whySquared: Lagos de la Munia

I think Raquel was really secretly preparing me for the Mt Kilimanjaro climb because she had a third trek in store for me. She arranged for me to join a couple, Cristina and Juanjo to go up to Lagos de la Munia (2500m).

The mountain guide was Toño, who speaks excellent English. Cristina speaks English and Juanjo was just too shy. The couple are regular hikers with Solomonte and it was the first time they were going to the lakes too. Both Cristina and Juanjo are jovial and warm and I had no time to feel like an outsider. In fact, Cristina took a lot of pictures of me (because, ahem, I am a tourist), sent them to me via email (¡Muchas Gracias Cristina!) and continued to stay in touch via email.

We had to drive on a very long stretch of dirt track before we arrived at our starting point at Real Valley (1800m). We were treated to a feast of mamotas (for the eyes only). There were so many mamotas fooling and running around. (Good for tourists but bad for vegetation as mamotas are essentially pests.)

The terrain was mainly grass. We passed by waterfalls and had to skip across some streams.

Source: Cristina

Source: Cristina

We also had to cross a long stretch of snow.

Source: Cristina

Source: Cristina

Toño explained that the snow has turned slightly brown because of the dust blown from Africa. It was really hard to imagine how the dust had travelled such a long way.

Brown dust from Africa

We reached our destination, Lagos de la Munia for lunch. Due to the altitude, the lakes were also frozen.

I thought Cristina was joking when, at the base, she said Juanjo had wine in his bag. At lunch, he whipped out a bottle of rioja, cheese, nuts, bread and jamon. Trust me, wine definitely tastes better at high altitude!

During lunch, Toño pointed out how the Spanish-French border was just past the mountains in front of us.

Spanish-French border

Toño, Cristina, Juanjo

Source: Cristina

Source: Cristina

I also found out from him that some of the peaks in front of us are actually marble. The natural forces had took its toll on the stones which now look like stacked books.

The return route was the same. Juanjo took out his rain jacket to see if he could use it as a sled to slide down the slope. The answer was "¡No!". The jacket was not moving anywhere and we had a big laugh.

There were similar flora to those on the previous 2 days' route. Toño pointed out a tree wrapped around a stone, a natural bonsai.

He also showed us mushroom that went 'pooof' and produced brown powder when squeezed. The mushroom cannot be eaten but its brown powder can be used to heal cuts: