The exciting part was the myriad ways you could fall, trip, stumble, crash, bash, or slide. Each outing provided possibilities. Unlike in America, where your ability to self-maim is limited by the amount that you can sue, here in Spain we had the opportunity to severely injure ourselves without any legal apparatus to interfere.
AVENTURA AMAZONIA – VIZNAR, SPAIN
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- Suiting up.
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- Getting up.
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- Up.
Aventura Amazonia is located in the Sierra de Huétor and consists of 22 zip lines, 4 adventure circuits, and 69 “games” — “games” being the term used to describe death-defying activities to be completed without a helmet because this is Spain, for crying out loud, not namby-pamby America.
After listening intently to a rapid fire explanation of important safety procedures that employed vocabulary rarely encountered in any Spanish language text book, D. had a vague idea of what we should do once the instructors left us on our own.
{Optional Quiz: Please translate, in the next 7 seconds, the following words — la tirolina, sujetar, asir, sostenedor. Next, use these words to help you safely jump off the roof of your garage or your neighbor’s garage.}
The tirolina is not a problem, as long as you remember to properly attach both carabiners to the metal line, make sure the device is placed in its correct position, and hold on desperately.
The following demonstration video illustrates the ease of the whole process.
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LOS CAHORROS – MONACHIL, SPAIN
Hanging bridges, towering peaks, rushing waters, narrow tunnels, swift flowing acequias: what’s not to fear? The most dangerous part of the adventure: a bumpy bus ride on the way to Monachil and sitting too close to a gaggle of smokers at the café as we waited for a ride back home. In between, a chance to get wet, a chance to fall down, and a chance to be bit.
To hike the Los Cahorros loop is to find yourself suspended in a gorge 50 feet over Río Monachil crossing a 180-foot long bridge. It is to crawl through dark, narrow fissures, and for the special few, it is to wonder how many more kilometers you have to go before reaching total meltdown phase.
As usual, we started out strong, adding an extra two kilometers to the overall length of the hike by getting off the bus in the center of Monachil and refusing to pay for a taxi to take us directly to the trail head. Mistake? Only in retrospect. Following another tradition, once at the start, someone in our party led us confidently in the wrong direction for a good half kilometer. Problem? Only if you don’t like to walk. With time, we settled into a rhythm, one that would only end on a discordant note if blood sugar levels got too low.
SENDERISMO CON GÓMEZ MORENO – OLIVARES-MOCLÍN-OLIVARES
Though Henry David Thoreau declaimed, “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion” (Walden, Chapter 1), it was Lionel Messi who stated: “What I do is play soccer. That is what I like.” The upshot of the analogy is clear: If you want to be alone, don’t come to Spain. In general, the Spanish people enjoy hanging out with lots of other people, Spanish or otherwise. That is what they like.
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- On a walk with Escuela Pública Gómez Moreno.
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- The Spanish people like to be with other people.
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- Snuggling up to the tour guide.
On this outing, the only danger was walking on narrow or wide paths and bumping into students and parents from Gómez Moreno. The other constant threat was the many children running recklessly with sticks. The hike began in Olivares, crossed the Río Velillos, and wound upward to Castillo de Moclín.
P.S. — We made it through the day without mishap.
Hiking up to Llano de la Perdiz; taking a bus to Beas de Granada to walk the 20 kilometers back to town; crossing through Huétor Santillán or along Cruz de Viznar; driving south to walk the twin-peaked Boca de la Pesca: these were the places that adults would escape to while their children were at school. Known to the cognoscenti as Humans who Walk, this group of parents made sure to be back at Gómez Moreno in time to pick up the kids by four. So what if we had had a beer or two by hike’s end. Truth is, we had started out in the morning with café con leche, so it all evened out.
FROM BEAS DE GRANADA TO GRANADA:
BOCA DE LA PESCA VIA LA ZUBIA:
pomegranate2015 