Lago del Puchol
Covid has been really nasty around here lately, due mostly to the inability of people to stay away from each other at Christmas. I also blame the Brits who somehow still managed to come in much too large numbers to Benidorm and surrounding areas: just because they can show a negative PCR test to enter Spain doesn’t mean they’re actually Covid-free. I do with there was a mandatory quarantine imposed on visitors here but I don’t make the rules and, technically, the UK was in the EU until December 31st. But, thanks to all this, we are now living with the consequences of earlier decisions which mean the closures of restaurants (take-out only), earlier curfews (now as of 10pm instead of 11pm), and even the closure of the largest cities (any over 30,000 pop) on the weekends. This is going to make a huge dent in our ability to go on weekend excursions!
So … what do three enterprising women do to still have a little fun? We escape the city on weekday afternoons, that’s what. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Ewa doesn’t get out of school until 2pm so our options are limited to places within a very short drive out of town. The temperatures may be summer-like here but the sun still goes down early. On this particular day in late January, Sagrario suggested we go and enjoy the famous sunset over l’Albufera, the huge lake just south of the city. Excited about getting out of town after quite a few days without any action (though it’s not like we didn’t do anything … I will write about the “quiet days” soon), we headed to the lake.
We got there quite early (the place is very close) and had time to do a bit of a hike through the Ruta botánica de la Albufera de Valencia, a large and pretty well maintained area between the lake and the seashore. The paths there are nice and wide, with many wooden bridges to take you safely through any wet bits; this nature reserve runs alongside a man-made canal (Gola de Puchol) and there is also a man-made lake that is now a bird sanctuary. The lake, Lago de Puchol, is a very lovely spot to come and walk around, with lots of birds and other critters around. It is also very close to the sea: some real and artificial dunes (i.e. hills of dirt?) separate the two bodies of water.
We saw quite a few people walking around the reserve but there were even more once we got to the beach, which was rather interesting to see this far out of the centre on a Thursday afternoon in late January, but maybe they all had the same idea we did: get out and enjoy the surrounding areas before they lock us in. I don’t blame them at all. This was also my first time seeing the port of València from the southern vantage point … I could swear I also saw the Pont de l’Assut de l’Or (the iconic white bridge in Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) and the L’Àgora (the events hall next to it).
As the sun began to set, we decided to return to the viewing point at l’Albufera. There were many people already there and most of the available spots were already occupied. This is a daily event, I must add; watching the sunset here is one of the famous activities both locals and visitors come to enjoy regularly. Unfortunately for us, however, the wind had picked up quite a lot, and the anticipated smooth, mirror-like waters of l’Albufera that turn pink and violet with the setting sun were just a dream. We decided that it simply wasn’t worth freezing our butts off in the cold wind to watch something that, most definitely, was not going to be the optimal version of a sunset, at least not as advertised. We also figured that since the sun is still pretty much guaranteed to go down every day for a while, we’ll just have to put seeing the famous l’Albufera sunset back on our must-see lists.
