28 SPAIN: Road Trip, Day 5: Medellín, Consuegra & Toledo

FROM CASTLES TO CONQUISTADORES
Saturday, July 3, 2004. Starting Point: Córdoba. Although we were up and about by 8am, we did not get the early start we had wanted; we ended up not leaving lovely Córdoba until 10:30am. In retrospect, that was probably due to the fact that we both felt a bond with Córdoba and Andalucía, neither of us really wanting to leave that romantic region. We had a pleasant continental breakfast at the hotel, then a quick cruise on foot to buy some bread and cheese for the long drive ahead of us. We hit the road, thanked the hotel owner, our ‘Spanish Grandpa’, for everything and got directions to the highway, but only got a few blocks away from the hotel before I yelled at Vidal to stop the car.
I had spotted on a corner the name of a street; it was my uncle’s name - “Agustín Moreno”! I was sure my mom would have gotten a charge out of it in honor of my uncle, as I snapped the photo of the street named after him. We had a lot on our list for the day’s adventure; we were leaving the southern region of Andalucía northwest into the region of Extremadura, then east into the region of Castilla-La Mancha. We were starting in Córdoba, ending at the day’s finish line in Toledo, only going about 520 km out of our way. Off we went into new territory roughly 3.5 hrs/ 289 km to our first destination - Medellín, the birthplace of Hernán Cortés. Medellín was situated very close to the Portuguese border in the dry, barren land of Extremadura; the land where most of the conquistadores heralded from. That in itself was a bit strange; Extremadura was in the middle of Spain with very desert-like terrain. Correct me if I am wrong, but that doesn’t exactly sound like the best breeding grounds for sailors. On the other hand, a successful conquistador relies probably more on his shrewdness than his ability to navigate, although the latter would certainly be a plus on his résumé. When Vidal had originally told me he had wanted to go to Medellín, I set out at once to investigate it the Internet. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack as there was plenty of info on Medellín, Columbia- famous for its drug lords, but pretty much zilch on the town in Spain; I finally found a blurb in some obscure text on the Internet, but it was not until our stop in Chicago on our way to Europe, when we had the map Dad bought in our hands, that we were able to fully plan out our route. Wow, that long run-on sentence alone has more words than I found in that blurb on Medellín, Spain back in 2004! We passed some great castles along the way, such as the Belmez castle nestled atop a steep hill; we stopped for a photo on the side of the road - just one of many castles we would see throughout road trip. I found it amazing how the scenery would change once we got into a new province. The region of Andalucía and its province of Córdoba had rolling green hills, olive orchards and castles perched on hills above whitewashed towns; Extremadura was very low and hilly with rows and rows of wheat colored fields and occasional grazing sheep. We would later see in La Mancha plains, plateaus and farms. Flat or hilly, the Spanish landscape was ever changing and always beautiful; an occasional patch of green once in a while to break up the monotony. I, as always, had the map; we found a lovely spot by a reservoir, Embalse de Alange, and sat below a precipice on which the Alange castle was perched for a quiet picnic before reaching our 1st destination of the day.
We headed off to Medellín after our peaceful picnic; I reflected along the way of the story of Cortés and his part in the history of Mexico- which was anything but peaceful.
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE CONQUISTADOR

500 years has come and gone since Cortés and crew stomped upon the Aztecs. So many versions exist of who he was, but what do we really know of the man who came in search of gold and glory? Maybe he was nothing more than an overgrown troublemaking teenager sneaking his parents’ car out after dark for a spin – or in this case, sneaking his superior’s ship out in the middle of the night for a spin (accompanied by 500 or so of his innocent cronies in full armor, a bunch of horses and a handful other ships), and suddenly.. Uh oh! The wind picked up and blew them all across the sea to Mexico, where they miraculously landed unharmed; after which Cortés accidently set fire to all of the ships, preventing them from returning to Cuba to get their wrists slapped for being naughty… Maybe he was just trying to get The Woman by pretending to be a god and only wanted treasures to shower her, then cried his heart out by a tree when he realized he would never be good enough for her… -Tacoinusa’s Mexican History 101

Let’s see what the history books all seem to agree on: Hernán Cortés, born in Medellín, was a spoiled rich brat, born into a family with connections in all the right places. He was a cousin of Francisco Pizarro- conqueror of the Inca, as well as Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, the 3rd Governor of Hispaniola. When he was 14, Cortés was sent to study at the University of Salamanca, Spain's great center of learning, but got bored and came home 2 years later, much to the annoyance of his parents. He was described as a mischievous little bugger, enjoying the Don Juan life - hurriedly escaping from the bedroom of a married woman, forcing him to leave Medellín due to the scandal and wander the country before Daddy called his famous cousins get him a job overseas. He had quite a reputation by the time he was 26 with accounts of rivalry, betrayal and womanizing; he wound up in Cuba, under the authority of Governor Velázquez. Velázquez had conquered Cuba, and was about to head an expedition to Mexico to do the same. Cortés however, had other intentions. He snuck off in the middle of the night from Cuba with 11 ships and 700 men, landing on the Gulf coast. He claimed it for Spain, naming the port ‘Veracruz’ - true cross. When he heard rumors of the great wealth of the country and that the subjugated tribes resented the Mejica (Aztec) domination, the big light bulb went on in his head, he burned his ships so his men could not leave, and set off to conquer the country.
