Anyway, last Saturday was our first IES day trip, to La Alpujarra, which is a mountainous area, which I think (wikipedia wasn't really clear, and noone from IES told me) that it's part of the Sierra Nevada. More specifically, we did a hike from the highest village, Capaleira, to a lower village, Pampaneira. Most of the ride there was gorgeous, until we got to the vertigo-inducing switchbacks and I had to close my eyes.
We were told beforehand that there would be two groups: one for an easier route, and the other for the difficult route. Due to past injuries, my own klutziness, and a desire not to make a fool of myself in front of my more athletic classmates, I decided to take the easy trail. 7.8 kilometers, including about 2 km of water and/or mud later, I realized that 'easy' is a relative term. It started out fine, though a little steep, as we made our way out of Capaleira. We stopped for water and a snack near a bridge, and then I realized that we were at the bottom of the valley between the mountains. Uh oh. We proceeded to hike up the mountain opposite the one we had walked down, which made me feel super out of shape.
Although the hike was difficult, it wasn't scary, per se. At least, not until the end. Do you see that faint line that starts about 1/3 of the way up the left hand side of the photo? Under the big patch of grass? That was our trail for the last 500 feet or so. It was a pretty steep drop to one side, and only a few feet wide, and slick with mud. I was tempted to sit and slide. Luckily, I made it all the way down without killing myself or anyone else.
When we finally made it to Pampaneira I went straight into a cafe and got some well deserved hot chocolate. Guess we should have read the sign before doing the hike:
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