Monteagudo de Salinas to Fuentes

Wow, only 24 Km! Only 500 m ascent! Everyone left at more or less the same time, around the ungodly late hour of 7:30! Felt like a rest day actually.

The walk today was virtually all off road. Lots of logging areas (pine, not eucalyptus), through an estate with dire warnings we had been told to ignore. And luckily no one shot at us.

It was undulating hills and beautiful vistas. In normal times, these fields would be a brilliant, emerald green, with wildflowers lining the path. That’s not at all what it is today, though some of the fields look like they’re trying to make it with a tepid, green color, and a few tenacious wildflowers are dotting the path.

About 4 km outside of our destination, the clouds darkened, and it started to spit a little rain. But it was just a tease, no rain came, no relief for the farmers.

We are in a nice little Hotel Rural, the Palancares. We had a decent menu del dia and then afterwards I walked out to see what the signs for the Titanosaurio were. Turns out it’s a model of a dinosaur, to remind everyone of all the bones they have found in the area. There is apparently an excellent paleontology, museum, in Cuenca. So many things to do in Cuenca, and I am very glad that I’ll have a rest day there. But I was disappointed to learn that the longest zip line in Europe is closed during the week.Read more