Jack's Peak, Saturday hike

Another beautiful Saturday morning hike in Monterey.  Papa B and I went to Jack's Peak and had a great hike.

When I was in highschool, my cross country team would regularly race there.  It was one of my favorite places to race because I loved being in the solitude of nature, boiling with competitive juices and adrenaline, not to mention the gorgeous view of the Monterey Bay.

We did our cross country course, backwards and then some.  We walked and talked and laughed.  There is one section that has switchbacks, it makes the really steep incline seem not so steep.  I kept telling Papa B, we used to run here and there and that was the start and there was the finish.  At the switchbacks I told him, we used to run this!  He said (switching to English, which he does for dramatic emphasis), "used to is in the past tense, Sally, you need to think in the present."  Woah!  He's totally right.

We hiked along, enjoying the scenery, smelling the pine trees - slightly green and sour smelling.  In the background you could hear the concert that was happening at the Fair Grounds.  Also occasionally we would hear planes taking off or landing, Jack's Peak is just up the road from the Monterey Airport.  There were bugs glistening in the sun light and if you pay attention you could hear the woodpeckers high up in the trees.  It was a really wonderful hike.  I hope you get there someday. 

We unfortunately did not see any mountain lions

View of the bay

Monterey bay through the trees :)

The trail

A fallen tree covered in moss and pine needles

A banana slug!!! Hi buddy.

Spider web

After our hike we came home and had lunch with Mama B.  Life is good, isn't it?

 

Lunch! Green beans with garlic, olives, red cabbage and sesame salad, cut vegies

Point Lobos with Papa B

It was a gorgeous Indian Summer day here in beautiful Monterey so Papa B and I decided to go down to Point Lobos for a hike. (For those of you who unfamiliar with the concept of Indian Summer - it's a phenomenon that occurs in the Northern Hemisphere marked by warmer than expected weather in late-September-November, we definitely experience it here in Pacific Grove).  

Point Lobos is a State Natural Reserve a bit down the coast from Monterey.  We headed down and parked just outside of the park and walked in.  There were many people out today, it's Saturday and a clear day - it's great to see so many people out! 

We walked through the trees, it was a bit cooler than out in the sun and a little darker.  After some time, we saw blue and turquoise through the trees.  Although I have grown up on the Pacific Ocean, I find it amazing how diverse it is - it amazes me every time.  It's completely variable depending on the weather, the lighting, the time of day, the tide, the wildlife, etc.  Today was especially spectacular.  

The ocean through the trees 

Gorgeous cove!

Looking across to Carmel, Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove

p-r-e-t-t-y

We admired the ocean, told jokes and "hello-ed" people as we passed them on the trails.  Going around a little cove made me think of "Island of the Blue Dolphins" a book we had to read in the 4th grade.  It's about a Native American girl that lives on an island off the coast of California.  I haven't read the book in over 10 years but I guess the imagery stuck in my subconscious.  

This is what reminds me of "Island of the Blue Dolphins"

There were scuba divers preparing to go out - how cool!  I wonder what all they see down there?  

We were lucky enough to see a vulture fly by overhead, its wings spread magnificently with the ends sticking up like fingers.

The water was pretty calm, when the waves were well behaved, the water looked super smooth and the sun reflected brilliantly off of it.  

It looks like glass, doesn't it!

At one point we sat on a bench and admired the coast.  There were rose petals all around the bench and Papa B said there must have been a girl here reciting "he loves me, he loves me not."  

I love seeing the crushed abalone shells in the ground, their metallic color always catches the light just right and reflects up at you.  It's like a silver, green, pink, purple color.  

Broken abalone shells, can you see the metallic coloration?

Eventually we came upon a little cabin with whale bones around it.  One rib was about the length of my height!  There was also what looked like the hip bone of a whale and the vertebrae of a whale.  On the side of the cabin was framed baleen - the filter in the mouths of baleen whales.  (S)He consume a huge volume of water that hopefully has lots of krill in it, the whale then pushes the water out but the krill are trapped in the whale's mouth - dinner! 

Whale bones!

It looks like where the vertebrae would connect, but I'm not too familiar with whale anatomy...

Whale ribs, vertebrae, fin and baleen 

Next we went around a different bend and encountered some deer.  It is rutting season for the deer here.  That means they are mating.  This usually happens right before daylight savings time and there is a drastic change in their hormone levels.  They behave abnormally, more agressive, and if they don't move out of your way - you should get out of theirs.  We saw three young males and clapped at them, they looked at us a bit and didn't budge, we went down a different trail.  

We came upon another bench overlooking another little cover.  There were three seals resting on the rocks.  

Seals on the rocks! Can you see them?

Looking across to Carmel 

We admired from afar and eventually had to get down to the water.  Luckily there was a bonafide trail and we slowly made our way down to the rocky beach.  I quickly lost my shoes and socks and tried to run to the water, it was difficult to do on a non-sand beach.  The water was refreshingly cool.  It was low tide and so there were uncovered rocks filled with sea anemones.  You can't really see them unless you're looking because they are closed and have bits of sand and rocks stuck to them.  I touched them just to watch them shrivel back - I hope I wasn't harming them, they're just so amazing, and I couldn't help it!  

Rocky beach :)

Sea anemones!  They close up during low tide

More sea anemones 

We eventually walked back to the car, retracing our footsteps.  If you are observant enough, you can notice slight changes in the light, coloration, etc. in the trails that you walked in not too long before.  There was the same creaking noise from a tree when we walked back as when we had walked past the first time.  It would stop as we walked by and pick up again after we were past the tree.  I therefore am convinced that it was an animal but my dad claims it was just the wind causing the tree to creak.  

Wadi el Mujib

We had an adventure the other day. Pops and I rented a car.  My cousin called the car rental place for us and spoke to the salesman, turns out she works with his sister-in-law. We agreed on a time and car and he brought it to our house. We didn't pay or give credit card information, we just signed a contract and took the car for a week, or so. 

I wanted to go to the Dead Sea again and now that we had wheels, we could do whatever we wanted! I looked up on tripadvisor.com for "things to do" in the Dead Sea area.  The #1 hit was this Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve.  I read a bit about it, googled it, looked at pictures and was sold.   I showed dad some cool pictures and he was quickly convinced.  We packed up the car and were on our way. My aunt sent a Tupperware of cherries with us and some apricots, 2 very Mediterranean summer fruits.  They taste very different here. The ground is so fertile, it's no wonder the Levant region is referred to as the fertile crescent, it's seemingly desert but then the agriculture is magnificently prolific. I wish for you to taste apricots and cherries in a Mediterranean country on a hot summer day.
 
First we needed to fill up gas. Let me tell you a bit about driving in Jordan, forget everything you learned in driver's ed, except that a red light means stop,  green light means go and you stop at stop at stop signs, most of the time. Otherwise, it's a dog eat dog world, no signalling, no lanes, heavy horn usage, basically automotive chaos. My dad doesn't want to drive, which is funny because this is where he learned to drive but he finds it too hectic, so I'm the designated driver. We got to the gas station and I need to parallel park, on the left hand side.  I love parallel parking and my driving teacher, Mr. Ellisher, God rest his soul, taught me a great technique that is foolproof. I parked, perfectly, if I do say so myself and got some looks from the attendants (all male) I will speculate that the looks are a. because I'm a woman, b. because I'm driving and my dad's the passenger, unusual, and c. I parallel parked successfully. They filled up our gas, cleaned our windows, we paid for the gas and tipped for the window cleaning and left.  We found our way to the highway and headed down, down, down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.

We got to a military check point, I slowed down, and stopped, the guard waved me through, I gave him a very serious wave and drove on.  You must remember, the Dead Sea is the Jordanian, Israeli border.

The drive was beautiful, red-brown marbled rocks, desert to the left and glistening water to the right with a backdrop of beige mountains, Israel.  Eventually we reached the reserve, we pulled in a gravel parking area, parked and went to check it out.  (Website)  We paid the entry free, were given safety precautions, instructions for walking through the gorge and life jackets.  We crossed a bridge leaving the Dead Sea behind us and entered a gorge in a beautiful canyon, there were birds flying all over.