EVERY CONQUISTADOR NEEDS AN INTERPRETER: LA MALINCHE
You know how the story goes that behind a successful man is a woman… Without the help of La Malinche, the story would have ended quite differently. La Malinche was the 1st born child of a nobleman of the Mexican Gulf coast with a Cinderella twist. Her father died, her mother remarried and her wicked stepfather sold her to Mayan slave traders, where she learned to speak Mayan. Her native language was Nahuatl, which was also spoken by the Mejicas. In 1519, Cortés was given 20 slaves from the Maya of Tabasco; La Malinche was one of them. Meanwhile, Gerónimo de Aguilar, a Franciscan friar from the Frying Pan of Spain (Écija- if you have not read Road Trip Day 4!), had been living with the Mayans for many years, having been shipwrecked. Aguilar spoke Mayan and Spanish, La Malinche spoke Mayan and Nahuatl; and so began the beginning of La Malinche’s career as an interpreter for Cortés, quickly learning Spanish and eliminating the middle man Aguilar. The history books say La Malinche learned of plans by natives to destroy the small Spanish army, warned Cortés and even played along with the natives in order to lead them into traps.
RUTHLESSNESS, CUNNING AND DECEIT: HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL CONQUISTADOR
Cortés used a very clever strategy: he terrified the indigenous nations with his military strength, cruelty and large beasts (they’d never seen horses) at the same time he invited them to become his allies. Imagine King Kong terrorizing New York, then inviting the mayor to tea and a weekend at his cabana in Maine; you get the picture? His goal was to conquer the Mejicas for their gold and treasure with the help of their enemies (all King Kong wanted was the girl). Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (AKA to the uninformed gringo as Montezuma) was the tlatoani (ruler) of Tenochtitlán -the Mejicas’ great island city that wowed the Spaniards. Motecuhzoma was said to be a very experienced warrior, but very superstitious. Supposedly Cortés heard the rumor that Motecuhzoma thought the Spaniards were gods and a fulfillment of a prophecy, and used that to his favor. The Spaniards were invited to Tenochtitlán (for tea or tequila, that is not clear). Upon arriving, they were awed by the great city of 60,000 which sat as majestically as any city they’d ever seen, with great towers and buildings rising up, on an island in a lake. Motecuhzoma treated them like royalty, paying Cortés with the great riches he craved, basically hoping to get rid of them. The people of Tenochtitlán were offended by the Spaniards (it is said they smelled horrid, having left their Zest soap bars and Right Guard deodorant in Spain), but contradicting their tlatoani was a big No-No. Meanwhile, Cortés learned the angry Velázquez was out to get him, so he returned to Veracruz to fight them off, leaving control to Pedro de Alvarado, a soldier known for his extreme cruelty. Alvarado ordered an attack; it was a horrifying massacre. Outraged, Motecuhzoma attacked the palace where the Spaniards had taken refuge, surrounding them and leaving them with very little food or water. Meanwhile, Cortés had won his other battle and returned to Tenochtitlán. He managed to get Motecuhzoma to order his subjects to end their siege, but he was showered with stones, dying a few days later.
POOR LITTLE CONQUISTADOR LOST HIS GOLD: THE SAD NIGHT
The Spaniards choose to make their escape at night because the Mejicas had always suspended their struggle after sunset. After a long battle, Cortés had virtually no horses left and had lost most of the gold given them by Motecuhzoma. It is said that after this defeat, Cortés wept at the foot of a tree; for that the Spanish defeat is known as La Noche Triste-the Sad Night. Meanwhile, a dreadful smallpox epidemic ravaged Tenochtitlán. Tens of thousands of people died, including the tlatoani Cuitláhuac who took over after Motecuhzoma; Cuauhtémoc became the new tlatoani. 6 months later, the Spaniards were back. They cut off all routes to the island, leaving it isolated and without food. The Spanish troops and tens of thousands of allied indigenous soldiers attacked Tenochtitlán at the beginning of June, 1521; they eventually conquered the city on August 13, 1521.
