Puerta del Sol is the center of Madrid and the center of Spain. It is known as Spain's kilometer 0 as all roads converge here. It is the place of shopping, style and late night partying. And maybe that is why this particular Sunday morning stands out in my mind. On that Sunday in October, thousands of sheep paraded through Puerta del Sol stopping the usual hustle and bustle of Madrid life for nearly 20 minutes!! Later, upon reading the newspaper, I discovered that I had just experienced part of a nationwide movement of "Trashumancia". An organization called "el Proyecto 2001" had set out to recover a tradition that had existed for centuries but had not been practiced in the last 30 years. It was a tradition that included 10 different ambitious paths that spanned the entire Iberian Peninsula. The herders, in order to preserve the natural ecosystem and to prevent the extinction of various animals, were taking sheep and also cattle and horses on trails across Spain from the southern most cities such as Seville to the northern coasts. It was such an impressive sight to see all those thousands of sheep proudly parade through Puerta del Sol asserting their position in the lives of Spaniards.

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