Best Weekend Trip EVER!

I just got back from CUENCA!

It was an overnight trip organized by CEA and it was PERFECT. We left early Friday morning, in a group of about 50, for the city of Cuenca. It's a small, ancient city about two hours from Madrid, tucked up into cliffs and mountains. The modern part of the city is in a valley and the ancient part is built literally on top of cliffs, with houses that hang off of them and a bridge that spans the river that winds through the city. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!

The pictures I took don't even come close to doing this city justice!

We got into Ciudad Encantada mid-morning. I expected it to be a city (ciudad) but instead it was more of a national park type of space filled with huge, ancient stones in the shapes of a dog, a man's face, etc. One looked just like Pride Rock from the Lion King ;) The altitude there was pretty high so the weather was more more chilly than here in Madrid! But it was nice to be out in nature- I've been in the city for a while and I miss open spaces!

We toured around for a couple hours then headed to our hotel for lunch. On a sidenote, the bus rides up and down the mountains and cliffs were a little scary! The roads were very skinny and wound around a lot. But we made it! The hotel that was stayed at was AMAZING. It used to be a monastery, and has since been converted into a hotel. We had lunch, dinner, and breakfast the following day there. The best part about the meals was that they were free, but also that the staff was so accommodating in regards to me being gluten-free. They even brought me gluten free bread. DELISH. The hotel was so cute and picturesque, I just loved it!

After lunch at the hotel we headed into the city of Cuenca for a bus tour through the modern part and up the mountains, a walking tours of the ancient part and of the church in the Plaza Mayor, and a tour of the art museum that happens to be housed in the largest hanging house on the cliffs in Cuenca. Beautiful sights and views! We had a couple hours of free time after to explore (and have a cup of coffee, of course) and then it was back to the hotel for dinner and bed. Get ready for a picture overload...

The ancient castle in Cuenca

View from the castle

Entrance to the city

Winding roads, labyrinth like according to our tour guide. Yikes!

More of the hanging houses

Another beautiful view across the river

Plaza Mayor in Cuenca

The church-- happens to have one of the three smiling angels statues in all of Europe

This is where a little detour brought us, right before sunset. SO PRETTY.

And pretty again! Little path

Clock tower. Wish we could have climbed up but it was under reconstruction.

We woke up bright and early this morning, Saturday, to have breakfast in the hotel (first time I’ve had eggs for breakfast since I’ve been here!), check out, and hop on the bus for our outdoor activities, which were either horseback riding or cliff jumping. Obviously, I chose cliff jumping! We had to wear wetsuits, which were so hard to get on, but super warm, which was good because it was FREEZING this morning.

Lindsey and I rockin the wetsuits! We still had a jacket, gloves, and a helmet left to put on!

After getting all dressed and looking pretty good if I do say so myself, we took a van up into the hills to get started with cliff jumping! We had to take a twenty-minute walk through three separate tunnels and a gravel path before getting into the water. I was in a group of about 15 or so and I had decided that I had to go first, otherwise I would get entirely too scared. I jumped in the water (FREEZING) and we practiced how to cliff jump off a small rock. I was a pro, for sure ;) There were natural slides built into the river, so after our practice jump we slid down, going straight underwater, and popped back up for our first jump.

At first I didn't think I was going to be able to do it-- the first jump was about 15 feet high. But I did and I loved it, and each jump got steadily higher and higher. When we jumped off each one, our guides told us to yell "capon" which is apparently some Spanish word similar to "yeah" or "woo-hoo." Who knows. I was too busy screaming like a little girl to even try to say it. On each jump I felt like I was falling for SUCH a long time, especially the last two (we did about six jumps, I think), and the water was so so so icy on my face, feet and hands. We floated slash swam slash tried not to drown moving down the rivers and waterfalls as we made our way between jumps. Then we had to climb up the jagged, steep rocks to get to each jump, which was such hard work. I was exhausted by the end, especially since that was the most physical activity I've gotten since I've been in Spain. But it was SO worth it. And our guides were GREAT!

Cliff jumping was honestly one of the most fun, invigorating, exciting experiences of my whole life! I'm so glad I decided to do it! I wish I had pictures-- the river and surrounding cliffs were incredibly beautiful and I'm sure I had some great facial expressions throughout the three-hour extravaganza. We took some on an underwater camera, so hopefully I can get my hands on them eventually. SUCH AN ADRENALINE RUSH. One of the best days of my life, probably the best since I've been in Spain.

Afterward we had lunch and headed home on the bus. I was starving and immediately lapsed into a food coma after eating and totally crashed on the bus. I'm still tired and have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow. But all in all, AMAZING, LIFE-CHANGING weekend! I can't say enough good things about Cuenca!!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.