Most trips are not expected, necessarily, the farthest. Just an hour's drive from Madrid, the small town of Sources Olmeda was a pending visit since, a mid 90, I read "Ethiopia: men, places and myths ", the Comboni Juan González Núñez, Spanish probably the most knowledgeable about this West African country that only looks, occasionally, for their devastating famines and droughts. Reading the book I learned that the first European to see the sources of Blue Nile in Ethiopia, on April 1618, was a Jesuit, Pedro Páez, born "in the Onion Olmedo, not far from Madrid ". It was what was then called pompously as "discoverer" (as if the natives had never noticed his existence before).
The uniqueness of Paez finding is that, for history with a capital, the true discoverer is, mostly, Scotsman James Bruce, he came to the place 152 years after the Spanish Jesuit! Normal to devote himself to discredit the missionary doubting that really had been there, when the description of his writings leaves no doubt. Just shop around Gish Abay -whence the small Nile before heading to Lago Tana and through its waters to become the Blue Nile-, to realize that Paez references are still valid even after four centuries.
This trip began at the end, Sources for Blue Nile south of Lake Tana, in Ethiopia, but had to end, necessarily, in Olmeda de las Fuentes
My curiosity was revived years after, in 2001, when the writer Javier Reverte published his biography of the character: “Dios, the devil and adventure ", Map locating the cradle of Paez, who had moved his name to Olmeda de las Fuentes, "A small town in the province of Madrid, in the vicinity of the Barren plateau ". "No one in the place knew of the existence of Paez", wrote after visiting.
This trip began at the end, Sources for Blue Nile south of Lake Tana, in Ethiopia (https://www.viajesalpasado.com/de-etiopia-a-uganda-viaje-a-las-fuentes-del-nilo-i/), but had to end, necessarily, in Olmeda de las Fuentes. One winter morning sky Velazquez finally headed there from Madrid on the A-3 (Valencia Road). Past the turnoff to Perales Tajunya Take the M-204 in the direction of Tiel, Carabaña and Orusco through a fertile plain in vineyards and olive trees that runs parallel to the course of the Tajuña. And Villar del Olmo is the final detour to Olmeda, five miles in which is gaining altitude toward the hill where sits the birthplace of Paez. After a roundabout, surprisingly, burst into the landscape of the town of white houses on the hillside overlooking the valley of the Arroyo, a mirage of Andalusia a step of Alcarria. Among elms, dwarf poplars and get to the foot of the village, siesta now the sun desktop.
The white houses of the town, Perched on the hillside overlooking the valley of the Arroyo, they are a mirage of Andalusia a step of Alcarria
Olmeda's village of artists (Many painters have set up residence here fleeing from the bustle of London and seeking the serenity that fuels the talents), of steep slopes and scenic serenity that invite. But for the traveler is, especially, the town of Pedro Páez, the discoverer of the Blue Nile Sources forgotten by all. What awaits Community of Madrid to cover a plaque to remember the birth of the Blue Nile that Paez was the first European to get there? The fourth centenary of the event, within five years, may be a good time to repair that historical oblivion.
The steeple of the Church of St. Peter, that dominates the town, Reference is. Next to the entrance to the temple, now closed, is a panel that realizes the life Paez, opposite, a plaque recalls that his convecino born here in 1564 and that 21 April 1618 "Discovered the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains of Ethiopia". The recognition of the town with his unknown countryman did not arrive until 2001, following the publication of the book of Reverte, who inquired unsuccessfully looking for the birth certificate of the Jesuit, as parish records were destroyed during the civil war.
What the Madrid expected to cover a plaque to remember the birth of the Blue Nile that Paez was the first European to get there?
Next to the church is a small gazebo which overlooks the entire valley of the Arroyo. From there you can see the contrast between the more modest houses and villas of the foreign. It breathes here remoteness everything seems unreal, much as that in this same place born who would one day become a Christian emperor of Ethiopia and would become the discoverer of the sources of the Blue Nile, 244 years before Speke the White Nile found in Uganda, the shores of Lake Victoria, solving one of the greatest enigmas of all time geographic.
I think Paez, the modesty with which assumes that historical moment. "And I confess that I was glad to see that as far back as the king wished Cyrus and his son Cambyses, great Alexander and the famous Julius Caesar”, wrote. Maybe that's why I hurt so much to hear in Ethiopia, opposite the beautiful waterfalls Tis Isat, ignorance that Bruce is still considered the discoverer of the sources of the Blue Nile. But how passionately claimed memory of a man who has forgotten his own country?
