Tag: River

Ronda

Another rented car and another beautiful trip! We took a day trip to Ronda which is the quintessential white hillside town in Andalusia.

We didn’t fall in love with the town, it’s pretty touristy and doesn’t have a ton to offer.

BUT – Ronda is split in two (the new Spanish part and the old Moorish part) by an amazingly deep river gorge with the bridges connecting the town. It’s really dramatic and picturesque. Amanda and I hiked down into the bottom of the gorge on a wandering “trail” with old ruins to explore scattered along the way. At the bottom we climbed down a rope and tree to a swimming hole between two big waterfalls. This part was incredible.

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Rio Chillar, Nerja!

We have now been in Nerja, Spain for just over a week! Nerja is a beautiful beach town on the coast of Southern Spain. We decided to rent an apartment and stay here for just over a month. We are one week in and loving it!

Saturday we went for a hike up the Rio Chillar – it was SO COOL! Eric and I agreed that it was one of the coolest hikes we’ve ever been on. You hike up the river! It starts as a really wide river-bed with just a stream of water. The river gets narrower and the water flow increases until you are hiking completely upstream, climbing up small waterfalls and wading in the water. After about 6 miles up the Chillar, we hiked up a pretty hidden trail that leads to an aqueduct. Then you hike on the aqueduct for about 5 miles before a 1 mile steep decent back to the river. Including the walk to the trailhead – we traveled about 15 miles! (Thus the all you can eat Brazilian restaurant for dinner haha :) 6 sides and 10 different types of meat that they bring to your table on skewers!)

Here are some pictures from our amazing time on the Rio Chillar!

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Eric climbed into the bottom cave and up into the top one
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Towards the beginning of the hike – the first of many waterfalls we found
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Hiking up the river!

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Amanda hiking on the Chillar!
Little waterfall into a swimming hole, which we may or may not have skinny dipped into…

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This was pretty much the turn-around point – look how far we’ve come!
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Almost the whole hike back to the trailhead was ON an aqueduct! Either on the walls of it, or on top!
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Eric found a frog!
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Along the aqueduct!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!