We had lots to do on day 55, and we needed to get out of the hotel early in order to get everything done. By 1:30 pm, we were ready to go. Our parking garage was crowded and confusing. Aaron had to do a crazy 9 point turn with Kaylea standing outside of the car to guide him out of the tiny tiny parking space. With only an inch to spare, we managed to get out of the space. But it wasn't over. It took us several U-turns and a lot of frustration to get out of the garage. All in all, it probably took us 15-20 minutes to get the car out of there. Once we were on the highway, everything was fine. Well, kind of. Aaron couldn't read the street signs, or any of the indicators inside the car. Other than that, everything was fine...
Our first stop for the day was Cuevas del Drach (Dragon Caves). It's a small system of caves and it's one of the "must see" things on the island. Other than that, we didn't really know too much about it. We just figured we'd deal with cost and stuff when we got there.
The cost wasn't too bad, but there were only tours on the hour and the next one was booked. The cave was in this small park area, and the extra hour we had gave us a bit of time to explore. After some hiking, we found this cool little inlet where the water was perfectly clear. We wanted to swim, but the climb down was a little sketchy, and we had a tour to get back too. The cave was pretty amazing. Millions of needle sharp stalactites. Hundreds of massive stalagmites. They even had a lake inside. At one point, they sat us in an amphitheater, turned off all the lights, and played live classical music on boats passing the audience. Light from the boats reflected off the water, illuminating this glorious cave. If it wasn't for people trying to take pictures with their cell phones, it would have been amazing.
Our next stop was Es Pontàs (the Arch). We were both pretty excited about this one. It was one of the highlights of the trip, and it was here that Chris Sharma (a climbing celebrity) set one of the most difficult deep water soloing problems in the world. If you haven't seen the movie King Lines, you should check it out. We're both pretty decent climbers, but since we didn't have a guide, we had no plans to climb it. Instead, we found a small lookout point in front of the arch to take some selfies. As we were walking back to the car, we saw a young shirtless man with climbing shoes walking towards the arch. We asked him if he was going to go climb it, and he said yes; he was climbing with a friend. He showed Kaylea how to get down to the Arch while Aaron ran back to the car for some climbing shoes. But by the time he made it back and saw the way down, we started to change our minds. It was already late afternoon, and the water was really choppy. These guys didn't have a boat. They had to do a long and high solo traverse over rocks, followed by a short swim just to get to the start. It was too dangerous, and seeing how we didn't even know the language, we decided not to risk it. We were going deep water soloing the next day anyway.
We finished off the day at a small beach nearby. The drive there was almost impossible. The only way there was a small dirt road with a fence on either side of it. No shoulder. Even though it should have been one lane, it was being used as a two way road. People were certainly whipping around corners as if it was one way. Aaron may or may not have bumped into a fence post. As stressful as the drive was, the beach was totally worth it. We were standing in water up to our necks, and yet we could see our feet and the sand perfectly clear. It was like a pool with sand on the bottom. After a little bit of time at the beach we headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
We actually needed to wake up early on day 56. We were supposed to meet our deep water soloing guide in another town by 11:00, and there was a whole list of things we needed to get done before we got there. We managed to get up, get breakfast, get ready, and get to the meeting point with plenty of time to spare.
Unlike our previous deep water soloing excursion, this time, we did not have a boat, so we didn't start in the water. Instead, we had to carefully walk down over the rocks and either down climb or traverse over to get to the actual routes. Also, these routes had a top out. Our last trip began and ended in the water. The goal was to climb as high as you could, then jump in. This time, the goal was not to get wet. It was over an hour before anyone even fell in the water. Still it was fun. One of the people in our group came with his mom and dad. He was surprisingly strong for his lack of experience, but he was more interested in jumping off cliffs. Granted, it gave us something to do when we were tired of climbing.
The rock we were jumping off of wasn't too much higher than the one we jumped off of in Cinque Terre. Right before we left Aaron decided to jump one last time. As he hit the water, he felt something in his pocket. It was the key for the rental car. But this wasn't a normal car key. This was the remote for the key-less entry system. It had been in his pocket the entire time. It was a miracle that the thing hadn't fallen out. It was an even bigger miracle that it still worked.
After the climbing and cliff jumping, we decided to end our day with some more beach time. Apparently, on this beach, being topless was totally fine. People seemed to be much more casual about nudity. While we were in the water, a fish nipped at Kaylea's toes, and she jumped out of the water into Aaron's arms. The water was so clear, you could see the fish. It was huge. We made some sand castles, and soon we realized we had some wicked sun burns developing.
We decided to stop off at a store for some Aloe before heading home. It turned out to be one of the biggest parking nightmares Aaron had ever experienced. Once again, we were an inch away from damaging our rental car. But we made it. Besides being horribly sunburned, it was another amazing day.
The next day was spent traveling to Barcelona. Our flight was about 30 minutes late, which seems pretty standard for Ryanair. You would think by now, we'd have gotten used to the long lines and screaming babies that inherently come along with airport travel, but no such luck. Also, carrying the backpacks with our sun-burnt backs was horrible. When we made it to Barcelona, we were unable to buy our last train ticket to Madrid because of a national holiday. It was weird. People were working, they just weren't able to sell us tickets. By the time we made it to our hostel, we were beat.
