Monday - Lighthouse Trek

Monday, June 27
Another day in paradise…as we all started to emerge, Blair, Tim and Leila walked across the street to take our morning swim while Deana took a stroll down the boardwalk exploring. When we came back into the apartment, Leila started a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast but Deana started to feel a bit queasy so went back to bed. Took a leisurely morning, Tim working on the blog with Leila and Blair reading and deciding on the days adventure.

Spoke with Bettine and decided to join the crew going out to dinner in the evening which gave us the afternoon to explore. Deana decided she needed a day of rest and re-hydration so after a lunch of mixed veggie salad,  Tim, Blair and Leila chose to go back to the Serra Gelada Natural Park and explore other points of access.Our goal was to see if we could make the trek to the lighthouse,  L’Alfas del Pi.  The park, unlike the dirt trail we had voyaged on yesterday, was a paved path that wound around the mountain gradually (mostly) ascending for 2.2 kilometers. There was a gentle breeze even though the sun was hot so we decided to brave the hike. The vistas were incredible, but the breeze turned out to be negligible and the sun HOT. We made it though, finding a mama quail with her babies and watching Falcons soar beneath us once at the top.

Blair taking his life in his hands to get a better view. I admired his hutzpa, given the incomplete arrangement of working limbs that he and I currently are dealing with. He's in better shape than me...had more stamina and fewer aching parts.

At the 1K marker, they give you an enticing view of the lighthouse that challenges you to finish the trek. Looks so close....let's go for it!

A cavelike opening in the mountain appeared. Dramatic.

The lighthouse

Checking out the view from the lighthouse. Bottlenose dolphins are often seen off this point, but not today. We did see several perigrine falcons, which have a similar peeping cry to the osprey.

A little quail was wandering around the lighthouse.

The trip down was a bit painful…Leila developed blisters on both feet and Tim’s hip screamed at him. But we made it down in one piece and headed back to the apartment, stopping at the supermarket to refill our larder on the way. Once “home”, the three noble hikers went for a much needed swim. However, the waves were a bit high and as Leila watched ankle deep, the guys were tossed on their asses by the waves, with Blairs water shoe taking off in another direction. Leila went for the shoe and the two  continued to be tumbled by the waves. While Tim and Blair were trying (unsuccessfully)to find their footing to stand up, two life guards came to their rescue to help them and Leila came back triumphantly with the lost shoe.
After a wild swim, came back full of seaweed and sand to take showers and gird our loins for a steep climb up to the Old Town to rendezvous with  Bettine and Les and 12 other of their friends and family to have dinner at an Indian restaurant next to the cathedral. To Tim and Leila’s great joy, we had to climb at least 4 flights of narrow, steep stairs to have dinner on the roof of the restaurant. From our perch we could look down on the little tapas rooftop restaurant we had enjoyed our first trip to the Old Town a few days ago.

Looking down from our lofty perch onto the rooftop tapas place we dined at on our first ascent to the Old Town.

The food and company were excellent, not to mention the view and we parted full and satiated to return back to the apartment. On the way back, Tim and Leila retrieved the car which was parked about ½ mile away from our apartment so we could park closer. Up to this time, we had lucked out with parking, but of course not so after our tiring walk earlier. As it was late, we found a good parking place and gladly fell into bed.