BIRTHPLACE OF A CONQUISTADOR, BUT NOT OF A HERO
We arrived at Medellín at 1:48pm to find that everything had closed down at 1pm! A beautiful old castle overlooked the town; the town itself was small, it was fairly clean but had its share of graffiti and most buildings were in serious need of new paint jobs. In spite of the fact one it was the birthplace of Hernán Cortés- conquistador of Mexico, it had nothing to show for it. No riches to show for their famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) son who put it on the map and the reason we were there. Interesting fact: as mentioned above, the region of Extremadura was the source of many of the most famous Spanish conquistadores and settlers in the Americas: Francisco Pizarro, Hernán de Soto, Francisco de Orellana, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and Hernán Cortés. There was much written about the first four conquistadores and their hometowns, as they had brought their (stolen) riches back; their hometowns and families prospered from their success. That did not seem to be the case with Cortés, nor with his hometown of Medellín. The main street, Méjico, leads up to the plaza dedicated to him-Cortés Plaza.
A statue of him stands in the middle with the names of the nations/tribes he conquered, all in their original spelling: Méjico, Tlaxcala, Otumba & Tebasco. I walked up to it, feeling suddenly very emotional; I just wanted to scream at it, ‘Why?! Why did you have to be so, so cruel? Deceiving? Coming in the name of GOD?’ The statue did not answer me (probably a good thing), so we walked around and found an old church, looking very abandoned, with birds nesting all over it.
We walked back to the square and found a bar open; we ordered a Coke and Vidal’s tonic water (Vidal’s ‘prescription’ from Road Trip Day 2). It was a very quiet smoky bar with 1 client and unfortunately filthy bathrooms; the bartender told us nothing would reopen ‘til 5pm. Very pleasant fellow, but for some reason he thought Vidal was Peruvian (huh?); said lots of tourists come through to see the castle...
BAPTISM DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY GIVE YOU MORALS
There was a map on the (closed) tourist office next to Cortés’ square that marked places of interest; we noted Cortés’ birthplace was not there. Maybe from what all we had read about him having been a bit of a troublemaker and forced to leave Spain and that he didn’t exactly make his town rich, that Medellín was not all that proud of him. We walked up to see an old cemetery (gated and closed) next to another old church.
That church had a plaque stating Cortés was baptized there. I felt the rage in me stir up again. I suddenly wanted to know why the priests there didn’t teach Cortés how to be a true Christian…
A SERIOUS SIESTA
There was a path next to the church which lead up to the castle…roped off; to reopen at 5pm. Those Spaniards really did take siesta very seriously. I was amazed once more at this lazy town and just how lazy it was- the sign for the castle said simply ‘Medieval Castle’; we would later read more closely on the way out the advert posted on the tourist office that simply called it, ‘The Castle’. I find that strange as it did not look like a castle that was in total ruins; even places we had been that just had a shell of a castle kept the former name of the castle! Strange... We headed back to the bar to ask more questions… closed. Very eerie; it certainly was a very lazy sleepy ghost town. We walked down to the river, checked out the old Roman bridge; then decided to get out of Dodge at 3pm.
Medellín had not magically touched us in the way Córdoba or Sevilla had; we had no desire to wait until 5pm for anything to reopen. So we grabbed a couple of Cokes for the road; noted that there were no stores selling postcards, not that I really wanted any...
**Quick note: Medellín, Spain now has its own tourist website. Go figure!
THE SCENIC ROUTE
Back on the N 430 highway, we headed east; it would be another 350K to our next stop- Consuegra. We drove past flat fields of wheat, lost in our thoughts. About a half hour later, we passed another damn and reservoir, the Embalse Garcia de Sola.
I looked down for a second at the map, and somehow Vidal got us on a lesser road, the BA 138, which took us about 40 minutes out of our way on an old road that took the scenic route 25 km around the reservoir. At first, we had no idea we were on a different road, as we were so busy admiring the new surroundings- what seemed to be a national park. But then we realized that not only was the road full of twists and turns (the other was straight), it was a road of lesser quality with no shoulder and no road signs- not even a sign to tell us what highway we were on.
