Sierra Nevadas, Aug. 29, 2010

Today, we went on an excursion through the Spanish Sierra Nevadas.



That's them in the background (this is the view from the bus, which had seat belts, which was odd).

We got off the bus in the extreme outskirts of town. There was a river (it's a man-made canal but it's a natural river) with some GIANT ducks in it.



I'm telling you, GIANT.





Here are a few cool pictures from the town. The first one is Professor Madrid telling us all about the town and fruits and things around there. The second one is a guy actually using a pack mule to transport goods through the narrow streets. I had heard that that was the only way of getting heavy items through certain parts of town, but this is the first time I have seen one in use. The third is of a dog that didn't care for the mule much. I thought he was going to jump out of the window for a second, but he just watched the mule walk by...



This is a part of one of the trails we walked up. The open trails were very much like this, narrow and steep and dusty. From the top we got a beautiful view of the canyon.



Here I am in front of a mountain... overlooking the canyon...



That's me with a couple of friends, looking over the non-mountain-y side of the lookout. It was pretty, too.

After about 10 minutes of looking out, we began our hike through the canyon.



Only 4 people were allowed to cross this bridge at a time. It was very rocky and difficult to cross. I'm not afraid of heights, but I was a little nervous crossing this.



Most of the hike through the canyon was like this, on a narrow cement pathway next to the river. It was pretty and we all felt like ants. There were some Spanish guys rock climbing to the right, they were awesome.



Among the fruits growing around here were many, many blackberry bushes. This guy went across the river for them while we waited for the rock climbers to finish and the people to cross the bridge.



As we continued, there were points on the walk where the mountain jetted out farther than the path. They had these giant staple-like handholds we could grab to help ourselves across. In the distance, you can see some of us using them.



We also had to crawl under this thing. It was pretty cool.



Miranda was in front of me during the hike. She was a good sport and let me take cute pictures of her =).



Rocks made the path unusable at this point. We had to jump down into the river and hike around the problem. Luckily, the staple handholds were available here as well.



In a word: Majestic.






Just some CA kids enjoying a lunch break near the river.



Some of the guys thought it would be a good idea to try to climb this during lunch.



Most made it down just fine.



The one riding piggy back is Buck. I heard he fell like 30-40 feet and messed up both of his ankles pretty badly. He is going into surgery tomorrow and won't be able to walk (not even on crutches) for about 2 months. However, I don't really know him or his closer friends, so the information I have is second-hand. After seeing the size of his left ankle, though, I wouldn't be surprised.



It was beautiful though.

And lastly...



Someone was hiking with this little guy and I simply HAD to take a picture!! So precious!!!

Overall, it was an amazing day with a lot of new adventures. It stayed nice and cool in the dark canyon, and it was nice to escape the city heat, and, while I love the city life here, it was nice to get some outdoorsy time and see some of the different sites of Granada, the natural sites even older than any of the history I see in the city.