Hotel Roca Blanca Espot

... having a beer and watching a man try to dig his van out of the snow. To my knowledge his van is to this moment where it was when I left the bar.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to post some pictures of Canillo when it's snowy and the sun comes out. Don't have too many, but figured it was worth a post.

... waiting for him too. Probably not, but he was still a hero in my book.


We finally arrived at my destination at about 8:30am, and I proceeded to try to get my bearings in a new place. I was surprised at how quiet everything was, and also by the fact that most of the shops were still closed at close to 9 on Saturday. A few hours later I realized this little town doesn't really get started until about 9:30 or 10. Never ceases to amaze me as the ...

... village et quand on est arrivé, il avait le marché du matin. On a acheter du vin à environ 1 euro le litre (vin de pays) et du bon fromage bleu pour le déjeuner.

On avait pas le droit de prendre des photos dans la grotte pour pas faire de la pollution lumineuse (il y avait déja des ptites pousses de plante pres des lanternes...ils veulent pas en rajouté non plus). Aussi il faut pas déranger les chauve souris...pauve cocottes...

Found out today that the 90 day tourist visa that I thought we were granted for each country is actually for the combined Senchgen countries. Since we'll be at least 60 days in France alone, it means we won't be doing the France, Italy, Greece and then Turkey route we had planned on in the length of time we'd ...

... bit of a pain. One night cock-head decided not to go in. Still being afraid of him, I didn’t know what to do. Shaking a stick at him only seemed to ’get his feathers up’. So I went for help. I couldn’t believe it! Paul walks in with a stick and the stupid rooster goes running! But not into the coop, so it was still a game of running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Until the rooster flew up onto the ...

... by us on cast away sausage meat revealed how skilled he really was. Spare rib roasts, rolled belly, chump steaks, rack of ribs, pork chops, and hams were all neatly packaged and labeled. Bones went into the stock pile, fat went into the rendering pile, and other bits went into the sausage pile.

After all the good cuts were stored away in the freezer it came time to process the rest of it. Brian started up the meat ...

... the time to see the final goal. Then the sweet feeling of triumph when you’re actually there!

Now it’s time to relax, but one of the most difficult parts is still to come: the descent. This is a relaxing ‘walk’ down the rock face while to seat yourself into the harness low enough that your legs are at 90 degree angles to the rock. Your weight born by the belayer below you slowly step your way down more keeping ...

A side trip with the truck enabled us to get to areas we couldn’t normally access. Not that we would even attempt it on bicycles - vehicles are bad enough. Windy roads where motion sickness is a given, ‘oh ****’ handles are coming loose from repetitive strain, and a straight section of road lasts about 20m.

Our goal was a little damned in lake almost on the ...

... names accompanied by dates. Locals exploring the area long ago and the first few archaeologists to grace the entrance marked their territory with the addition of a slightly more distinguished ‘so-in-so was here’. Dates of 1655 and 1848, with the earliest being 1602. Of course no one is allowed to do this anymore since the cave has been open to the public, but I think that my name and date would be very interesting in 300 years time!

... regularity were the fly agaric, or classic ‘magic mushroom;. Not exactly what I wanted to cook up for lunch!

This mushroom has a long history. The classic ‘toadstool’ look with a red top and white dots it’s very easy to spot. I remember it from Smurfs and Super Mario Brothers.

A Viking tribe called the Berserker’s would use these mushrooms before going into battle - for themselves as well as their ...