Barranco Miraval: Waterslides and chilly water

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6-24-2019
DAY 6
This morning we were able to sleep in as breakfast at the place we were staying did not start until 8:30. After breakfast, we found a place to rent wetsuits (apparently the water in this area is colder than Sierra de Guara). Then we took a super windy road up into the mountains to find the trailhead for Barranco Miraval. 

The hike down was less than a mile and we didn’t need ropes for any rappelling, so this canyon was much easier. Everyone was right – the water was much colder. Our hands and faces were freezing as soon as they hit the water. Another group with a guide was at the beginning of the canyon. When we chatted with them, it turned out that the guide, Julian, was the person with whom my mom was emailing back and forth for over a month to get information about the canyons and via ferratas. What a small world!









The canyon started off with some fun jumps and then we headed down river. There were some flowy narrows (much smaller than other canyons), but there were lots of water slides and more jumps. We stopped part way through at a water slide to warm up and have some water and bars and James could not get enough of the water slide. He did it over and over and over again until we left that spot. 







Once we were warm, we headed down the rest of the canyon. Julian’s group finished shortly after we did so we were able to just get a ride back to our car with him, which was super lucky because they were the only other group in the canyon that day and it was a long way back to our car. We gave Julian some maple syrup for his help. At first he asked if it was a skin product, so we had to explain that it is for ice cream, crepes, and whiskey.

The drive to our next town was supposed to take 42 min, but it took over 2 hours as we wound our way through mountain roads – we stopped a few times to take pictures of mountains, goats, etc, and we also ended up at a dead end and got stuck behind a cement truck for a while. 







It is a bit of a relief when we finally show up at our hotel. It is in a village in the Pyrenees called Broto with a beautiful river running through it and big mountains all around. Our room has three sets of bunks beds, so it is perfect. Maya and my mom checked out the town while we chilled in the room. When they came back, they had a yummy pastry for us to share and Maya had decided that we would eat at a pizzeria for dinner.


We ate pizza and tomato, mozzarella, pesto salad for dinner. Yum! 



After dinner, my mom, dad, and Maya went for a walk to a big waterfall and check out the via ferrata and James and I headed back to the room. In all, another full day in Spain.

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