near the end of the river, the start of our trek

Dad wading in the water

We had been told that we were going to be walking through the river for most of the time so we got in the water and began walking upstream.  The water felt really nice, cool in the hot desert sun.  After a while actually, when the sun was no longer directly above us, it was actually quite cool in shade of the canyon.  We walked for a while as the water slowly got deeper, over rocks and through gravel.  We walked and scaled big boulders, using ropes that were drilled into the top of the rock to help ourselves up.  It's amazing how forceful water is.  I mean if you lose your balance just slightly, the water will push you down and throw you into the water.  We walked and walked, through the water for over an hour, people stopping to help one another over rocks and down waterfalls.  Finally we made it to our destination, a 40m waterfall! It was beautiful! There was a little swimming hole and we threw off our life jackets and went to play under the waterfall.  Sorry, I don't have any photos of the waterfall because by that time I had put away the camera in several plastic bags and a waterproof backpack. 

While we were walking slowly back, we made friends with a guy from New York and a guy from Denmark.  They had been at a math conference in Israel and drove over to visit Jordan for a few days before heading home.  They got to talking to my dad about the fish.  Fish?  I said I didn't see any fish and the guy from New York said "they must be attracted to hair," apparently the fish were nibbling at the legs of the men! Bummer - I didn't get to experience that sensation...

Look at the color change in the rocks!

Bougainvillea above the Dead Sea

Rear view, heading back to Amman

  

Sunday Excursion

Last year when I lived here, almost every Saturday morning, we would get together, our group, Sally y los intocables (Sally and the untouchables), to go for a hike and then have lunch. The schedule was, meet up somewhere, or rather, they pick me up in my apartment in the city and we drive somewhere on the outskirts of town, in the mountains, to Portugal, we would have a coffee at a café and maybe a cookie or something, we would find a restaurant and tell them that we would be back for lunch, sort of making a reservation and then hike for some hours and come back to said restaurant, have a huge meal, and then maybe walk some more in the afternoon, go to some monumental site in Galicia, have another coffee or soda or tea and then come back home.

Now that I´m back for a visit, the group got back together. They picked me up at the hot springs that are along the river Minño, I was there having a dip with my Spanish mom and her friend. We went to a different river, and now to be totally honest, I don´t remember exactly which. It was SUPER hot, unbelievable. And dry. This is very unusual for Galicia. We walked along the river and went for a little swim, it was very very cold but very very worth it. It made my heart skip a beat...or two, but how amazing, to feel so alive, to feel, period.

Typical bridge in Galicia

We saw some people fishing and bees were buzzing everywhere, it was beautiful.

We made our way back to the car and drove to a restaurant nearby at which had made reservations. On the way we stopped in search of a bar to have an apperative, we didn´t find anything open but we did find a beautiful church from 15th-18th century.

Statue in front of the church, also typical style of Galicia

We waited for some friends who were meeting up with us. We sat on the patio, in the sun and had a beer. A San Miguel Especial, which was delicious. It was darker than the normal San Miguel, and awesome. We had lunch. A mussle filled empanada made with a corn flour, rather than the typical wheat flour, red bell peppers filled with scallops and cod croquetas, croquetas are balls of any type of meat or fish, breaded and fried. For my entreé I had grilled hake with boiled potatoes and a little salad. The others had various cuts of pork or different fish. The bread was wonderful, like always, soft and hearty. Of course we had wine, a red Ribeira, Ribeira is a region of Spain known for its wine. After lunch, I was so full I couldn´t even have dessert...I know, I know, me, no dessert!

View from the restaurant

Afterwards, we went for another little walk along a different river. We took another swim in the water. Again, freezing but worth it. There was a lookout to a waterfall, on a big old rock, which was quite comfortable for my nap.

We finished our walk in the little village where we had parked the car, see photos below for images from the village, a church and the alleys. In the village there was one café. We stopped in to have a soda. There were old men playing cards at a table in the shade outside. Inside there were more old men playing a different game of cards. The café sold all types of things, toothbrushes, oranges, milk, and drinks, food, etc. We sat on the stairs of the neighboring house and watched three little boys jump on a mattress that had been left out as garbage. It was an 8 year old boys dream come true.

We then went to Castro de San Cibran de Las. A castro is the ruins of an old settlement. These castros were strategically made on the top of a mountain for defensive purposes. It was incredible, it is said to be from the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. See images below.

Lastly, I leave you with art. Below is an image of a rock along the river that was carved by someone. I can´t quite tell what it is of though....

;-)