Day Five - April 3

The weather was, as always, better than expected. That was the only luck that two of our number had. But first, we saddled up, said goodbye to Maria Elena and walked over to a nearby castle. Though it was for sale, no one was interested in putting in a bid. We did take a group photo.

From left to right: me, Judy, Ben, young Enrique, Sue, Joe, Nancy and Adrian.

Then we followed a pretty path by a stream. Enrique the elder was in the lead and Enrique the younger brought up the rear. When we hit our first trot, though, we heard a cry from behind and stopped. Adrian's horse had stepped in a hole -- it appeared to have opened up AFTER the  other riders went over -- and fallen to its knees. Adrian came off, his second fall of the week. He rather understandably announced that he would quit riding for a while. He said he'd go on to the next stop, however.

We continued along the path by the stream, beautiful limestone cliffs on our left side with cave-holes sprinkled along them -- nests for vultures, which we saw circling overhead -- and picked up up our first canter. Just a few paces in, Judy's horse shied when a duck flew up from the stream and came off. So that was two. She also got back on in order to continue to the snack site, and trotted and cantered with the group.

We passed by some more of those small green fields and Enrique Junior explained that they used to be cultivated either for agriculture or livestock but now so few people want to be farmers that they are simply deserted.

Then we stopped for our aperativo and made arrangements to go off without our two riders. The horses went off in the big truck to await the end of the day for the others, and Adrian and Judy we taken in the van to the hotel by Oleg. Ben went with them. Ibero, who has been behaving beautifully for the entire trip -- a little fresh but very willing to listen and obey -- posed for a photo. I very much enjoyed that seat pad all week. 

The remaining riders walked up a small slope, came to one of those hard, sandy roads and took off at a fast canter. The weather was still  clear and the terrain just right; the horses seemed to relish the chance to stretch a bit. Especially the one young Enrique was riding, whose favorite gait appeared to be vertical. We also cantered across green, muddy fields and at one point on a sandy road had something of a race. Joe was the happy winner, though he swore he had asked Enrique's permission to go ahead.  

After an exhilarating couple of hours, we arrived at the drop-off point ahead of schedule and left the horses for the day. Enrique Senior drove us to Pradena, a tiny town where we would stay for the night. Lunch was another great picnic from Lucia right in the dining room of the tiny guest house.

After a shower, (we were quite muddy from all that galloping),

 we headed off in the van to the caves of los Enebralejos. Though none of us had heard of them, they proved to be quite astonishing. They were not nearly as old as the Lescaux caves in France, our guide explained. Those were from the beginning of the prehistoric period, about 10,000 years ago, while these were about 4,000 years old. As displays in the waiting area showed, the locals had pottery, copper, flint (for arrowheads), skins,  furs and even jewelry.






Some people were less enthusiastic about the historic display than others. 

The caves were a burial site. Not very deep and two kilometers long, they were the resting place for at least 80 skeletons, though Carlos, our guide, said there were doubtless many more. We walked through more than a dozen chambers, each featuring stalactites and stalagmites of incredible beauty. Though they were made of limestone only, the colors included green,  red and black because of infusions of copper, iron and coal, or something like that. (No photos allowed and no postcards for sale, a lost opportunity) 

Then it was back to our guest house for a nice, simple dinner.