Vive el Ebro - Episode IV

Alfaro-Castejon-Tudela

A local member takes us for a tour of the sotos, an area often flooded by the river, where a simple plank of driftwood soon becomes a small island, larger, or a peninsula, the river constantly shifting and changing.

We pick fallen peaches along the way.

This morning I’m riding my loaned bike, however I caught a flu the previous night, and congestion keeps me up all night long. I thought that by exercising with the pedals might help strengthen my inmune system, but as we head over to Castejon, I feel weak, and by the time we hit the third power plant, I feel faint and feverish, I lay on the ground to guard from the wind and call Jordi to come back for me with the van, as he is already half way to the small city of Tudela, our next lay over. 

Jordi tells me that his daughter warned him not to mention he’s her father around these parts, since Aida is a known activist for AnimaNaturalis, and these parts are still strong when it comes to animal abuse like bull fighting; so when Aida and her vegan friends come to these parts in buses to do their peaceful demonstrations, they have been received by crowds throwing rocks at them. This also happened in Tordecillas, where another form of torture is big, a few dozen macho guys on horses spear the bull over and over.

The next couple of days are a bit fuzzy for me, when we make it to the poli, I just drop myself onto a large gym mat and sleep for 3 hours straight. When I wake up, we hop on the bikes toward downtown to find a place for dinner.

Tudela- - Pradilla del Ebro

Wilbur and I drive the van behind the bikes, although the first 3 hours I got lost, probably due to the fever. I run into Jon, the illustrator from the Delta, who is also a little lost as he is searching for the boats, so we hang out for an hour or so, chatting about graphic novels and Zeitgeist.

I find the bikes, but I don’t remember much, I just collapse again when I make it to Pradilla del Ebro. Never even saw the poli, rather stayed and camped in the park. There was a soccer field and a town swimming pool next to the park, were a bunch of the group went, but I just wanted to sleep.

A quiet evening, Polet was teaching some people how to play “virles”, a very old moorish game and predesesor of bowling.

Adrian from Cantabria arrives, he left home on Sunday and just today rode an unbelievable 200 kms.

I also meet Leo and Juan, they came from Malaga.

Pradilla del Ebro-Zaragoza

I told everyone I was not driving or riding today, simply sleeping. The group takes off, Jordi is driving, first we acompany a girl from Huelva and her bike to catch a bus in Pedrosa, as she needs to get back to Alfaro, where she left her car a few days ago.

Then we go to Cabañas de Ebro to wait for the boaters, and we find out they’ll be about 3 hours, so we have some lunch at the one and only bar in town, and we go to take a long nap by the river. Wilbur wakes me up to let me know the boats have arrived. Jordi helps unload bikes and load boats to procede to Zaragoza, which is the largest city along the Ebro river; much larger than I remember it. Someone went nuts overbuilding here, the area where we are staying is by the Expo, huge modern design pavillions with hanging gondolas, are empty, unused, such a waste.

3 days here in the big city, so hopefully I will start to feel better in order to enjoy it. We unload the van and head straight to downtown area in hopes to find a store open to buy some ground meat for Wilbur and a Pharmacy to get some sea water to clear my congestion, but keep in mind that the stores close between aproximately 2pm-5pm, it’s 4.30pm now and we need to be by under the Third Millenium Bridge at 5.30pm. Jordi takes the opportunity to visit a customer for a repair that takes only 10 minutes, and we find the sea water next door.

The guy who the group arranged to rent the canoes from for a river protests, screws up the evening and leaves me in charge of watching over 27 bikes. Fortunately the sea water and other magic potions (provided by Patxopa) are starting to take effect, and while still tired, I no longer feel fever, at least for a while. Jordi leaves to find food for Wilbur.

4 hours later the bike owners show up, grateful for keeping their bikes and recognizing the canoe people didn’t keep their promise to deliver the bikes down the river. By this time I was upset and more tired, but it got worse, as the same screw ups had also told us they would bring back Jordi’s canoe, and abandoned it somewhere along the river, and we spent another +hour trying to find it in the dark.

Zaragoza

Due to what happened yesterday and taking in Concha’s advice (who I miss dearly, as she went back home to Logono), I began this day with the word “no”, which is what I said to MariAsu when she asked for my bike this morning.

Ignoring what the plan was today, the fever was gone now, Jordi and I went to town with the bikes to find a spot for breakfast, after which we found the Aljaferia, an old moorish castle, that has suffered may sad “remodels” over the years. We decided to pay the entrance fee 6 euros, toured the palace and ran into Javier and Miguel Angel from out group. As we exited, we also ran into Samuel and Maite, who gave us a great suggestion for lunch, Casa Emilio.

After a short siesta at the poli, we take the canoe down river to take some photos. At one point some strong cross currents almost tip us over, I was able to convince Wilbur not to jump out. By chance we happen to join the rest of the group down river, by the stone bridge, as they were just starting the pirate water war, followed by an assembly in la plaza directly behind el Pilar, the renown cathedral. Juan Carlos, a local farmer joins us, and talks to us about the problems with seeding crops due to climate change, in March can cause rotting during flowering due to flooding, April also can cause freezing if only for a single night, some farmers have even been seeding in September; regardless they average at least 20% losses. We also talk about 400% increase in phosphates and nitrates, controlled by China, and the problems caused by “transgenicos”, Aragon Region is the area of Spain with the most, and how the contaminate other farms.