Hiking through La Palma's Fuentes y Nacientes de Corderos y Marcos

June 12th, 2005: About six days into our La Palma stay, we went on a real hiking adventure through a series of tunnels and along a winding path that culminated in a small, steep waterfall.

Arriving at the hike location was an adventure in itself. After driving for about 2 hours along La Palma's beautifully maintained but steep and windy main road, we were jostled and tossed around for about another 45 minutes along a 12km path that was unpaved, rocky, steep, and very rough. Once we finally arrived at our destination, we began the 5km hike along the narrow path. Although the path was relatively flat and not too physically demanding, the real challenge was navigating the 13 dark, damp tunnels and keeping your eyes on the narrow rocky path. I had to fend off attacks of vertigo as I looked down at the 1000m+ drops into the forest that greeted me from every angle.

In this shot, you can see Fred gleefully taking pictures from the rather make-shift bridge, while I look down with obvious apprehension. What happened to the girl who was once comfortable enough with heights to jump out of an airplane?

Here we are successfully exiting our first tunnel, one of the shortest, driest, and most well-lit of the thirteen. Eventually, things got more difficult to negotiate. Although we had thoughtfully brought flashlights to help us move through the tunnels, mine died half-way through the second tunnel and Aviva's died a few minutes later. That left us feeling the walls and trying to catch a glimpse from others' lamps as we wiggled our way through the dark

Here, I follow close behind Aviva, who still had a working flashlight. Unfortunately, she too would soon be left in the dark.

In this shot you can see the system of tunnels we have just exited. Because there had been so much rain recently, the water was streaming into the tunnels at a fairly fast rate. We were well-prepared, wearing ponchos or rain slickers. Some hikers resort to using one of the plastic bags that are left on either side of the tunnel. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see both the water cascading down the second tunnel hole and a few cast-off bags lying on the ground.

At frequent intervals, we could see the far side of the path, sometimes with other hikers walking along it.

And this shot shows the amazing view that greeted us from every angle.

We also saw some fascinating flora along the way. Aviva took this photo of an amazing "rock rose." Officially named the "bejeque rojo," these succulents cling to the bare rock, like some sort of beautiful accident.

We celebrated arriving at our little waterfall by having a small picnic of cinnamon rolls, juice, crackers, and Smarties. We needed something to nourish us for the return trek.