Life is caring teacher. Most of the people don’t see or don’t pay enough attention for all the happenings. I’ve got a lovely story and on the same time I can share the beauty of my beloved island.
There is a long-distance hiking route, has a big history and legends too. Lately it’s famous about a hardcore ultra marathon, called Transvulcania. Pretty awesome, even dough I’m not a sporty person. Check it out, maybe next your you will be between those awesome crazy people. http://transvulcania.info
The distance of GR131 is 67 km, starts and finishes on sea level - Puerto de Tazacorte or Fuencaliente - and going up to 2400 meters. Nature and the path are changing all the time. Awesome experience!! Some crazy runners need only 7 hours to accomplish it! I need about 4 days walking :D
I had some busy weeks going all around on the island with a lot of people around me. When they left and I stayed more or less alone, I said I’ll do then some hiking for a couple of days - being connected with nature, listen some music, enjoy to be alone. Couldn’t wait for it! At that time I stayed in a Squat House, just next to GR131. Pretty handy, isn’t it?
The day before we were having some drinks with the guys from there and I told them my plans for the next couple of days. J, a czech guy got really interested, as he lives on the island for years but never walked the route. Plans change so quickly on this island - such as in Life. First I was not sure if I want him to come, but I know unexpected happenings can give you great surprises and gives you so much new knowledge. In the end I was pretty glad for his company. First, he got a fishing rod - very nice to go for fishing after such a long walk and being in the nature for days, and of course free fresh food!
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We started our walk not from Tazacorte, but about 580 meters above sea level with a view like that:
Actually the part we skipped is pretty amazing as well but I’ve walked it already many times. It’s a vertical hiking path. Have a look from the Playa:
One on the way:
Writing this post is bringing me back to my heart what I left there.
Have you ever felt like being in love with a place such as being in love with somebody? It’s painfully beautiful!
Well let’s share some pics from our first day in the heat - already sweating as hell after 10 mins walk.
I guess if you read this post you are interested of that kind of lifestyle or at least you do hiking, loving the nature. Probably you know the importance of having enough water with you (and alcohol), but still your bag has to be as light as possible. In my case its always difficult as I could drink out a whole lake within a day. In those warm and sunny days especially. So you could imagine when we found a house on the way and could get some water! Even, after this wine-field we’ve met a lovely man who invited us for a “glass” of wine. Its never a just a glass on this island.
Soon we ended up in a bit more cooler place:
This couple of day with J taught me how to be in my own world without feeling uncomfortable and trying to talk because we are together. We did talk, but we also stayed in our own world. He had also things to clear up in his mind. Great conversations about his past, drug problems, troubles with family, his teenager-age and all the happenings that brought him to be who he is now. Well, not now, because we did this trip in May, 2017. We still talk to each other, and this our little walk helped him to go through of his life, realise many things. In this few days turned to be the first steps in his new life. After that he started a new lifestyle, and it’s still under process. Difficult, he needs a lot of energy but going well so far!
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Let me introduce you our friend Birdy:
Birdy is a lovely friend, we met on the way at a ‘mirador’ - viewpoint. He didn’t let anyone close to him, but probably he found us simpatico, as he was our body for the next 6-ish kilometres. Just flying/hanging around, showing how awesome and free his life is - of course body! Chilling in the find, having awesome view, being in peace, chasing/fooling around with other little ones, sitting down with us for a joint and some wine. And he stayed with us for the night. I guess. As I met him in the morning, and he showed us how smart he is and how stupid we are.
But first, let’s see where we spent the night:
Great sunset we had there, and just a couple of mins away nice open view to the ocean. No clue what we were talking about but the next morning wasn’t my fittest one. Or was it the wine not the late sleep?!
Anyways, waking up as a zombie, crying for coffee (of course I’m an addict so we did have), I open the tent and I see Birdy. Just taking out a plastic bag from J’s bag.
- What is he doing? - wondering B with half opened eyes.
- Isn’t it our bread? - wondering J with half opened eyes.
- Are you really that stupid? - wondering Birdy with fully opened eyes with a huge smile.
When he started to fly we both knew would be useless to take any effort to chase him as we don’t have wings - yet, just make some coffee.
So we did have some with a stunning view:
20-30 mins later:
After Birdy’s action we had to discuss how to go further, as we calculated all our food, just to have enough, so we lost one day’s food. We had three options.
1. Don’t eat for a day. - hahahahaaaaa. NO.
2. Leave GR131 and walk to the closest village with supermarket (more or less 10 km - in canary kilometres, what would feel like 30km).
3. Trust on the island and something is gonna happen.
We didn’t have to think too much and I guess you know as well which option we took.
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Something what most of my friends know about me: WHEREVER I go, I always take water with me. Even If I stay away for 15 mins. Some people has the same with tissues, cigarett, mayonnaise(!), candy, etc.
And I had to realise we have to be very careful with the amount of water - as J realise he didn’t put one of the bottles into the bag. Of course inside me started to freaking out!! I was feeling thirsty all the time. Tried not to think about it, and finding a solution, couldn’t help. Same as Nutella. Still need to work on these two.
So it’s hot, it’s heavy route. Just licking the top of the water bottle, drinking as a dog. And just when I accepted the situation, we saw a man-made simple but awesome shelter at an amazing spot, not so far from the road. Found it accidentally, as toilet was needed… Had a look of the “construction” - made by small wood, leaves, and everything what he could get from around. Then I looked inside. So guess what?!:
YESSSS!!!! Two bottle of course. As we are two. And of course unopened. And of course in the shadow to stay cool, as it’s hot outside. Some people probably would feel the same such as winning on lottery.
