Matt Henderson's Blog

This weekend we stayed again at the cabañas in Jimera de Libar, where, on Saturday morning, Pino ran in the first annual “Carerra de Alpandeire”, a 10 km mountain race. She finished 6th (in the female group), and had a great time!

Each year in May, for the past 11 years, the Spanish Legionnaires (“La Legión”, a Spanish military wing) organizes the famous, “101 km of Ronda” event, in which the 5,000+ participants endure a 101 kilometer (66 miles) tour through the mountains and sierras surrounding the beautiful namesake city of Ronda.

My wife and I participated for the first time last year, 2006.

Taking advantage of the Semana Blanca holiday here in Spain, we took the kids for a three-day trip to Granada, a get-away that turned out to be one of the most enjoyable in quite some time.

After the scenic 2.5 hour road trip from Marbella to Granada, we dropped our stuff off at the [Cortijo Balzain][2] enclave of rural houses, on the single-track road up between La Zubia and Cumbres Verdes.

Today we met up again with the Senderitos.com folks, and headed down the highway, just past Nerja, where we parked the car just off the highway, to explore the trails and jagged cliffs of the Málaga coast.

We parked the car at the pull-off for the Playa del Cañuelo, and started down the steep downhill dirt roads towards the sea.

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p>Today’s outing took us on this gorgeous day to nearby (well, relatively), Pizarra. From Marbella, we took the Ojen highway to Coin, then on to Cártama, and then on to Pizarra — all in all, about a 45-minute drive. In the small town of Pizarra, we parked next to the “Recreation Area” (a small playground/park type thing), had a cafe-con-leche at the bar across the street, and then started walking up the Hacho de Pizarra walking route.

Once again we ventured out with the Senderitos.com crowd for a weekend hike, to the beautiful “Montes de Málaga,” about an hour’s drive from Marbella. And what a beautiful October day it was, sunny and warm, with a just a crispy hint that winter’s on the way.

It’s pretty amazing what kids are capable of doing. Today, we went on hike, again with the folks from Senderitos.com, and watched a group of kids hike for over five hours, including a climb of nearly 800 meters!

I am constantly impressed with the variety of interesting places to visit available in southern Spain. This past weekend, we joined Luis and a group of families from Senderitos.com, and took a day trip out to a place called, “El Torcal,” about an hour’s drive from Marbella, and had a fantastic afternoon walking and climbing through this beautiful natural park.

This weekend (well, Sunday through Wednesday), we decided to take a few days and go on a short vacation to the Alpujarras — the mountainous region south-east of Granada that we discovered a week or so ago. In particular, we visited the valley of Poqueira, leading up to Sierra Nevada, and the highest point in the region, Pico Veleta. There are three Galician-named mountain pueblos in the valley — Pampaneira, Bubion and Capileira — all of which offer some interesting hiking, visiting and culinary options.

Day 1: Balcon de Pitres.

This past weekend, we decided to stay a bit closer to home, and take a little tour through the local mountains. We started the day by heading down the coast towards Estepona (about 15 minutes away), and then turning inland to climb the towering mountain of “Los Reales.”