Benimaurell: A Weekend in the Mountains

This past weekend the majority of the Calvin students went to Benimaurell, a small town in the mountains. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best weather and I had a cold, but it was still a relaxing weekend. Our bus driver, Ricardo, who takes us on our excursions, lives in Benimaurell and has a hostel-type-place in his house. We left on Friday after class and returned Sunday evening. When we got there on Friday, we looked around the town, which only has about 500 residents. The streets are narrow, the buildings are close together and the surrounding mountains are gorgeous. A few of us discovered a very small playground near a cemetery. There were three old women, with their hats and European garb who would sit outside the cemetery for awhile, then walk past, be gone for a few minutes, and then return to there spot near the cemetery. In general, the population is older, and it felt like a more traditional Spain that you would see pictures of in a book. At first, we thought that we would have to eat our meals at one of the bars in the town because we didn't see a store. However, we discovered two small shops; they were not marked at all. There was a kitchen where we stayed, so we all prepared our own food. Friday and Saturday nights we relaxed at our "hostel." There was a fireplace which was fun and helped keep us warm since it was quite cold. The plan for Saturday was to take a 5 hour hike through the mountains; however, it was raining when we woke up. So we ended up waiting until 3 pm and took a shorter hike. However, it was still quite long, especially since we all left thinking it was a 2 hour hike and realized later that it was almost 2 ours to the destination--a canyon--and 2 hours back. The rain held off, but it was still quite cloudy. Ricardo led the hike which was on a old path that I believe used to be used by horses (and people too of course.) I have some pictures on my shutterfly site, but they don't do justice to the real "vistas." We took a much shorter hike/walk on Sunday morning, and the weather was a bit better. Surrounding the town there are "orchards" of almond trees, which have pink flowers and are beautiful. On Sunday, I went with about half of the group to mass, which was very interesting. The priest asked questions and talked directly to the 4 or 5 kids that were there, and we all found that a bit unusual. It started to rain as we loaded the bus to go home, but we got to see a beautiful rainbow!