So this is our last day in Margalef (yesterday was our last climbing day). It was so hot that we spent most of the time at La Finestra, which sees quite a bit of shade throughout the day. I put work into this 7b+ but didn't manage to seal the deal and didn't even try it yesterday, opting for mileage over failing at redpoint attempts. Ethan fared better, onsighting a couple of 8a+'s and sending an 8c second go. It's so hot that we are going to head to Oliana for a few days so Ethan can get his draws off of something, and so that I can swing around on tufas. Then we're considering going to France. Ceuse, or St Leger possibly.
The living situation has been interesting. We've had Team Japan move into the Refugi with us. I feel kind of bad because I know that terrible things are happening in Japan right now, but they are pretty funny. They have plugged more shit into the outlets than I ever thought possible. I meant to get a picture but they started unplugging everything before I got a chance. There are 3 younger people (maybe early 20s) traveling with Mr. Miyagi. This old guy "teacher" is probably about 65, plugs away on his ipad, and is generally just awesome...except that he snores, and his many electronic devices bling and ring at night and somehow he manages to sleep through it all. Still, I'd be psyched if I was getting after it as much as he is at his age.
We also got to hang out with a nice German couple...I was excited to learn that they are astrophysics Ph.D. students (well, the guy is, and the girl is still finishing up her M.S. I think). We had some late night conversations about nuclear power, gamma rays and black holes over beers. The best part of climbing trips is meeting and talking to new people. I can't get enough of it.
The other crew that I got to hang out with was a group of Spanish climbers from Cuenca and Barcelona. My Spanish is way better than I remember it being (it's still bad, but I know a lot of words). Most of the Spanish climbers I've hung out with on this trip have been super cool and very quick to laugh. One particularly funny moment involved me trying to remember the word for "throat". I remember in Costa Rica I always mixed it up with "gangreja" which actually means crab. Garganta is the word for throat. Anyway, I was trying to explain that Ethan had a sore throat (he's had a cold for the past few days), and we went into "this is the word for throat, etc etc." in Spanglish. Then the guy that our friend was belaying said "GARGANTA PROFUNDO!" His belayer, who speaks pretty good English said "hahah, you know what profundo means? It means...deep." It took me a minute to register, but at any rate now I know the Spanish phrase for deep throat. Super useful.
The other cool thing about hanging out in Spain is all of the aromatic plants. Rosemary, thyme and what looks (but doesn't smell) like sage is everywhere. Plus it's spring so all of the fruit trees are blooming. It's strange (to me) that pretty much the entire landscaped is terraced and planted with olives and what looks like some sort of prunus trees. Yet in such a made landscape, it still feels quite natural. It's very different from the American agricultural paradigm where anything that is planted is flattened and made square or round for irrigation, planting, and harvesting purposes, so that everything can be done by machine. There would be no way to automize harvesting and planting here. It's interesting to think about.
Alright, we're going to clean up and get out of here. I'll try to take more photos. I'm so bad at taking photos.
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