Little journey through secondary roads

A road trip is what we needed, a good soundtrack and the feeling of having been very alive.

-Leire... this could be a podcast, you know that right?

+I know... how intense we get Ans!.

The sun goes down, all those stars that I can't see from my city come out, Loquillo's Cadillac Solitaire sounds, while we chat about everything and I see roe deer running from the car window. Ana tells me things like how you can tell what season of the year we are in based on the colors of the fields and the landscape. I can feel the peace, almost no cars.

"If this was a BlaBlaCar ride I'd give it 5 stars."

I have seen my town in many others on this trip, I know Soria and the more rural Segovia, the sensations are always the same, something strange, like when you leave a place and perhaps you do not miss the place itself, but who you have been in that place.

My friend Ana works at a cooperative fighting against rural depopulation and it is always very interesting to listen to her. How cool to see people doing things with passion, and even more so if it's for such necessary cause.

Personally, I don't like the concept of "uninhabited" or "emptied" because nothing is emptied: these territories are full of natural resources, free animals, flora, history and cultural heritage.

Depopulation is a particularly uncomfortable problem, here in Spain, Europe and everywhere. Ana and I carried out in-depth work on this at the University, and although the diagnosis is clear, there is no easy solution as it goes beyond any occasional patch. It means rethinking the bases on which our society and its production model are based, the way in which we live in a society based on accumulation and precarious growth.

Ana also tells me that the concept of "rural" is already very prostituted. I had not thought about it before, but she is quite right, and the fact is that the social perception of the rural environment allows for a fairly extensive Master's thesis. I like to think that this perception is changing and that there will be a socio-cultural learning that favors rural development towards a vision of an environment where you can satisfy the important vital needs to be happy.

A world that is crying out for us to take care of it properly.

We all agree on how unfortunate it is that rural Spain is disappearing. It is impossible not to be. I don't know where I read that for urban Spain, rural Spain is something like a silent subconscious: information, memories, experiences and experiences that are stored away from the conscious mind.

This issue needs people involved to open rural territories to new economic activities, for example, technological, artistic and cultural, as is already happening in other European countries. The recipe?: innovation, but above all social innovation, effective and efficient solutions of the existing elements in the territory to solve social challenges and promote social enterprises.

María invited us to Encinas, a town (or village) in Segovia. We visit neighboring towns, more or less beautiful. For me everyone has something to tell. But if you can show special people your most special corners, you don't show beautiful things to just anyone, like when my father keeps his favorite places in Asturias a secret.

Pedraza, Segovia.

We walk, we eat, we even find some festivities in a neighboring town, village-festivals are the cultural heritage of this country. Is there something that creates more cultural unity? The terraces say many things. Sometimes it scares me, but I'm not surprised anymore, and we hear a lady: "The queen has traveled more dead than me all summer." And I think: you could only hear this comment on a Spanish terrace, hahaha I laugh.

We barely see each other for how much we love each other Ans, as Loquillo said, I don't know what adventures I'll run without you.