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| Me in my hiking outfit : |
Three weekends ago my whole class and I climbed the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain. The specific range is called Las Alpujarras and climbing it was probably the best work out I have had since being abroad. The most surprising part was the bus ride up to the mountains. I did not think I was someone who got motion sickness but that was one windy and curvy ride up the mountain! I just kept my eyes closed the whole time but I was extremely relieved to get off the bus. We packed our lunches once we arrived and started our climb. Our tour guide was a small yet muscular woman who was actually sick that weekend. However, that did not stop her from kicking our butts on that climb. The paths were not too steep but they were winding and narrow and we marched in a single file line at an extremely fast past. Think about one of those scary movies where the killer or bad guy is trying to catch his victim. She is running as fast as humanly possible and the bad guy is only walking and some how he continues to keep up with her. This was the reverse. I was was running/climbing as fast as possible and yet I couldn't keep up with our guide although it seemed like she was taking a leisurely walk through the park.
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| Hiking up some rocks by the river where we ate lunch |
For lunch we packed all the fixing for sandwiches. We ate at this great spot down by the river where we were able to climb down after lunch. It was probably the most fun - and definitely the most relaxing part of the day. Expect for my friend Chelsea. While we were eating a bee flew onto her sandwich when she wasn't looking and she ate it! It stung her tongue first though. It was her first time being stung too!
The rest of the day was not as tiring but it was pretty hot out. By the time we made it to the hostel everyone was pretty beat. We showered and took short naps before going out to an extravagant dinner. Most people ordered fish but a few tried rabbits! Definitely the first time I had seen that! The worst was the fact that the whole animal was served on the plate. Of the 5 people that tried rabbit, 4 of them couldn't bring themselves to eat the head so our program director ate all the rabbit brains himself. Lucky for me, I was sitting right next to him...
We stayed out for a bit that night but we were all pretty exhausted after 6 hours of hiking and semi-dreading the six hours ahead of us the next day. We had a traditional Spanish breakfast that morning - bread with olive oil and a tomato paste. Soon I was pleasantly surprised because I saw we had a new guide for the day. Pablo was awesome for day two because he knew we were all tired and sore. We walked at a much slower pace. We took a different path that day and actually climbed to the top of the mountain. The view from the top was amazing. Once we finally got there our program director announced "Welcome to the Mile-High Club... literally." We had a picnic lunch again the second day but no one was stung. When the day was finally over we were all relieved to see the bus. I am pretty sure all 24 of us slept on the drive back to Granada. Glad we got our naps in because later that night was one of the most fun nights out in Granada. We were all out together and we went to a bunch of new bars and clubs. It was our first time going to a "discoteca" - dance clubs open from 3am to 7am. I think its safe to say that none of us did anything but sleep that Sunday.
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| My "I'm on top of a mountain!" face |
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