We passed exactly 3 towns total - Peloche, Herrera del Duque and some other town so small it disappeared when we blinked. The strange thing was that even though we knew we were not on the right road, Vidal, Mr. ‘Let’s ask Everyone We See and Their Uncle For Directions’, did not once grumble about stopping to ask where we were. As we passed through Herrera del Doque, we managed to get on yet another road, the N 502, which eventually lead us right back to the N 430 -the road we were originally on, and finally into La Mancha and the Ruta Quixote. A combination of home video, photos, travel journal and Google Earth later assisted me in finding the Long and Winding Scenic Route we had taken!
RUTA QUIXOTE, THE GIANT SALT AND PEPER SHAKERS AND ANOTHER CASTLE
Back on the correct scenic highway, we continued east towards Consuegra through more changing scenery, through rolling hills & fields whispering of romance and knights, into La Mancha and through Ciudad Real- Don Quixote territory! Signs reminded us of that: Ruta (route) Quixote!
About 6pm, we saw in the distance what looked like salt and pepper shakers lined up on a hill: a castle and about 7 windmills, which we could see turning into giants before our very eyes! - Don Quixote’s Giants! They looked so cool! When we got to the quaint town of Consuegra, we saw we were no longer in the white washed land of Spain; here the medieval buildings were stone or of light and earthy colors. We drove past a medieval church, followed the signs down a narrow road that took us up up up and around a hill; the wind was howling when we spotted our first giant… Vidal thought fast and ran it down.

We parked by the castle, Castillo de La Muela, grabbed a couple of cold cokes and decided to go first to visit the castle, as it was about to close in 30 minutes at 7pm. Inside the castle, it was cold! It was also a nice surprise. It was also huge; I had expected to walk around a shell of a castle, but the Consuegra school had dedicated time to reconstructing that gem and putting a few touches in some rooms: old wooden doors and shutters with wrought iron details, wrought iron crosses, wrought iron chandeliers, flags, medieval weapons, knight’s armor, old wooden furniture, photos of the reconstruction and of course, a statue of Don Quixote himself in what I assumed to be the Great Hall.

We wandered through narrow hallways and explored rooms, one room appeared to be a chapel.
We climbed temporary wooden stairs up to the top for an endless view of land stretching out for miles… Vidal of course spotted a bullring way below, sitting all by itself in a field. I gave him The Look that said in no uncertain terms, ‘No honey we are not here to fight bulls, we are here to fight giants, get with the progam!’ Legend says that the emperor Trajano constructed the 11th century fortress castle which later became the original seat of the Caballeros Sanjuanistas- the Spanish branch of the Knight's Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
FIGHTING OFF THE GIANTS
Speaking of knights, it was the Caballeros who brought the windmills to the hill over Consuegra in the 16th century. The windmills were later handed down from fathers to sons, and each has its own name, which may change with its new owner. Some of the windmills are still in use; visitors can see wheat flour being made at the Sancho windmill and get a small bag of the final product as a souvenir. As we got there late, we were not able to partake in that fun; all we had time for was to conquer. We searched around for available weapons, I found a newspaper that doubled as a spear and we attacked.
I had to give Vidal lesson, of course.
Once we had slain all the Giants, we were free to head off to our final destination of Toledo, another 70K East.
SUNSET OVER TOLEDO
I had no idea how big Toledo was until it came into view. Majestically sitting on a large hill, the old section of Toledo is encircled on three sides by the Tagus River. We arrived at 8:45pm and went straight to the parador overlooking Toledo to sit on the terrace for a drink, as it had been recommended in books as well as by our friends Heike and Rick as the place with the greatest view. It was indeed the perfect place to sit back and see Toledo for the first time, with the sun setting dramatically behind it, and as it turned out - the only time we would have Toledo on video, as the battery turned into a pumpkin at sunset and we were unable to recharge it at the hostal. We toyed with staying at the parador for its convenience (we were already there!). However, that idea was quickly scratched- first- too expensive for us; second- the condition of the restaurant was pretty poor- lousy service, dirty floor- although we admitted it was not expensive, considering where we were (meaning the bar and the view). But we were there for the view, which was spectacular; the view seemed to stretch out forever into the setting sun.
