Life: Idiotropic

Vall D'Uixo is a small village just off the old A-7 (not the AP7) about 30 minutes north of Puzol known mostly for the caves of Saint Joseph where a subterranean river flows.

It's one of the first places that I heard about when we moved hear last year and so for almost a year now it's been on my list of things to do on a day that's too hot or too cold because inside the caves, the temperature remains a comfortable 20 degrees C. all year.

So today we finally went and realized how silly it was to wait because it's so easy to get to and so close to our house.

The parking lot wasn't too full which was nice.  A old man with only half his teeth tried to direct us into a tiny spot half the size of my van then wandered around and blew his whistle at nothing.  We parked in a different spot and were happy that he didn't seem to care. 

Across a small bridge, there's a swimming pool, an upscale restaurant, and go-karts.   We found the ticket counter under the shade of trees past a long line of cafes, souvenir shops, and the restaurant inside of the cave.  The tours run every 45 minutes and we'd just missed the first, so we waited there, I made another phone call to my cell phone company (story coming) and chatted with a Maltese man who heard me speaking English and was excited to chat.  They speak English and Maltese in Malta and he was disappointed that so few Spanish here speak English.

As we entered, a lady pointed out pigments left from old cave paintings, then another area of rock that are obscenely old.  Water trickled down one wall into a small pond.  Kids put their hands into the cool water there and ran them across the wall.  A flashing sign above said "NO PHOTOGRAPHY."  The lady talking repeated "NO PHOTOGRAPHY."  We entered one of several boats filling up with people.  I asked... with out flash???  "No images."  Sigh.

I'm flustered because they allow anyone to touch the stalagmites which can stop their growth completely, but won't allow a flashless photo which will harm nothing.  Doesn't make sense.

The river that runs inside these caves is perfectly clear and calm so that you can see down to the floor beneath and the reflections of the cave formations in the water are absolutely beautiful in places.  The boat takes us through narrow tunnels where we all have to duck our heads.  I'm continually watching for Arianna and Luci and moving their heads with my arm.  Arianan's flustered and repeatedly tells me that I don't have to worry.  One stalagmite hangs down right in the center of the tunnel, so we duck to the outside as it goes down the middle of the boat.  The tourguide touches it for good luck.

The tunnels open up into huge rooms - the bat room full of dark holes where bats lived 20 years ago, the "cathedral" full of huge stalagtites hanging down, the largest one 3 meters long.  One is called the Medusa - it looks just like a jellyfish.

The boat docks and we disembark and follow a trail through the dry part of our journey without guides, a long line of people just walking and looking.  It moved a little too fast.  That's my second gripe.  At the end of our tour it was 40 minutes.  Just 40 minutes!  With hardly enough time to look and see or take it in.  It's too short.  The walk through the dry area was full of some stunning things in different shapes and colors, but the pace was too fast.  I would have liked to slow down and really see it.  My one photo was taken with my iPhone... not great, but at least my phone isn't as obvious.  I had to get one photo though it doesn't do it justice.


We get back on the boats farther up stream and then take them back to the beginning seeing some new things and some repeats.   Stunning caves, but too little time.


At the top of the stairs by the exit is a small chapel and a worthless museum.  The The Ermita Sagrada Familia is pretty although my girls might argue that it's not worth the hike up the stairs on a hot day.  The museum next door costs 1 euro, but has little more than a collection of new paintings from 2009-2010 and a room full of priestly garb.  Yawn.  Hardly worth the euro.


I made it up to the girls by taking them to my favorite coffee shop for something cold and a light snack.  A couple hours of rest and we finished the day at the club for a few hours of swimming and chatting with friends.