After a quick nap, we made a reservation at a Thai place for 8:15. The service wasn't great, but the amazing food made up for it. This place pretty much matched the reviews perfectly. Since it was a national holiday, there were fireworks going off everywhere. We didn't see any of them, but boy did we hear them. Every few minutes there was a loud bang. It was almost as if we had landed in a war zone. Our first night in Barcelona ended with us falling asleep to the sound of small explosions in the distance.
Can you see the concentration/fear in his eyes?
Our first stop for the day was Cuevas del Drach (Dragon Caves). It's a small system of caves and it's one of the "must see" things on the island. Other than that, we didn't really know too much about it. We just figured we'd deal with cost and stuff when we got there.
The cost wasn't too bad, but there were only tours on the hour and the next one was booked. The cave was in this small park area, and the extra hour we had gave us a bit of time to explore. After some hiking, we found this cool little inlet where the water was perfectly clear. We wanted to swim, but the climb down was a little sketchy, and we had a tour to get back too. The cave was pretty amazing. Millions of needle sharp stalactites. Hundreds of massive stalagmites. They even had a lake inside. At one point, they sat us in an amphitheater, turned off all the lights, and played live classical music on boats passing the audience. Light from the boats reflected off the water, illuminating this glorious cave. If it wasn't for people trying to take pictures with their cell phones, it would have been amazing.
Our next stop was Es Pontàs (the Arch). We were both pretty excited about this one. It was one of the highlights of the trip, and it was here that Chris Sharma (a climbing celebrity) set one of the most difficult deep water soloing problems in the world. If you haven't seen the movie King Lines, you should check it out. We're both pretty decent climbers, but since we didn't have a guide, we had no plans to climb it. Instead, we found a small lookout point in front of the arch to take some selfies. As we were walking back to the car, we saw a young shirtless man with climbing shoes walking towards the arch. We asked him if he was going to go climb it, and he said yes; he was climbing with a friend. He showed Kaylea how to get down to the Arch while Aaron ran back to the car for some climbing shoes. But by the time he made it back and saw the way down, we started to change our minds. It was already late afternoon, and the water was really choppy. These guys didn't have a boat. They had to do a long and high solo traverse over rocks, followed by a short swim just to get to the start. It was too dangerous, and seeing how we didn't even know the language, we decided not to risk it. We were going deep water soloing the next day anyway.
We actually needed to wake up early on day 56. We were supposed to meet our deep water soloing guide in another town by 11:00, and there was a whole list of things we needed to get done before we got there. We managed to get up, get breakfast, get ready, and get to the meeting point with plenty of time to spare.
Unlike our previous deep water soloing excursion, this time, we did not have a boat, so we didn't start in the water. Instead, we had to carefully walk down over the rocks and either down climb or traverse over to get to the actual routes. Also, these routes had a top out. Our last trip began and ended in the water. The goal was to climb as high as you could, then jump in. This time, the goal was not to get wet. It was over an hour before anyone even fell in the water. Still it was fun. One of the people in our group came with his mom and dad. He was surprisingly strong for his lack of experience, but he was more interested in jumping off cliffs. Granted, it gave us something to do when we were tired of climbing.
The rock we were jumping off of wasn't too much higher than the one we jumped off of in Cinque Terre. Right before we left Aaron decided to jump one last time. As he hit the water, he felt something in his pocket. It was the key for the rental car. But this wasn't a normal car key. This was the remote for the key-less entry system. It had been in his pocket the entire time. It was a miracle that the thing hadn't fallen out. It was an even bigger miracle that it still worked.
(Little did he know the car key was in his pocket)
(Videos to come)
After the climbing and cliff jumping, we decided to end our day with some more beach time. Apparently, on this beach, being topless was totally fine. People seemed to be much more casual about nudity. While we were in the water, a fish nipped at Kaylea's toes, and she jumped out of the water into Aaron's arms. The water was so clear, you could see the fish. It was huge. We made some sand castles, and soon we realized we had some wicked sun burns developing.
We decided to stop off at a store for some Aloe before heading home. It turned out to be one of the biggest parking nightmares Aaron had ever experienced. Once again, we were an inch away from damaging our rental car. But we made it. Besides being horribly sunburned, it was another amazing day.
The next day was spent traveling to Barcelona. Our flight was about 30 minutes late, which seems pretty standard for Ryanair. You would think by now, we'd have gotten used to the long lines and screaming babies that inherently come along with airport travel, but no such luck. Also, carrying the backpacks with our sun-burnt backs was horrible. When we made it to Barcelona, we were unable to buy our last train ticket to Madrid because of a national holiday. It was weird. People were working, they just weren't able to sell us tickets. By the time we made it to our hostel, we were beat.
After a quick nap, we made a reservation at a Thai place for 8:15. The service wasn't great, but the amazing food made up for it. This place pretty much matched the reviews perfectly. Since it was a national holiday, there were fireworks going off everywhere. We didn't see any of them, but boy did we hear them. Every few minutes there was a loud bang. It was almost as if we had landed in a war zone. Our first night in Barcelona ended with us falling asleep to the sound of small explosions in the distance.
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