Tag Archives: Hiking

Montaña Roja, Tenerife

Tenerife, Travel, , , , , , ,

Feb 6 – today we put our boots on, grabbed our trekking sticks, and set out to climb Montaña Roja, or the Red Mountain, so named as the bits of iron in its volcanic rock composition give it a ruddy hue.

We started out early, before the kite surfing rental shops opened. Looks like it’s going to be a nice day.
The Mandela Man left us a new early morning message: Love yourself first, then love others
The start of the trail. The mountain is a piddling 400 foot climb, and doesn’t look red at all from here. This will be a walk in the park. My brain started singing, “Saturday in the Park” by Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Some hikers left their mark next to the trail
As we climbed, the wind increased – you cannot imagine how windy it was! The song in my head switched to Marilyn McKoo: Blowin’ Away. “I feel so high, I feel like I may be blowin’ away…”
This poor tree doesn’t stand a chance of growing straight in this wind!
Almost there!
Our destination! It was so windy up here that I repeatedly had to stop and crouch down to avoid getting blown off the summit. My full water bottle, stored in a side pocket of my pack, sailed up, up and away at some point, never to be seen again.
We made it! I almost lost my hat at one point, and the wind almost tore my glasses off, but, standing on the lee side at the top, this is the look of success.
Jim is so happy when he’s standing at the very highest point!
Time to head back down. We passed a young couple with an infant in arms on their way up, and all I could think was, “you better hold tight onto that baby!” See the cluster of white buildings that is our little town of El Médano?
Now you can see the reddish color of the rocks
Ta da! Back to the signpost! Some friendly Brits snapped our picture.
Returning to the beach two hours later, where the kite surfers were just getting started.
To celebrate our victory, we had lunch at a seafood restaurant. Jim had the grilled squid…
…and I wrestled with the king prawns. I prefer my shrimp when they are not looking back at me. Delicious, but too much work!
Tonight we encountered some buskers entertaining the crowd, which is growing larger by the hour as the weekend nears. This group had a very danceable tune, and, yes, we danced!
Time to watch the sun go down, as the last of the kayakers bring their boats back to shore.
An excellent day!

On to Maastricht

The Netherlands, Travel, , , , , ,

Oct 7 – Today we bid adieu to Valkenburg, shouldered our packs and got on the Pieterpad for the hike to Maastricht. Although I’ve shown you plenty of wall art, here is some more as we walked out of town.

Gnome Sweet Gnome
An odd place for a baby, above a doorway
A pretty church? Nope – it’s a restaurant!
A pretty house
An ivy covered gazebo
Finally – goats!

The day was perfect for hiking – cool and breezy. Maastricht is about eight miles away.

After leaving town, we walked along the River Guel
Keeping an eye out for Pieterpad markers
This trail is also part of the Camino de Santiago – it was great to see the familiar sign of the shell!
Shady forest
We walked through an upscale town with thatched roof houses – go figure!
The coffee shop had an impressive collection of old hiking boots – who would discard their boots before the end of the trail?
Then back out to farmland
We met lots of hikers and bikers, but theses were the only horses we saw today

And just like that, we were in Maastricht, the biggest city we’ve seen since Amsterdam. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!

More from Valkenburg, Netherlands

The Netherlands, Travel, , , ,

Oct 2 – Another perfect sunny day, and we must be feeling better, as our plan for the day is hiking. We were originally supposed to walk into Valkenburg from the Pieterpad, so our plan for today is to find that trail!

The red and white Pieterpad marker in town
The trail is nice and flat
Lots of horses
… and flowers
A mother is biking the trail with her adult son
There’s Valkenburg down below
Pretty farmland
Care for a large cup of tea?
We walked through a pretty park on our way back to town

A great day!

Loma el Pastoreo / The Grazing Hill

Panama, Travel, , ,

Jan 30 – Jim had one more hike on his list, so we set off this morning in another direction to find Loma el Pastoreo / the Grazing Hill.

Wall art!
A calf tied to a roadside fence – maybe she’d like to come grazing on the hill.

We walked down a road that was not a main road. On either side were large private homes behind stone walls and iron gates. So peaceful and so pretty.

More high-stepping horses!
These horses looked sad
The yellow frog is the national animal of Panama. It is an endangered species, so this is probably the only one we will see.
Yes! If we ever get a palatial retreat, we will name it Villa Amnesia.

We finally reached the trailhead, if you can call it that. It looked more like a dry stream bed, full of sticks and rocks. Jim said, Up! So up we went.

I’m coming as fast as I can!

After a steep, but mercifully short scrabble, we reached the vista. We could see in all directions. It was so windy!

Happy Jim!

Our time in El Valle is drawing to a close. We had dinner at the Colombian restaurant, with excellent patacones (fried plantain chips as big as your hand), and one more evening walk down the main road. El Valle has been a magical place for us, and we’re going to miss it.

La India Dormida

Panama, Travel, , ,

Jan 27 – After a day of rest, today was a day for action! We had an early breakfast and set out for El Valle’s most famous hike, up La India Dormida. Although the reviews called the hike ‘challenging, steep, rocky, and moderate to difficult’, Jim assured me that it would be no problem for an experienced hiker like me. Famous last words.

We walked all the way through town, then down a road another mile to the start of the trail.

There’s La India
We paid the $3 per person entrance fee and off we went
A big boulder contained ancient petroglyphs, sheltered from the weather by the slant of the rock face.
This is believed to be an ancient map
More petroglyphs – what do you think they represent?
The trail started out benignly…
…but soon we were scrabbling over big rocks
A pretty waterfall
Up and up we go!
Another petroglyph boulder
We reached a clearing where we could see across the valley. At this point, I called ‘no mas!’- I could go no further.
Others must have had the same idea, as there was a very uncomfortable bench built here.
Jim was determined to get to the summit, and continued the climb for another half hour. I waved farewell and sat on my bench.
Jim graciously shared his pix of the summit ridge…
…and the town in the valley below

Jim climbed back down, all happy, and we ate our lunch on the bench. You might think that scrabbling down is easier than climbing up, and sometimes you’d be right, but the muscles at the front of my thighs had already given all they had to give, and our descent was painfully slow.

Stopping for a breather – at least one of us is smiling

We finally made it down, then only had to walk one more mile to get back home. It was a long mile! We stopped halfway for a strawberry ice cream cone, which made me feel better, then home for a hot shower, which made me feel better still.

An interesting day.