BPE - West of Ireland

Aug 13~15...
Where to start...? well as I said in the first post about Ireland, it was great! The people was so kind and so nice, the landscapes were beautiful, and the weather was there to help us...

We went from Northern Ireland to Donegal, Enya's hometown (but I didnt know that at that time... :s), after getting a lift from a woman, a cooker, and a very kind old couple. In Donegal we pitched in the garden of a hostel, so we were able to cook some couscous we had left, play with the hostel's dog, and had a nice chat with other travelers (Europeans who were surprised to meet people from as far as Colombia (and Japan?) backpacking around Europe :p well in Ireland everyone was surprise and told us we were the first Colombians they met... :D) - (Hi Jasmin!)

Next day we went south to Galway, we had to wait a long time that morning, but in the end it became an unforgettable day, after we were picked up by Mary, who became our angel for the next two days... she was with her son, Bren, and they were going back to their house south of Galway, two hours drive from Sligo (where she picked us up). We talked a lot on our way there, and when we told her we were planning to camp in Galway, she told us we could pitch our tent on her garden, and eat dinner together at her house... :D :D :D
When we arrived at her place she told there was no need for making our tent because they had beds left so we end up sleeping there, after spending a lovely evening eating and talking with them.

Donegal's castle

When we went for a walk at night with Mary we saw many fires in the background and she told us it probably meant that the local team had won the futbol? match, so they were welcoming them with bonfires! even when many people says Ireland has lost a lot of its mystic, what else could we ask for??? and on top of that in the bay you can see in the pic there were seals (that we only recognized as dark things moving in the sea)

Mary!!! our angel! and Sandy, her funny dog...


The next day we were planning to head further south (either to the cliffs of Moher, or to the Aran islands) but the weather had other plans for us... we decided to stay another night at Mary's place, and went for a walk under the rain (without our backpacks) around the Burren... we were walking along the road, when a car slowed down and asked us if we wanted a lift... we were not even raising our fingers, but he just stopped to ask! :) we wanted to walk so we told him we were just walking... but after 15 minutes or so another man stopped and told us to jump in... and well this time we didnt say no. :p He was really nice and went out of the road looking for the start of the walking trail Mary had told us about. Thanks Belly! (that wasnt his name... we forgot it by the time we were writing about it, but he was from Belfast so we decided to call him Belly... :p)

Under the rain...

The sky clearing for us...


Some friends along the way... (and of course my sister taking many many pictures of a small but beautiful snail)


After some time walking along the road, the sky cleared up and we had a great view of the coast and the countryside... we had our lunch up there, and by the time we went back to the road it was still 3 o'clock...

what to do next?... it is still early... and the weather is really nice... we really want to go to Moher's cliffs, right?... how far do you think it is?... one~two hours?... maybe we are lucky?... lets just see how far can we go?... really?... yeah, lets just try until 5 and then we see what to do... humm, ok!...

so we decided to try our luck, and head to the cliffs of Moher... we got a lift to the next town, and what would be our surprise when the car that stopped was... Belly!!! He had just have lunch, and he was going south (with no destination), so he decided to go a little bit out of his way (well, actually he had no destination, so he didnt had something to call "his way" :p anyway), and bring us all the way to the Cliffs! Thank you so much Belly!!!

where to go now???!!!

The Cliffs were amazing... they are so high, and there is no protection whatsoever between the trail and the cliffs. The tallest one is 200 meters tall... 200 meters straight down from the top of the cliff to the ocean... its so spectacular to be up there feeling so small (and so scared), with a great view of the cliffs, the ocean, the Aran islands, and all the birds that live in the walls of the cliffs.


photographer: dont you want to get closer to the border?
answer: No thanks!!!

After walking along the trail, admiring the view, and trying to get as far as we could from the border, it was time to go back... first a farmer gave us a lift, then a pair of young gypsies (something we definitely didnt expect! they were just married, and she was asking us so much about our country, about other places we had been to, our lives, my sister's boyfriend, etc... really funny... and they had no idea where they were going to, it was strange, and sometimes we couldnt understand their english at all! :p it was such a bizarre and incredible experience...). After that a Brazilian who had just arrived to Ireland a week ago picked us up, and after he dropped us, another Brazilian brought us to the road where Mary lived. (Mary had told us there was a town full of Brazilians close by, but we didnt really expect to meet some of them in the road...) When we were going down the road to Mary's place she was coming our way with her car, as it was already getting dark so she was worried and was going to look for us!!!

It was in short such a great, incredible, amazing, bizarre and definitely unique day! even scary to think about, with ALL what happened in just one day! I guess it is days like these the ones that make you realize how your life depends so much on different factors, other people, and that God, nature, the universe, destiny, or whatever you want to call it, somehow must be there looking after you. Looking after you and giving you so much, I guess those are the miracles that we talk so much about but always overlook... the miracles of nature, of the world we live in, of the people who are willing to help, of love and kindness... the miracles we ourselves should protect and can do for other people (and other creatures)...

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