Viva Asturias

So last weekend, as I had mentioned that we would be doing, we went to Asturias. Friday night, we visited Covadonga, which is a cave with a statue of the virgin. Also popular to visit are the lakes of Covadonga, but since we had forgotten the key to open the main door to the apartment we were staying at, we decided to go back another day so that we would catch the people at the main desk before they left. So we did end up going to the lakes, but we did so on Sunday night.

Ines and I. The virgin is located in the opening in the mountain wall...

Walking to the virgin with Cristina.

A church situated at a higher point than the cave itself 

The virgin is that little white triangle with two lights on either side. 

Candles lit at the opening of the cave

So then came Saturday, meaning the day of the Descenso del Sella. Essentially, it's a huge (and pretty insane) kayak race that is 13 kilometers long down the river "sella." At the beginning of the race, the water is only about 1-2 feet deep, so as you watch all the participants starting, many run through the shallow parts, while others try to push their way through the rocks (we saw one man who broke his oar). Also this day, as the descenso takes place when the pueblos have their fiestas, we went up to the train station and found a group of people that had been drinking for the past 12 hours, and they were still singing and dancing along with fake pitch forks and head arrangements. Regardless to say, it was quite the day.

At the train station... see all those people in yellow? Yeah. 12 straight hours. 

Whoo. Drunks. 

Down by the river waiting for the race to start. 

The next day, Sunday, we traveled to Oviedo. Oviedo is probably best known for the fact that it has pre-Romanesque churches and shrines. Also, as I mentioned before, we visited the Lakes of Covadonga.

On a park bench in Oviedo.

A pre-Romanesque shrine in Oviedo

With Ines, Susana, and Cristina at the lakes. 

One of two of the lakes of Covadonga.

So there were cows.

A lot of them.

 So yeah. That was Asturias. At this point, I only have one week left, and then back to the states! I will definitely be missing Spain... again. I will come back though, that's for sure. But for now...

Peace out Asturias.