Family Sabbatical: A gem of a day, Aracena Spain

This is a post about a day that ended up being about processions, caves and candy. It's a delight when a town exceeds expectations on beauty and sights- that was Aracena. "Wow" was a word that kept unceremoniously erupting from each of our mouths!

First because of this:

Can you imagine what it feels like to be lost trying to find the entrance to Spain's largest cave and one of Andalucia's hottest tourist attractions and coming upon that? 

Here's how San Blas, the patron saint of the town was supported:

Our next 'wow' came when we stumbled upon a 19th Century candy shop, Confiteria Rufino. The inside was stopped in time.

Baby-O was SO proud to carry the 'package'.

When I asked the lady if my choice was a tasty one her answer was, 'it takes two days to make it.'

When we finally made it to the "Cave of Wonders" after a wonderful meal at the Monte Cruz (the very dedicated owner is a pioneer in local, organic food) we saw this:

and this:

*all images from web- no cameras allowed

La Gruta de Las Maravillas ("The Cave of Wonders") is truly that- the legend goes that a shepherd discovered the cave while looking for a lost sheep. I also heard it was a boy looking for a lost pig. 

Whatever the story it wasn't until an engineer made record of the cave in the mid 1800's that the cave makes the books. It was first opened to the public in 1913. The 'Cave of Wonders' sits beneath a 13th Century castle that was built upon a Moorish fortress. Apparently, the castle builders didn't know about the cave because they've found remains of a water transport system that would definitely have been unnecessary if they knew about the cave. 

Our guide prepared us for the cavern that caused the most chuckles amongst the adults (seek and you shall find) by telling us we were about to enter 'the most erotic chamber' - the chamber of 'The Nakeds.'

Hmmm we couldn't imagine what we would be seeing. We walked in and beheld (let us say) extremely anatomically correct male body parts writ large. . .really large! Our guide was a ham and said, 'don't compare, it will cause trauma and there's no way you'll win'!

Here's a 1 minute reel inside the cave- we are here during low season so there were eerily few people along during our tour.

It was a great day-


I can't touch J's memory of the cave so read here to find out what it was like to visit the cave.


More scenes from the day:

It seemed as if everyone had come out for the procession.

We were dazzled by the First Communion outfits (there were multiple stores selling the same fancy outfits). We tried to convince J to go for the 'officer' look for his upcoming day but he wasn't convinced!

The band was a blend of young and old.

They circled the plaza.

We made a mad break for it after playing in the plaza for a while hoping to beat the crowds. Luck would have it that just as we set off again to find the cave. . .we saw this from the windshield:

And then this:

Needless to say, there was no rushing San Blas. 

Last, but not least, as J would say. . .

There have been these tremendous moments during the trip when this happens:

"HEY! This is Moorish engineering! Remember?"

Or, like this one: we are busy admiring the town's impressive al fresco sculpture walk and we see this:

!

Miss you!