The Vagabond Hiker

Levadas and Peaks of Madeira

March 21, 2019

With its rugged coastal scenery, impressive volcanic geology and lush levada trails, the Portuguese island of Madeira is a walker’s paradise. The week of hiking with our KE Adventures group was exceptional with six varied day hikes spread over most of the island. Our guide, Roberto, was passionate about his native land and a wealth of knowledge, historical, geological, and botanic. We walked and hiked through terraced farmland, explored extensive laurel forest, negotiated almost two dozen tunnels and crossed numerous jagged green ridges to some amazing viewpoints. The network of trails is truly incredible, with many following levadas, the water channels that collect water from the mountains, channeling and distributing it for hydroelectricity generation, agricultural irrigation, and drinking water. There are over 1300 miles of levadas and all the major ones have walking paths alongside, which follow the contours of the land with only a 4 degree average slope. They make for a nice change from the mountain paths, which seem to be always either steeply ascending or descending the rugged terrain.

A Google Earth map of the island of Madeira. Madeira is about 35 miles long and about 14 miles across at its widest point. We started and ended our week in Funchal, but also stayed in Paul Do Mar and Porto Moniz in the west and in Santana to the north of the main mountain range.

Much of Madeira remains covered in laurisilva forest, a botanical relic that dates back about 20 million years, and is classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Laurisilva covers about 20% of the Island of Madeira (15,000 hectares) most of which is part of the protected Madeira Natural Park. The forest captures the moisture from the Atlantic clouds, resulting in high humidity and biodiversity, with about 150 of 760 plant species being endemic. (There are also unfortunately several species of nasty invasives, including eucalyptus and mimosa). Take a look at some of my photo highlights from the six day trip. . .

View of the central massif and the Paul da Serra plateau from above Curral das Freiras on day 1.

Trail side flowers seen leaving Curral das Freiras (Nun’s Valley)

Some of our group of 13 at a rest stop below Boca do Serra (the col partly seen on the left here)

View from Boca do Serra with Curral das Freiras far below on the left

More trail side flowers. I struggled to remember any of the names of the flowers Roberto so ably identified for us.

A stream in a rocky gorge on the Ribeiro do Poco. It was a great place to cool my feet.

Madeira’s Pride and waterfall above Paul do Mar, day 2

Looking back to Paul do Mar harbor. The path can be seen zig-zagging on the left here.

Paul do Mar. We stayed two nights at a very nice hotel in this town on the southwest coast.

A levada distribution point along the Levada Calheta Nova.

Roberto crossing a stream on the levada portion of our hike on day 2

Fields and coast along Levada Calheta Nova

Path through the native laurisilva forest on day 3. A cloud forest ecosystem is prevalent at intermediate altitudes on much of Madeira.

Levada Ribeira da Janela path and waterfall

Another view of the Levada Ribeira da Janela path. Many of the main levadas have been concretized over the past 40 years or so.

Our improbable trail head on day 4, above the wild west coast

The coast view from our trail head. It doesn’t look possible, but we hiked down to the coast from here. The cables are part of the cable car system, which one client availed himself of.

Some of our group ascending from the coast. We had two 500 meter descents and one ascent on this tough hike.

View descending towards Porto Moniz, where we stayed two nights.

Park Forestal Queimadas, our trail head on day 5

Levada Caldeirao waterfall. I stitched this together from five photos.

Lush vegetation along the unconcretized Levada Caldeirao. There are about 70 species of fern on Madeira.

Caldeirao Verde waterfall, about 80 meters high

The Vagabond Hiker with Roberto and two other clients at a levada tunnel entrance. Photo courtesy of Joe.

Some of our group descending a hollow way. Over hundreds of years stock transhumance has eroded some areas along the north coast.

Pico Ruivo (1862m) summit “view” on day 6. This is the high point on Madeira and was our toughest hike.

A dead heather along the amazing balcony route between Pico Ruivo and Pico do Arieiro (1810m), the third highest point on the island. There was a major fire in 2010 that destroyed much of the slow-growing native heather.

Some of our group hiking along the balcony route towards Pico do Arieiro

Part of the “Stairway to Heaven”. The airier portions were generally protected by cables.

View above the clouds near Pico Arieiro summit.

Lest you draw the incorrect conclusion that my time on Madeira has been all tough hiking, this last photo was taken from my penthouse apartment balcony at sunset, where I have stayed the last four days reading, walking along the promenade, swimming, stand up paddle-boarding, eating fresh seafood and just enjoying the fine weather.

