My last weekend in Logroño was packed with
exciting activities, and first on the list was to visit the ‘nacedero’ of the
river Urederra, the place where the Urederra river forms, with Norma, Fermín
and Jorge. Saturday morning Fermín took us by car into Navarra, the province
just to the east of La Rioja. It was a beautiful journey filled with all
different shades of green, perfectly painting the hillsides! Since we have had
such extreme amounts of rain here this year, the rainiest season they have had
since 1947 I might add, we were finally getting to see the benefits…this
beautiful, flourishing landscape that could only be created by such great
amounts of water fall! Along with rain we have had lots of snow up in the mountains,
which made this trip all the more interesting. Because of all the snow runoff
from the mountains of Navarra, the Río Urederra was raging, flowing with unbelievable
quantities of water. We were lucky enough to see this river flowing at its peak
(meaning that about 50,000 liters of water were falling every single second), and
it seemed to me that it was falling with somewhat of a vengeance! All I knew was I didn’t want to
find myself falling in!!
As we began to climb up the mountain, about
15 minutes in, we were already seeing our first waterfalls. They were
beautiful; with the water streaming over the rocks so quickly and with such
force, and the loud rumbling sound as the water fell from above. Along our hike
we saw all different sizes and shapes of beech trees, some so big, we had to
link all of our arms just to reach around one tree!! Their roots were
unbelievably large; growing in and out of the ground, over rocks, and off the
sides of cliffs. Fermín informed us that beech trees can pretty much grow
anywhere and tend to take precedence over all other vegetation. And from what
we could see, there wasn’t another type of tree in sight! Ranging from small
new trees (to me they just looked like tiny weeds) to trees that were hundreds
of years old, every one of them was from the beech family. 
Getting deeper into the forest, we began to
see a lot more moss covered rocks, trees, and old tree stumps, as well as water
running in every direction, producing picturesque little waterfalls everywhere
you looked. Again because we have had so much water fall this year, the water
was not sticking to its original river paths and was deciding to stream down
the mountain wherever it could find a place to fall. It had even decided to
create its own pathway on our walking path. We were climbing up
over rocks as the water was rushing down the same rocks at the same time!
We finally reached the top, ‘el nacedero’,
seeing where the water begins to fall from the very tip top of the mountain,
and it truly felt like an oasis. This quiet place, quiet minus the booming
sound of the water spilling over the side of the mountain, surrounded in mist sprinkling
us with droplets of water from the force of the falling water above, was simply
a hidden paradise. A place full of serenity and peace.
The forecast had been calling for rain all
day and although Norma came prepared with her umbrella, we were lucky enough to
get all the way up the mountain and back without a drop of rain. Yet, as we
hopped into the car and began our journey back to La Rioja, it began to pour!!
We always get so lucky with the weather!! Another wonderful excursion with
Fermín, and this time, we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by some of
our favorite people!! ;) 
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