We Survived!

You’re reading this, so you know by now these intrepid travelers have stared death in the face and survived to tell the tale.

It begins just as the sun is breaking over the mountaintops, adding a shine to the vibrant green of our protective helmets and highlighting the stylish hairnets we get to wear underneath. Now we’re ready for adventure.

The plan is pretty simple. Traverse this canyon:

Along this walkway:

About this high above the river below:

It has all the elements necessary to leave streaks in your shorts but, alas, it has been watered down with safety railings and a surface that doesn’t crumble away if you put your foot in the wrong place.

You can see the new trail in these pictures with the remnants of the old trail, taunting me through the spaces between the boards, below.

As an elite green helmet, we are paired up with a guide who explains the history of the trail, the various dams along the river, the geology, and the plants and animals that we see along the way. Or at least I think that is what he is talking about. His english is only slightly better than my spanish (which isn’t good), and the wind blowing through the canyon into his microphone muffles any words that he might pronouncing coherently. After a while, I take out the earbuds and focus instead on the surroundings as we navigate the rest of the route.

This has been a novel experience, but one that probably jumped the shark about fifty years ago. I figure back then the old trail was probably still sturdy enough to not step through, while the adrenaline rush from walking that narrow path with the water rushing far below would leave quite a lasting impression.

With a good chunk of the day still ahead of us, we change locations once again, this time for Sevilla, where we arrive in time to do a little light exploring and figure out what we might want to see over the next few days.

We finish up in the old town where, for some reason, they have constructed several giant wooden “mushrooms” on what would otherwise be pretty prime real estate. There is a viewing deck at the top that provides some good views of the city and, at night, different color lights flows across them in waves which is kind of cool, but it all feels a bit out of place.