I have updated my calendar through September. See the tab on the upper right. With the exception of two weeks in July, I will be spending the next six months in Europe. During those blank spaces on the calendar I will be on the south coast of England near Hastings. My next post will likely be in April from there. If not, it will be in mid-May from the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. Until then, keep hiking!

The Vagabond Hiker

A Smorgasbord of Chilean Walks

March 4, 2019

Following our five days in Rapa Nui, Maggie and I embarked on a south-to-north journey in Chile, from the Lakes region to Araucanía and then on to the Atacama Desert. Chile being such a long, thin country and limited to about two weeks, we flew rather than drove the 1500 miles between Pucón in Araucanía and San Pedro in the Atacama. The photos that follow highlight our hikes and walks, starting at the Lakes Region just north of Patagonia.

Shoreline of Lake Llanquihue, Puerto Rosales. Volcan Osorno can be seen in the background left. Our AirBnB cabaña in this small community was a great alternative to the touristy Puerto Varas six miles away.

With Maggie at Lago Llanquihue, Puerto Rosales. As the tide came in, the walk along the pebbly beach became somewhat problematic.

Lago Llanquihue and Volcan Calbuco from one of the many trails above the Volcan Osorno ski lifts. Volcan Calbuco last erupted in April 2015, three months after my first visit to the area.

Variegated lava and Volcan Osorno’s summit. The summit climb was not on our itinerary that day.

Driving about four hours north from Lago Llanquihue, one arrives at the outdoor capital of Chile, the town of Pucón on Lago Villarrica. We opted once again for an AirBnB cabaña outside of this bustling town. The temperatures skyrocketed during our three days in the area. With usual maximum daytime temperatures of 77F (25C) in the summer, the Lago Villarrica area is a hiker’s paradise. Instead, we faced afternoon temperatures of about 99F (39C). With electricity off throughout the region for more than a day, we were fortunate to have a backup diesel generator for our cabaña. One day we made an early start and did an amazing hike up through the forest to a series of lakes.

Forest view, Huerquehue National Park. If you visit one park in the Pucón area, Huerquehue should be it.

Maggie provides scale for one of many rather large trees in Huerquehue

Volcan Villarrica from Tres Lagos Mirador, Huerquehue. This hike had it all: amazing forests, spectacular view points, and five lakes.

An Araucaria (monkey-puzzle) tree in Huerquehue. The region of Araucania is named for this iconic and threatened tree.

Araucaria forest bordering Laguna los Patos, Huerquehue

A metallic green-blue lizard in Huerquehue. We saw many of these lizards, but none so bold or colorful as this guy.

Leaving the extreme heat of southern Chile (!) we flew to the Atacama desert, one of the driest places on earth. At the airport in the mining town of Calama we were told that the road to the picturesque town of San Pedro where we were staying was closed due to flooding. Fortunately, the road had just been reopened and the waters were not so high as to impede our journey. Not so fortunately, our lovely cabaña a few miles outside of San Pedro was solar powered. As there had been little sun in the prior couple of weeks, there was no electricity, which in itself was not such as big deal. More critically, though, there was no water since the pump required solar power. After one night the kind hosts relocated us to a hotel nearer town for the next four nights where (at least most of the time) we had both electricity and water.

Volcan Licancabur seen reflected in runoff water on the road south from San Pedro. This area is a part of the Salar de Atacama, the largest salt flat in Chile. Several miles south of here the road was closed due to washouts, so we were not able to get to the laguna with the flamingos.

Another view of Volcan Licancabur, this one from Tulor archeological site outside of San Pedro.

Rio San Pedro, almost always dry, had burst its banks a few days earlier. Sixty people in the area lost their homes from the flooding, the first since 2001.

The desert route and the Quitor archeological ruins north of San Pedro de Atacama were closed

Valle de las Muerte, San Pedro. This was a great, though short, loop hike. Fortunately we got there before they closed it later in the day because of lightning threat. The Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) was also closed, so we missed one of the more amazing sights in the area.

Lightning storm looking toward Valle de la Luna, San Pedro. I took a dozen photos from this roadside view point, but only this one showed a lightning strike.

While my plan originally had been to spend another month at the solar-powered cabaña in the Atacama, the weather made me rethink my options, so I booked another flight for Santiago and headed to the coast north of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, to the town of Concon, for a month of walking, swimming, and kayaking on the ocean.

Concon night vista from my balcony. Concon is along the Pacific coast north of the resort town of Viña del Mar.

Concon coastal view. I did a number of coastal walks in Concon and on the miles-long beach just out of town to the north.

A Concon house I saw on one of my walks. An absolutely amazing property.

