Iberian Discovery - Part 4

Donana National Park

The next part of our tour took a break from historic attractions and visited Donana National Park on Spain's southern coast. The section we saw was a huge area of sand dunes starting from the ocean and stretching many miles inland. In order to travel around on the dunes we rode in this rather robust and noisy vehicle.

Wind-blown sand slowly moves dunes inland. Pine trees grow in the depressions between dunes where water accumulates.

Here is a multi-panel panorama of the dune and tree environment. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

At first we saw no wildlife, only some odd tracks in the sand. I followed one track and found it was made by a black beetle seen below digging into the sand.

As our bus drove further the guide pointed out the trail seen in the next picture below. He called it a "veeper" trail. It took a moment for me to realize this was the snake trail of a crawling viper. I found Spaniards tend to pronounce the letter "i" as "ee" instead of "eye" For example, they say "wee fee" instead of the usual American pronunciation of wi fi.

Soon we came upon visible wildlife. Wild boars were grazing.

A Spanish Imperial Eagle perched high above a distant tree.

Fallow deer grazed in the shade.

Some wild horses roamed about.

Time spent in the National Park was interesting until our journey out of the park. The big wheeled tour bus was extremely noisy, slow, and bumpy as it negotiated sand dunes, beach sand, and surf. It seemed to take forever to exit the park, all the while seeing nothing but mostly empty beach. Eventually, we made it back to our usual comfortable tour bus.

The next stop was one of the wonderful surprises of our trip. We went to the town of El Rocio for a late lunch. This place was astounding! It looked like someone had taken scenery from a TV western and dropped it into Spain! Of course, it's actually the other way around! The appearance of American southwestern towns is strongly influenced by the historical Spanish presence there. Anyway, El Rocio had dusty dirt streets lined with actual hitching posts in front of buildings. Here are some street scenes from El Rocio.

You might expect someone to come riding by on a horse. That's exactly what happened! A horse and carriage also came rolling up a side street.

Once a year, according to our guide, El Rocio is the destination of about a million people who make a walking pilgrimage called the Romeria de El Rocio to visit a statue of the Virgin Mary within El Rocio's white church pictured below. The pilgrimage has been going on since 1653. The Virgin of El Rocio is a wooden carving dating back to around the time when a hermitage was originally constructed on the site in about 1270 by order of King Alfonso X of Castile. The present church is a modern building completed between 1964 and 1980.

The altar and its revered statue are seen in the next two pictures. The actual wooden statue is now enclosed within added outer garments much newer than the statue itself.

Stuffed with an enormous lunch we left El Rocio and drove to Seville. After a brief rest at our hotel, we were on the move again headed to the Plaza de Espana. Wow! Yet another eye popping place of beauty! Tile decoration in this place was exquisite. Here are a few examples lining the halls leading to the main plaza.

We stepped out of the entrance hall into a vast semicircular plaza too large to capture in a single photo.

If you've seen the movie, Lawrence of Arabia, you may recognize the flag-topped building in the picture above as the Cairo British headquarters. Scenes from Lawrence of Arabia were shot here in the Plaza de Espana.

Elaborate tile work decorated the bridge railings.

All around the semicircular arc of buildings were decorative tile alcoves devoted to different Spanish regions or cities like the one C is standing near below.

It would have been nice to stroll around and enjoy all the tile work, but we needed to arrive at our next destination in time to see an authentic flamenco performance. A quick walk through narrow twisty streets brought us to a small doorway where we entered the Casa de la Guitarra just before the show was set to begin. Once again, our seating was prearranged. We were guided to front row seats in the small venue. The pictures below show our view of the stage and one wall of the venue lined with guitars.

The flamenco performance was one of the highlights of the trip for me! Unfortunately, I have no pictures. I turned my phone off to prevent any untimely noises during the performance. I didn't want to be the ugly American tourist ruining the magic moment for everyone. I searched online for images and found the one below which shows the guitar player and dancer we saw, but not the female singer.

The performance began with a virtuoso guitar solo. Then a singer came on stage and proceeded to belt out some Spanish soul music accompanied by the fantastic guitar player. I couldn't understand the words being sung, but the intensity was palpable. Next the dancer emerged. The combination of intense guitar playing, rhythmic clapping, soulful singing, and amazing energetic tap dancing was magical. I loved, loved, loved this show!

After the show we walked to a fine restaurant for yet another late multi-course dinner. Then we walked back to our hotel with our guide through streets filled with people enjoying mild evening weather. We looked forward to another day in Seville tomorrow.