your support and for following us on our journeys.

--luke