You may be asking yourself why I didn't just combine the two posts into one and to that I would say that posting 100 photos and over 2000 words is just too excessive for one article. I take too many pictures and have too much to say, I guess I just can't help myself. The hike also includes two different mountain peaks, which means that I can put two different markers onto my #Pinmapple map, and anyone who uses the Pinmapple site knows that there is something extremely satisfying about having a lot of pins on a map. That being said, new photos, new stories and new pins ultimately results in a new post. But, why do I feel the need to justify myself? Let's get back to the hike itself.
The hike in this direction begins at the peak of the Ruivo mountain. You would actually start at the canteen restaurant located a little ways down from the peak if you were starting on this side of the mountain range.
For this hike some people travel in one direction, and some the other. It really just depends on where they are staying on the island (i.e. the North, South, East or West). See my last post for more details on that.
We found the begining of the way back to be fairly easy at first.
It started out mostly downhill, followed by a long stretch of flat trails.
At one point along the way we saw this woman and her two young kids a little ways ahead of us. One of the children was around 6-8 years old and the other was probably around 4. The woman was carrying the younger one in her arms and singing kids songs. They all looked super happy to be outdoors getting some exercise.
I was quite impressed by them and almost in awe at their spirits. The hike wasn't exactly easy, so the fact that young children were doing it was impressive, not to mention the woman carrying one of the children in her arms.
We paused for a spell to take some photos, drink some water and have a little break while the three of them proceeded ahead.
We caught up to them about 10-15 minutes later and funny enough, it seemed that things had changed drastically in just that short amount of time. The little one was now walking on her own crying and screaming her head off while the mom, looking somewhat desperate, scolded her quietly, telling her that she had to walk on her own and keep on moving. Carrying a 4 year old uphill is a lot of work, I don't blame her at all.
Actually, the scene made much more sense to me than the previous one. When I think of young children going on an hour and a half to two hour hike up and downhill in the heat of the afternoon, a scene of screaming kids seems much more plausible then one of them merrily singing songs and being happy.
Me to my wife: "Let's make a strong push to pass them on this next curve. I don't want to listen to that racket any longer than I have to."
Now picture me wearing a small jetpack or riding a magic broom zooming past the three of them. Vrrrrooooooooooommmmm - "So long suckers!"
Me cackling to myself: "Just wait until they reach the uphill portion and all of those stairs!... Poor bastards."
I know, I know...what can I say? I'm a horrible person.
We still had to go down at this point before we could even begin to head back up.
And there was a shit ton of down to go.
Nice spot for a picnic. Such a great view.
Oh fuck. Here comes the slog.
My wife kept referring to it as the gauntlet of death. I think she might have read that somewhere? It was a pretty accurate description of it though.
Here is a shot looking back at it (above). People are just little specks on the trail. And this isn't even half of it!
From here on it was huffing air and sweating profusely. Not to mention the burning leg muscles.
It looks like we were getting close at this point. The white globe in the distance marks the summit.
We weren't close at all though. It was still deceptively far away, with a lot of uphill yet to go.
The hike wasn't overly difficult but like I mentioned before it also wasn't easy.
There were a lot of steps carved into rock and though the paths were very well maintained, the ground was quite rocky and uneven throughout. In my opinion hiking shoes or good runners would be a must.
That being said we did see some wild attire on the mountain. One young woman walking with her boyfriend (or maybe he was her photographer?) was wearing flip-flop sandals and literally the smallest thing bikini you could imagine (sorry no photos).
I'm pretty sure every person that the couple walked past were all thinking the same thing:
"The fuck is this girl doing???"
A bikini is one thing. I'm all for girl empowerment and all that - the guy wasn't wearing a shirt either.
Maybe they were the type of people that don't burn in the intense sunshine, or maybe they were wearing copious amounts of sunscreen?
But sandals?!? "WTF man! You're going to catch an edge on one of the uneven steps and do a header down the stone cliff face. Its about safety goddammit! No open footwear on the mountain!" (*Said the white middle age male with authority).
I'm joking of course, not about their attire, but about my dramatic concern. Wear whatever the hell you want when you go hiking. Just don't complain when you roll an ankle, stub your toe and lose the nail, or trip and crack your skull.
By the way can you tell that I enjoyed taking photos of this white ball in the distance? 20 steps - take picture. 20 more steps - take picture.
When we finally made it to the peak of Arieiro we were tired and hungry. It was around 1:30- 2pm so we ordered snacks at the restaurant there before driving back to the hotel.
I got cake and this drink called Poncha, which is native to the Island of Madeira. Its made with aguardente de cana alcohol (whatever that is), sugar, honey and lemon or orange juice.
I'm sure that it's quite good in some places but there on the mountain they probably used really cheap liqor and it basically tasted like varsol with a splash of orange. I had a hard time getting it down.
The pasteis de nata's weren't the greatest that we had in the country but you really can't expect top quality food from a mountain canteen. We were hungry enough that we didn't care anyway.
Scarf it down, head to the car and drive back to the hotel. That was our day.
