Saja Valley, where you can listen to the bellowing of the deer
Now that the autumn/winter season is here, although in reality it can be done throughout the year, we propose a plan C, an alternative program to the conventional, a way to explore the land getting to know other types of towns, staying in magical places and practicing activities not yet massified. Plans to immerse ourselves for a weekend or alternate them with other more typical visits. This is our plan C, the Cantabria plan.
WALKING THROUGH CABARCENO
You can go to Cabárceno to do the typical thing: take the car and travel its more than 30 kilometers of road to see bears, gorillas, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and the rest of the exotic species that populate it, or enjoy the park in a different. Our proposal is that you leave the car parked in one of the restaurants and do the walking tour . Take your backpack, camera, good shoes and get ready to explore a piece of the African savannah in southern Europe . The "Cantabric Park" has an area of more than 750 hectares in which elephants, wolves, bears, giraffes and any imaginable animal come our way. An old iron mine in the Peña Cabarga mountain range converted into a nature park and where the rocks keep mining secrets.
Zebras in Cabárceno Park
SEE BIRDS IN NOJA
The Ris beach, in Noja , is one of the most beautiful in Cantabria with its enigmatic point-shaped rocks and in which nature is practically untouched. It is the ideal place to start a bird watching route (Bird Watching, or Pajareando in its Spanish version) around this coastline. With powerful binoculars we will go hunting for the birds that spend the autumn and winter in the beautiful areas of the Victoria marshes, the Joyel or Mount Tregandín.
Start the ornithological route in Noja
CANNERS IN SANTOÑA
If there is something for which Cantabria is known are their exceptional anchovies . Long before its previous president, Miguel Ángel Revilla, made them nationally known by giving them as a gift to all the presidents of the Government. Santoña is "anchoista" . It is worthy of admiration to see how its men and women strive to preserve the craftsmanship in the elaboration of a product that knows no borders. Like the Iberian from the meadow, the anchovy is from the Cantabrian Sea , that they do not sell you imitations from other places and even other continents. Conservas Codesa or Emilia open their factories to visitors so that they can witness the production process and certify why half a kilo of anchovies costs what it does.
Santoña is 'anchoista'
EAT AN ICE CREAM IN REGMA
In Cantabria or you are from Regma or you are from Capri . I am from Regma , from Regina and Manolo, from their way of overflowing the cone of flavors, from their minimalist stores, from their shop assistants in uniform, from their way of creating a region. The Regma ice cream shops They have managed to gain popularity among their countrymen thanks to their wide variety of flavors and their night hours that make it possible for you to have an ice cream after hours.
MARCHING IN CAÑADIO
the night in Santander it is short Just a few hours are not enough to try all the pinchos that we can find in the Canadian area . A neighborhood full of tapas bars and pubs full of good music. Bodegas Mazón is a good option, still far from noise and crowds, to have some anchovy skewers with fresh cheese or some ham croquettes. In the heart of the neighborhood, The Pila River It has fantastic baby eels and good beer on tap. The drinks must be taken at the Black Bird, an emblematic joint and one of the few concert halls in the city, and at the Garage Sónico, the closest thing to Malasaña that we can find in the capital of Santander. Finally, if the temperature is good, no one despises a walk around the harbor , breathing salt water and seeing the reflection of the night in the sea, even more intriguing and exciting if possible.
DEER IN BERREA IN SAJA
Cantabria sells natural phenomena, it is its best legacy. Among the most curious activities that can be carried out is the possibility of attending as a spectator and as a listener to the bellowing in the Saja-Besaya Natural Park . In the woods, in the middle of a wild and exuberant nature the hinds they laze around looking for the strongest deer to breed with. Listening to the horned animal howling with pleasure and feeling how it bounces to infinity over that idyllic spot is a feeling of immensity that makes you small. From the interpretation center of this park excursions are made to see the bellows or to merge with the nature of Saja throughout the year.
Saja-Besaya Natural Park
FAIRY TALE IN THE FOREST OF LA ANJANA
Cantabria is conducive to all these types of beings: gnomes, elves, trolls, witches...and of course fairies. Antonio is in love with these magical beings who has captured his eccentricities in the El Bosque de la Anjana Rural Inn, near the Saja park. Each room is decorated based on a different fairy, changing its personality down to the smallest detail. He also has a restaurant served by Joanna, the “great Barcelona waitress”, who is also peculiar. Among its star dishes is the zebra and venison carpaccio to gobble down with a beer among the more than 100 varieties that he has.
One of the fairy rooms of the Posada de la Anjana
EAT IN THE SPOON OF THE CAMESA
Luis, the owner of La Cuchara del Camesa, in addition to being a good photographer, is an excellent host. Spoon food in Campoo and surrounded by centuries-old hermitages that go out to the step of the most astute traveler. Luis could show them to you (he has the keys to all of them) with the same ease with which he prepares the stew of the day in a railway pot or clay pot . The spoon is the queen: pinto beans with foal cheeks, Valdeolea kid with vegetables, beans with clams, potatoes with cod belly....and in a small room with exceptional views of the valley.
Muelas with quail: spoon food is the TOP of Cantabria
WITH RULO IN REINOSA
“From Reinosa, Cantabria... La Fuga” . This is how Rulo, the ex-singer of La Fuga, began each concert. He now embarks on a solo career and continues to use the same introduction. the author of Endangered species he feels proud to have a working-class past, the same one that he leaves behind in his songs. 'Searching the sea' we reached the source of the Ebro, we sang 'The Goodbye Waltz' from the centenary Castle of Argueso, and we hummed 'divided' while we step on the stones of the Carlos III bridge, a witness to life in Reinosa. That worker's past of revolts, dirty hands and steel remains in the memory, the one that he masterfully captured in 'Spring of '87' . Reinosa, a world in Cantabria, inspiration for many of his songs, the last one interpreting the anthem of Racing de Santander, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. “From Santander to Mataporquera, from Castro Urdiales to Unquera, even if it blows south or even if it rains, your hundred springs feel good to you” .
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