El Valle, a refreshing and cool mountain town where people are about as friendly as I've ever experienced in my travels, and artisans are plentiful. On Sunday I took a little jaunt up the mountain to the town of El Valle, to escape the heat of the lowlands and to explore more beauties that the country has to offer in the higher elevations. There are waterfalls, hot springs, canopy tours, rock paintings, square-trunked trees, and golden frogs. Sounds a bit like a fairy tale doesn't it? Having left my swim suit at home, and hearing that the golden frogs were difficult to spot and the square trees are not all THAT, I started walking in the direction of the rock paintings (la Piedra Pintada). As usual, I became a little disoriented and unsure of my direction, however a nice man driving by asked where I was headed and then told his son, Manuel to guide me to the rock paintings. 
Manuel is nine (if I remember correctly) and very cute! Although he was on his bike, he walked along side of me and told me the story of the Sleeping Indian (La India Dormida) whose profile made of peaks and legends one can see from almost anywhere in town. The story goes like this:
There was once a beautiful native princess who vell very much in love with one of the Spanish Conquisadors, when the Spanish arrived in the valle. They shared a very brief but intense romance, and the princess then asked permission from her father to marry the Spaniard. Her father absolutely refused, as she was meant to marry someone of royal blood, and not one who was trying to claim her people's land.
Upon being forbidden to marry her one true love, the princess took her own life. She was buried in the hills, earth and dust gradually covered here body, giving shape to the mountain that rises over the valley. Legend insists that the princess in only sleeping and awaiting the day when her forbidden love can be pursued. The story now serves as a parable by the locals for never denying the love that two people share. After Manuel guided me through the writing on the rock in Spanish (I caught about 35% of it), I hiked up the mountain looking for a cave but didn't find it. Instead I found a beautiful mountain brooke and a steep trail that wore me out!
I recommend at least a night and two days in El Valle in order to partake of all that the area has to offer.
1 comment:
I hope the sleeping princess isn't too annoyed when she wakes up, brushes off the layers of unwelcome earth, and finds that her Spanish Romeo is 500 years dead and not just sleeping under the neighboring mountain.
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