Spain or Bust: Playas Ballota y Gulpiyuri

This post is out of sequence as I was waiting to be able to upload videos. The day after exploring Santander we headed to a couple of beaches we can't access by foot, train or bus. The first, Playa Ballota, was down a steep dirt road; I was a bit nervous that our little Seat rent-a-car wouldn't make it back up. Nothing to do about that once we were parked at the bottom but have fun at the beach.
This was a beautiful, sheltered, fine-sand beach with great body surfing waves. The rock cliffs enclosing the beach look like folded, twisted layers of pie crust.

We had a good time in the water and August met a girl from Madrid, Clara, who seemed to love body surfing as much as he does. They were in the water for hours.

Even I got some boogie board time!

August and Clara wait for a wave.

Louis works on another beach sculpture.

Louis, Spencer and I play some soccer while Oliver...hides?

Sumo Ollie

Silly me, our little Seat did just fine getting up the hill. Off we went to find the inland beach of Gulpiyuri. Inland beach?

Gulpiyuri is a beach that has formed behind the cliffs. There is a connection through a tunnel in the cliff wall. The tunnel used to connect the ocean to a cave, which has long since collapsed, creating the inland beach. Water also seeps up through the beach sand. There are actual waves on this little beach and at high tide it is filled with water. We were there at low tide.