In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

Today we went on yet another group excursion.  We loaded up the buses at 8am (these early mornings will be the death of me) and headed to La Rábida.  

After a quick, late-night google sesh, I discovered that La Rábida is, in fact, not a city.  This would have been useful info BEFORE I spent 20 minutes trying to find it on weather.com. Anyways, it is a monastery located in Huelva (High of 51 degrees, 70% chance of rain, just FYI) where good ole Christopher Columbus (or Cristóbol Colón if you want to be fancy) spent the years of 1491 and 1492.  He was there to convince a very important man, Friar Pere, that the world was not flat and that he could reach the Indies by heading West.  Friar Pere was important because he was the priest that Queen Isabel would confess to.  Eventually, Columbus convinced F.P., who in turn convinced Isabel (I love that woman...girl power!) to fund Chris's trip.  And that's why it's important!  It's also where he set sail from*.  Trust me, Spaniards ADORE Cristóbol Colón, he is their fave person ever besides maybe Lorca and Shakira.

*bad grammar...from where he set sail? whatevs.

Moving on...

This is the well where the three ships filled up barrels with drinking water before they left. It was cold, gloomy, and rainy all day long.  Bummer.  This picture was taken from inside of the bus.  Our group quickly became big fans of "bus pics", as we lovingly call them.  We are all babies when it comes to freezing rain.

This is La Rábida monastery.  It is actually quite large when you consider that only about 8 monks lived there.

Monks have cute taste in wall paintings, loved the flower motif.

No flash was allowed, so these are all a bit blurry.

Jenny is Friar Pere and I am Chris, obviously.  This is the actual room where their negotiations took place! It was teeny.

This room has a name, which I have forgotten.  It is basically like their cafeteria though.

Carrie and I touching a table from 1492 that Chris most likely hung out at.  Woooo!

Ok, so we were a bit underwhelmed at this point. The only good thing about this picture is my precious $7 umbrella.  Then we were told that the replica ships were a safety hazard because of the rain, so we basically just wandered around aimlessly outside for a while before stumbling into a café and demanding 64 cups of colacoa (a super delicious hot chocolate drink pronounced cola-cow).

Ok, I was kind of "over" Columbus at this point...

We finally piled on the bus, ate our bocadillos (sandwiches), and were ready to head home.  I soon realized that our bus was not, in fact, taking me home to my warm bunkbed where I could relax and blog and watch a pirated copy of Julie and Julia, we were actually driving toward the Atlantic Ocean.  

But honestly, how can (even) I complain about that?!  I suddenly had a burst of energy and was SO excited to see the ocean.  We finally pulled up and unloaded the bus.  I immediately kicked off my shoes and ran towards the water...while my gold toms sat in the sand and got rained on :/

My first time to see the Atlantic...it was crazy because in real life, you could barely distinguish ocean from sky, both were a light grey color.

Ahh! The water was cold, but not as bad as I expected!

Katie and I aren't scared of a little rain :)

A few brave boys in our group jumped in! Brrrrr!!!! I bet they enjoyed the 2 hour drive home.

Atlantic acrobatics!

Whitney and I :)

You can't even tell how wet my toms were/are.  Apparently they aren't waterproof? What?!  And look, a new giant ring!  I am accruing quite a collection of them over here :)

Even though I'm all Christopher Columbused out, I really did enjoy our adventure today.  I even kind of love that it was so gloomy and rainy, it made our beach experience a little interesting.

I'm going to Morocco in ONE WEEK!!!!!! So insane.  I need to get to googling the places I'll be, because as of right now I'm a little clueless.

Next time you hear from me, I will have ridden a camel in Africa.  Whew.

besitos,

julia