Carrícola
Doesn’t that name just roll off your tongue? I love it! Carrícola … Cah-rrrrrrree-colaaaaaaa. Why are we here though … what does this little place have to offer besides its impossible castle? Well, according to Sagrario, there were supposed to be many cool sculptures hidden along the local riverbed and we like finding art pieces, whether murals, clocks, or 3D installations in their “natural” settings. The town of Carrícola itself is even smaller than Otos was, which I didn’t think was possible but there you have it. But it does have a typical stone laundry, because every town must and this one was very well preserved to boot.
We were greeted by a couple of large nuts by the local community centre, but where the rest of the art was supposed to be wasn’t clear. There certainly were no signs pointing anywhere useful. Undaunted, we followed what looked like a road to the river where the sculptures allegedly were hiding. The first ones we came across didn’t look like much; to be honest, I wasn’t really sure whether they were art or just some random forgotten junk but who am I to judge what is art and what isn’t, right? Fortunately there were some more obvious pieces nearby hiding among a tree grove, so we knew we were on the right track.
Unfortunately for me, the road to the river was incredibly steep and my knees started to complain terribly after the first five meters or so forcing me to abandon the expedition. We decided to meet up back at the car in a while so the girls bravely marched on. I decided to take a closer look at the weird art in the trees and then make my way back into town and explore it a bit. I have to admit it was quite nice to be able to take the mask off for a while, and since there wasn’t anyone around, I got to breathe the fresh country air. And it didn’t even stink!
The walk back took me by a very cool house with very creative succulent planters (shoes!) and, among other things, a car hood for an awning. Obviously someone very interesting lives there and I wanted to linger for a while to meet them, but, as in pretty much all the towns, there was nobody for me to say “hi” to. Where do they all spend their afternoons? It’s so weird to never see anyone; we must be always showing up at the wrong time of day, I guess. Sigh. I did walk up and down the main street, literally from edge of town to the other edge of town, and back again, all of which took no more than 15-20 minutes. I figured this was a good time to sit down in the late afternoon sun and read a book while waiting for the girls to get back from their art tour. They didn’t take long: it seems the sculptures did exist but they were all in terrible shape, most were broken and totally neglected. This is a shame, of course, since it should be up to the town to maintain the one thing it’s famous for. This also explains the lack of tourist-oriented signs. I guess I didn’t miss much by listening to my knees for a change. Thanks knees!
Final impressions? Both villages of Otos and Carrícola (I can’t in good conscience call them towns) are trying to have something that distinguishes them from other communities but only Otos managed to make it stick. Carrícola, however, isn’t that bad, neglected art project notwithstanding; the local government may not put much effort into the sculptures in the wild but the place itself is clean and colourful, with interesting little touches of whimsy here and there, and a challenging castle to boot. What more could one ask for? 😉