Toledo looked larger than we expected, and we already felt it wouldn’t be as ‘warm’ as Cordoba was. But we were not there for the warmth, either. We were there for 4 reasons: to eat, to sleep, to buy one of Toledo’s famous swords (in case we needed to slay any more giants or dragons), and to sightsee. Toledo is known as the City of Three Cultures due to its history of Christians, Arabs and Jews having lived together in harmony there for centuries, and for which Toledo is one of the Spanish cities with the greatest wealth of monuments in the form of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques (1) and synagogues (2). It is also famous for its forgery of swords- has been since the Crusades- it is said that the mighty Muslims feared the Great Swords of Toledo. But all that would have to wait ‘til the morning, as we had to take care of the former 2 reasons for being in Toledo first: eat and sleep!
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF CHEAP HOTELS AND GOOD SERVICE?
We headed to the historical center, found a place to park for €2, and hiked up a hill to the center of town. We wanted to to find a cheap hotel; grab a bite to eat and hit the sack early, it had been a very long day. But… every hotel was too expensive or had no rooms in the historic center. We walked back down toward the car, same thing. We were famished and exhausted, but did not want to repeat the mistake we’d made in Barcelona of grabbing a hotel way out of our price range just because we were hungry and tired of looking. We decided to get in the car and drive away to the outer part of Toledo when Vidal spotted the Hotel Sol below us. He went to check it out while I stayed at the car and prayed it would not be more than €50, which seemed to be an impossible request from everything we’d been quoted. Vidal returned, he got a private room with private bath for €38 plus €12 parking=€50! It was not only very clean, it had A/C that worked. We checked in and washed up; by 10pm we were off for dinner, both of us famished. We were so tired, our tired eyes did not see one of the city’s gates, the 11th century Puerto del Sol, ahead of us. We saw a small café close by that looked like a cheap, local place... We were so exhausted, we did not even notice sitting across from us on the Plaza de la Estrella the 12th century Iglesia de Santiago del Arrabal. We were so wiped out, we almost didn’t care that the waitress was impolite. But when our meals arrived (I do believe they were slammed down on our table), Vidal’s dish was inedible, and we woke up. He couldn’t cut the chicken even if he had one of Toledo’s legendary swords or a Black & Decker chainsaw. When he called the waitress over, she told him arrogantly she’d been serving it all day long and nobody else complained, and walked away! I pushed my plate of bacalao away and said to Vidal let’s go, and DON’T leave a tip!
MICHAEL, THE ANGEL; NO PEPSI, NO COKE, JUST WINE
We went over to the Taberna Amboades, which I had spotted across the tiny plaza from the café, thinking it looked like a place with lots of character; right on the money-we had an EXCELLENT time. The bartender/owner, Miguel Angel, was super friendly and started asking questions right away. When we told him what had just happened, he told us to wait and without even asking, set a big plate of delicious tapas in front of us and told us to eat! Besides us, there was a couple from Madrid, and a few locals; Miguel Angel kept giving us tapas and we ended up with full stomachs. Miguel cracked us up wih his line he said he would tell thirsty tourists: We have no Pepsi, no Coca Cola, this is a WINE bar! We had stopped in for a glass of wine, but stayed for the great company and food. We had great conversation on places in Spain and especially of our upcoming destination of Pamplona; Miguel told us about his experience when he ran with the bulls! He gave us lots of advice (including the route to take the following day to avoid Madrid and see Avila & Segovia instead); it was simply a great time. He told us to look him up on the Rick Steve website… He is there alright, but I had misplaced his business card for 5 yrs upon our return home and only recently looked him up… As I was allergic to the bar smoke and the wine went straight to my head (mostly due to exhaustion of the very long day), we headed off at midnight, before we turned into pumpkins! Tomorrow would be another long day with new places to experience and more kilometers to trace on our map…
Odometer reading by day’s end: 675k

For more information:
Medellín: http://www.Medellín.es/ (Spanish only) Hernán Cortez: http://www.HernánCortés-vs-HernánCortés.com/index.php
Where Vidal got us lost: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalse_de_Garc%C3%ADa_de_Sola
Consuegra and the Don Quixote Route: http://www.visitclm.com/lugares/toledo/consuegra/
http://www.castillalamancha.es/turismo/EN/contenidos/Ruta%20de%20Don%20Quijote/default.asp?R=8
Toledo: http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Arte+y+Cultura/Monumentos/G/TP/0/Puente+de+San+Martin?Language=en
Hostel Sol: http://www.hostalsoltoledo.com/main.english.html
Taberna Amboades wine bar: http://www.ricksteves.com/tvr/pledge/spain/toledo_eat.htm