Getting up before the sun is high and lots of people hit the streets is nice. The streets are less crowded and something about the energy, the air feels cleaner and less hectic. Lots of elderly people are out doing their shopping or going for a walk. Indian men are restocking their fruit stands and the Chinese are restocking their stores of super cheap stuff. Birds are chattering in the trees lining the wider streets. It's a nice time to take notice of these details.
In the afternoon Carlos and I went to visit his friend, Arturo, who lives just north of Madrid in the mountains. The mountain range is called the Cordillera Central. Central mountain range. It divides two parts of Spain. North of the mountains is a mesa, an area called Castilla Leon. South is Castilla La Mancha and Extremadura. We took a ski lift to the highest point in the mountains and hiked around for a couple hours. The north side of the mountain we were on was very cold. Air from the north whipped around us and snuck through our clothes. From the north side we could see Salamanca down below. From the south side, which was warmer as we were protected from the winds, we could see Madrid. I have to say Madrid looked a bit creepy. A big, sprawling city obscured by smog with it's 4 ¨fork¨ towers looming above everything else.
Up on the mountain there were a couple herds of sheep and cows. There weren't many trees. At the very top there were none. I'm not sure if that's because of the altitude or because they were all cut down long ago for pasture. I notice a forest in the distance below where the trees were growing in uniform lines. Arturo said that much of the area had deforested for pasture and now there are efforts to reforest the area. The trees seem to be mostly pine. I want to buy a plant/tree identification book and learn more about what grows around here.
A view of some forests. Here is Arturo and Julia, Arturo's German girlfriend.
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