Usually when people come to Spain they go to the typical tourist destinations: Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia and Barcelona. Well up to this point I have spent little time in Madrid and have not been to Valencia, Barcelona nor Sevilla. While in Spain, I have been taking the road a little less traveled. Instead of spending weekends in Valencia and Barcelona, I have been visiting towns like Tobarra and Torralba.
A couple weeks ago I went to Tobarra, the hometown of a couple of my roommates. My roommates, Salva and Jesus (who goes by Pirri), are from Tobarra which is about four hours South of Cuenca. Tobarra is a small town of about 7,000 inhabitants and it is known for its Easter Week celebrations. In these celebrations, tobarreños can be found in the streets playing the drums all day and all night. Being in Tobarra was quite an experience. Since it is a small town, word got around quickly that Pirri and Salva were living with an American. The whole weekend I felt like somewhat like a celebrity. Some of Salva and Pirris' friends would come up to me and say "You must be Tyler!" I must admit I did like the attention, especially when it was from the tobarreñas (the girls). My first night in Tobarra, I went out with to eat dinner and then out to the bars with Salva's friends. The next day there was a good-bye party for one of Salva's friends, who was heading to Poland to spend a semester abroad. Almost all of Salva's good friends were there as well as many of Pirri's friends. I really enjoyed getting to know all of them. They made me feel like an honorary tobarreño.
And if I thought the Tobarra was small, well Torralba made Tobarra seems like Madrid. Whereas Tobarra is a pueblo of 7,000 inhabitants, Torralba is a town with only 170. Now you are probably wonder why I would to decide to visit Torralba, when I could've gone to Barcelona or even to the beach in Valencia. Well, the mountains that surround Torralba are filled with ancient man-made caves. These caves have been used for hundreds and maybe even thousands of years to make wine. It so happens that Martina's roommate Yayo, who is also a friend of mine is from Torralba. She has been telling us all year that we have to come to Torralba one day in February when the caves are open to the public. We took her advice and we went to Torralba to see these famous caves. The day started at 10 where we were served a hearty breakfast of bread and chorizo (sausage). After breakfast we climbed the hill to go visit the caves. Currently, there are 28 caves in Torralba where wine is made. We only made it to about five of these but everybody there made sure our wine cups remained full. The whole day was awesome! At every cave we were given wine to try and the owner of the cave usually would talk to us about their wine. Yayo's father owns a cave and he gave us the complete tour of the cave and explained the wine-making process to us. The wine-making process that they use in the caves is completely natural no chemicals or electricity is used. While touring the caves we got to meet what felt like the whole town of Torralba and even others who were visiting like us. It was an experience that I don't think you could find anywhere outside of Castilla-La Mancha!
