Among the California cities of Monterey and Carmel, Pacific shown brave and angry. The 17 Mile Drive (route of 17 miles) circumvents some of the world's most exclusive mansions, bays along misleading lavish wreck, casserole in sight of seals and sea lions. The highlight is the haunting The Lone Cypress, aupado a lone cypress on a cliff over 250 years, who happens to be the most photographed tree in the world.
For the Spanish, This scenic drive is a must-point, Spanish Bay, where the troops camped in the Lleida Gaspar de Portola in 1769 in their eager search of Monterey Bay. It is now a picnic area, but it is worth recalling the pioneering contribution of our fellow, often forgotten, to explore California.
The 17 Mile Drive, overlooking the Pacific to be caressed by the waves, is peppered with images that remain on the retina for years. We traveled in a tour bus that we had gone up in San Francisco, but is much better to rent a car in Monterrey to fully enjoy the tour. Because it is a road to travel in a hurry. On the contrary, is an experience that invites you to stop the car and walk the coastal paths while espumajea sea on the shore with the incessant rhythm of the waves. Like any other seascape, Pacific so exercised a hypnotic power over the mind of the passer, sitting to hear his words of water and salt, the cries of the shipwrecked who remained forever in the water and, why not, the evocative songs of sirens as they tried to bewitch Ulysses.
The tour begins at Pacific Grove and winds through the Del Monte Forest before heading the central Pacific coast in the direction of Pebble Beach, the famous and almost centenary golf course with four U.S. Opens on their backs. The road is private and you have to pay nine euros toll. On either side are ambushed some of the world's most exclusive mansions, those that do not fall below ten million dollars (including, have, the actor, director and former mayor of Carmel Clint Eastwood).
wait to turn photo taken with the best perspective of ghostly tree
The viewpoints are happening and everyone dismounted cast which takes your fancy, but other than Spanish Bay, a mí me sedujo especialmente The Restless Sea, a trap for many boats by proximity to Monterey Bay. It is not difficult to imagine the sinking galleons of the time against this treacherous coast full of rocky shoals. Bird Rock, a rock taken by the birds which seem to feel a predilection seals and sea lions (looking for marine habitat conducive to the flow of Alaska), is another must-.
This ride, however, would be incomplete without the picture of The Lone Cypress, the lone cypress that defies the ravages Pacific immemorial standing on the cliff. It is a paradigm of resistance to adversity and a symbol of Pebble Beach, to the point that you have to wait their turn to take off the picture with the best view of ghostly tree, perhaps the most demanded of the California coast after the universal Golden Gate. Say, even, the most photographed tree in the world (with permission of the giant sequoias of Yosemite).
Finally, a tour of the Golf Lodge at Pebble Beach (www.pebblebeach.com) helps you feel for a few minutes so out of place as a wildebeest in the English Court. Everything is perfect. The grass is cut for good measure, not see a paper on the floor or a wooden plank unvarnished. The truth is that you walk with grief to be littering the floor with your dirty soles of rubber. At the hotel terrace, more typical of Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", have to have a beer in front of one of the holes of the exclusive golf course. And do it with parsimony, thoroughly enjoying the breeze of the Pacific overlooking the other side of the impeccable "green".
