A Quiet Hike

After a horrible night's sleep, we got up and decided to go for a hike and an afternoon at the beach. The morning in the hotel room was a little annoying because we could smell cigarette smoke from above and because I was so tired out.

We got ready and took off, stopping by the supermarket for bread and cheese on the way out. Jeanette bought some new sunglasses (surprise) for a bargained-down 10€.

We drove north, planning to stop at a beautiful place called Barranco de los Fraijles or something like that, but discovered the were quarrying rock there. We continued around the bend to Barranco de el Medio Alemed, simply a pull off on the main highway. At first I was a bit discouraged because the path was filled with trash. Plus, it seemed like a frequent emergency bathroom stop for German tourists. After sitting for a bit, I decided to go ahead and try it, plus Jeanette was willing to do something that was away from that horrendous resort. We started walking.

Fortunately, the garbage only continued for about 50 yards. After that, the trail held no more trash than might be seen in Colorado, a sandal, a tennis shoe, and a lonely tire. In fact, the only other tracks we saw were an intermittent set of dirt bike tracks that had to end well before our hike stopped.

The barranco turned out to be gorgeous. The rocks were interesting, varying in color and in texture. It looked like some of the layers were lava, while others were probably welded tufts (ash) that had probably mixed with sea water. We walked for about an hour and a half or so, seeing many dragon trees, some cactus, and lizards who seemed to come out when it warmed up around noon. Jeanette had fun breaking rocks and testing her hiking skills. We enjoyed the thoroughly beautiful -- and silent -- interlude after Club Puerto Calma. Of course, there was a German lady trying to find some place to pee around our car when we returned.

We returned to the room and changed, then Jeanette decided we should try an imported white sand beach north of Puerto Rico, called Playa Amaderes. The beach was nice and the water was aquamarine from the white sand and blue sky. A combination natural and artificial barrier enclosed the beach making a nice little cove. There was even an artificial breakwater about half way to the mouth of the cove. We swam a bit, then sunned. Jeanette bought some Bacardi Breezers which we then had to return to get opened. I brought my snorkeling gear and fins, so I decided to go out. I mad it past the breakwater and along the wall on the north all the way to the mouth of the cove. After the breakwater, the depth increased rapidly but also cleared up a ton. I saw a bunch of fish and some hair, spidery crabs. I also saw some cute cats in the rocks. I recognized more of the purple and black "neons," plus saw a variety of crabs, including a hairy, flat multi-colored variety that were kind of creepy. I swam along the breakwater and saw a bunch of sea urchins down in the rocks.

After the beach, we drove up to Puerto de Mogan. We started off with some wine and bread and the sunset at one restaurant. We then walked around a bit until we decided to eat at another restaurant that was connected to the fresh seafood market. We had a great dinner with amazing seafood stew and fried 'Canarian' fish. We finished up with a couple of liqueurs de la casa that were coffee liqueur, creme, and cinnamon.  By this time, however, I was really tired and getting a bit cranky. We headed back a bit grumpily and I was even more grumpy after I found out that we couldn't do our laundry at Puerto Suck-o because it was after 9PM... as if the machines could be heard over the traffic noise. I went to bed.

At about 3 AM, after tossing and turning and trying to sleep, we discovered a large cockroach in the room. Well, that as the end of sleep for Jeanette. She ended up reading with the lights on in the living room while I tried to sleep.