Life always brings things what we need into our Life, just at the right moment. We can’t be impatient, headstrong. We just need to trust.
So we continued our way with a huge smile on our face!
And look who showed up:
Of course you can’t be mad at him, we just sad ‘hallo’ to Birdy, and hoped he had a nice breakfast. He stayed with us a little, where we sat down a little, and go hang out swhere else. As we did too.
That is already pretty close by the top. We didn’t really take pics here, I’ve been here and on the next 16-20kilometers a couple of times. So let me show you some pics from another time:
On the way up here we agreed with J to give a try getting some bread and fruits (we did not have and just wanted to eat some).
I might look not the happiest person, but thats the fault of the photograph :)
As it’s one of the most touristic spot on the island (you can reach it by car), lot of people passed by and some of them gave us what they could. But no bread. We’ve got nice peaches, and some other fruit, surprisingly lot of Oreo and chocolate. Filled up our bottles with WATER - juppie - and continue the way.
Well I must say we turned to be a little lazy, or just the time we spent with Siesta and waiting for food, or just because I already walked this way, we changed the plan for cheating, and hitchhike to a spot from where we could end up in my favourite place on the island - Refugio Punta de Los Roques.
Of course we had got a ride within 5 mins, ended up at The Spot. J just put his bag down, no clue why we stopped but he took out some stuff from his bag, and guess who showed up and within a second took all the herbs what he collected on the way?!
That pic hasn’t taken by me, no clue what I have to do legally, here is the link where I got it: http://www.cumbriacrack.com, actually I just googled ‘crazy scary raven’ Sorry for any kind of anything!
We had a little walk, just a couple of kilometres, of course a beautiful one:
I remember when first we walked this route - the whole one - with my friends, we had amazing moments. Being tired as hell, frustrated, L and D arguing on something, L being upset cuz I just didn’t want to get involved of it. If L will read this post you’ll see it in comments, she would be upset of forgetting it. Sorry Love! We also had an amazing sunset with a bottle of one, all problems gone!
This time we experienced our longest 1240meters, the last ones. We were dying!
LDB trip was months before we had ours with J. I pretty much got used to of canary kilometres, so we were all fine and arrived to The Refugio. I’ve visited it 6-7-8 times, but I have only 1 picture of the building:
I could even make another post about this picture, and the experiences on those days.
But now we are at this story with J and the Refugio. Mostly the place is empty or just some other hikers staying there. Well my memory is terrible, but I remember for two czeh guys - lucky J - or there was only one? And the other two guys were German? Anyways, 2 plus 1. And a crazy crazy guy from Spain. We met him on the way that day, but early in the afternoon. He arrived just when the sun was going down. He looked fat, tired, strange. It turned out he actually started in the morning from Tazacorte (sea level) and just walked until he reached the refugio. All in 1 day. So there was no fat, muscles muscles muscles. And enthusiasm! Amazing chats with all the guys, incredible stories, watching sunset with some wine, and early sleep.
Would love to share pics about it, but we were too busy to be in the moment. I’ve got some pics from the past - just to have a clue how is the view from the terrace, even a video - homemade everything, and I might should cut it, so you would enjoy it more, but I do enjoy with the pure beauty.
This Refugio is just in the perfect place, like the middle of everything and nothing! Wherever you go within 50 meters, everything is amazing. Thats why I don’t have any pics or videos, impossible to share it via those. My friend tried it with the sunrise (background, Tenerife):
Nice nice, but not even close to see in real life. Colours changing in every moment, you don’t even want to blink, its wasting time and you might will miss something.
The morning came and brought the magic with itself again. After we woke up, went to the table and our stuffs to make some coffee and somebody just left 2xhalf kilo bread for us, from Tenerife :) We didn’t even share the bread-biddy-story with the guys, so they must had to be mind-readers. Magic magic. Probably the crazy-amazing spanish guy was our angel, We’ll never know it, but we were/are very thankful for him!
These two magical moments taught me how to be patient and trust on Life. Everything is way much easier and more beautiful like that.
Those couple of days opened up different gates, and started to think about other questions as well, especially religion, believes, trust, human behaviour, importance, stress, balance, and so on. Probably you’ll find some posts here on that topic as well. And of course stories of the magical island!
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The end I’ll make it short, picture will show you the beauty, luckily not our tiredness. We walked on that day to El Pilar, what is about 14 km, lots of green, pine trees, and jungle, being above, inside, and under the clouds. Wonderland.
Ah this place was full of oreganos!!
Before we left for this little trip, I read somewhere about a guy, who walked this path on bare feet - and the best part of it was that more or less 10 km before El Pilar. I had to try it! And yes indeed! Before, my feet hurt, and after I took off shoes, it was like walking on blanket. Blanket of pine-needle. Sweet and lovely! Since that time I always walk on bare feet if the weather conditions and the hiking paths let me to do it. Try it out next time you’ll go somewhere. Or just go have a little run in your garden :)
On the way to El Pilar we discussed with J to get a ride from the parking zone to the final destination, Fuencaliente. And so we did.
Ended up at friend’s place with a typical weekday happening:
FIESTA!