How many times can you cheat death with a 91 year old at the wheel? On this day about six, but I stopped counting at one point. The caves were really cool and the journey there was an adventure in itself. Man, I miss my jet lag. The first time we went up to the caves I was mildly out of it, safely living on the buzz of no sleep. This day I'm awake, coherent and a bit scared out of my gourd.
We drive to the caves which are about 30-40 minutes away from the house. Tio is driving like we're in the Indy 500 and it's a bit scary. To visualize it for you, imagine a go-kart swaying back and forth. You wonder if it has breaks and if they work. Out of the driveway, we narrowly miss a father and child walking. On the road, a clump of road bikers don't know what almost hit them.
I should have known really. The day we went to Gijon I was also living on residual jet lag looking out at the scenery when I noticed the car jerking strangely. I turn and see Tio trying to put on a seatbelt while we're going 100. Adrenaline kicked in and I swiftly grabbed the belt and clicked it in. "Thank You." he said in his broken English. "YOU'RE WELCOME!" I said. We also almost hit a national monument church one day while Tio was parking on a nearby hill. As I am writing this, I realize that the only time I have been in a car with Tio was when I have been living on the buzz jet lag. Jet lag suddenly has some good points.
The best part is to come, the road up the mountain is a small one and can only fit one car at a time. Traffic goes both ways, though. As we wind up and take some hairpin turns a little too fast for my liking, I ask him to slow down. The reaction time of 91 year old is exactly what you think it is. I'm watching my side of the car come way too close to an non-barrier edge. "What's the matter? Are you scared?" he asks. "Yes."
We get up there and he realizes that we need to be at the bottom. I would have been content waiting at the top for an hour until the tour since it almost killed us getting up here, but we go down. On the second trip up the only thing that slows him down is my comment that I am going to get out and walk.
We get to the pre-tour site and get to see a replication of the caves complete with Spanish informational tour. I'm wondering why we are seeing this when we should just go and see the caves. Isn't this a buzzkill to the excitement of seeing it in person? It all makes sense we get inside the actual cave.
The amazing guide checks the batteries on his two lights and then takes us into pretty much pitch black conditions to conduct the entire tour via flashlight. I'm taking pictures sans flash so not to disturb these wonderful cave paintings until the guide catches me; the beep of my camera blows my cover. Damn!
My favorite thing to do on this trip is play the unknowing non-speaking tourist. It's like having a get out of jail card. I can do just about anything I want. I figured I couldn't take pics but snap away until he tells me no. There were so many pics I wanted to take as he pointed out animal heads and other finger smeared marks by the light of a flashlight and his hand shadow dwarfing it. He would use his shadow to highlight areas or follow lines these prehistoric people made smearing black and red paints or stones that cut in and created life scenes.
This cave is amazing. I can't believe people lived in here and what we are looking at is basically prehistoric graffiti. Bison, Bulls, Horses and Moose. The horns are made from a hand print smeared down to create the base of the horn which eventually attaches to the head. Black points over a bull are made to represent the number of people living in the cave.
The guy doing the tour does a really great job. To point all this out and do it in the dark with a flashlight using his hand shadow as a pointer is pretty unreal. The horses are the most realistic looking creatures. Seeing the pre-tour show helped us see clearly in the dark what we are seeing in person and all to the sound of water dripping in the cave.
I tried to get some good pics but was moving most of the time whipping out the camera when the guide wasn't looking. The last one on this page is the cave painting wall. It's a bit hard to see but it's the bull with the black finger marks representing the people living there.
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