A pond at the Jardin Botanico Nacional outside Viña del Mar. While not a great botanic garden, the miles of paths were very peaceful on a Monday morning.

A cormorant drying its wings at the Jardin Botanico Nacional

Cerro la Campaña summit block from the Sendero Andinista. Campaña National Park is located in the coast range about 25 miles east of Concon.

Vista towards the Pacific Ocean from the slopes of Cerro la Campaña. The hike to the summit was only 7 km, but gained about 1500 meters in elevation, 600 m of this in the final 2 km scramble to the summit.

Currently I am back in England. I leave Monday for my next adventure: 11 days on the island of Madeira, Portugal, most of which will involve walking in the amazing landscape. Until then, enjoy the spring!

The Vagabond Hiker

Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) Archeological walks

February 16, 2019

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui in the native language of the Polynesian people that first settled there, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. (Tristan da Cunha in the southern Atlantic Ocean also lays claim to this title, depending on how one considers the year-round Antarctic base several hundred miles away). It is also not cheap to fly as LATAM airways is the only airline flying the nearly 2500 miles from Santiago (Rapa Nui is legally part of Chile) with between one and three flights per day depending on the season and day of the week. While providing the locals with much-needed income, the limited number of flights has the benefit of keeping the island from being over-run with tourists and their concomitant infrastructure that could easily ruin the whole experience.

Its compact size, interesting topography, and good road access to much of the island make Rapa Nui an ideal place to enjoy nature as well as the archeological remains from the Polynesians. Essential to planning your visit and appreciating the sites is A Companion To Easter Island (Guide To Rapa Nui) by James Grant Peterkin. We spent five night in a small AirBnB cabaña where we were able to rent a small 4×4. While we saw all the main sites, there were several more hikes to do had we more time – and had my gout not flared up!

Pastoral view from the Te Ara O Te Ao trail near its trailhead just west of the airport at *Matarevi*

*Hanga Roa* from the *Te Ara O Te Ao* trail. *Hanga Roa* is the only town on the island and where virtually all visitors stay. The runway is also visible in this photo.

*Rano Kau* crater and wetland. This is the only wetland on *Rapa Nu*i and contains many endemic species.

Three islets off the southwest coast of *Rapa Nui*. The *Tangata manu*, or bird-man, was the winner of the competition to collect the first sooty tern egg of the season from *Moto Nui* (the largest islet shown here), swim back and climb the sea cliff to the village of *Orong*o.

*Rapa Nui* coastline near *Ana Kai Tangata* caves

Bird-man pictographs, *Ana Kai Tangata*.

*Hanga Roa* coastal view of the pebble beach and some restaurants and shops. Everything was expensive on the island, but the local seafood was excellent.

Petroglyphs at *Papa Vaca* (literally “stone canoe.”) Images at this site include fish hooks, tuna, canoes, turtles, and even one shark.

*Rano Raraku* quarry. If you visit one site on Easter, *Rano Raraku* with its over 400 *Moai* at various stages of production should be it. While you can walk the paths in less than an hour, plan on spending a morning here.

*Moai* in profile at *Rano Raraku.* Nearly all of the almost 900 known *Moai* were carved from tuff, compressed volcanic ash.

*Tongariki Moai* and platform (*ahu*) from behind. This is the best example of the skill involved in constructing *ahu* for the *Moai*. Like all *Moai*, these had been toppled over during the civil wars on *Rapa Nui* and only recently restored.

The fifteen *Moai* at *Tongariki*. Note the top knot on the 2nd from the right *Moai.* Several others had similar red scoria (basaltic) head gear, but they have since been destroyed.

The “traveling” *Moai* at *Tongariki*. It was loaned to Japan for the 1970 World’s Fair and returned. In contrast, the British Museum, despite tearful entreaties from the Rapa Nui, has held the Hoa Hakananai’a for 150 years.

*Rano Raraku* quarry site seen from *Tongariki*.

*Anakana* platform (*ahu*) and *Moai,* many showing top knots. *Anakana* is one of only two white sand beaches on the island, popular with locals on the weekend.

*Moai* on its back at *Akahanga*. Very unusual since during the civil wars most *Moai* were toppled onto their faces to destroy their power.

Several top knots at *Vaihu*. Once thought to be hats, they more likely represent the hair style of the time. Only some of the later *Moai* were adorned with these massive basaltic sculptures.

And one final image to leave you with. . .

*Tongariki* and the rugged east coast of *Rapa Nui* from *Rano Raraku*

Right now I am relaxing on my balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean just north of Viña del Mar in Chile, planning my travels through the summer and will shortly update my calendar accordingly. My next blog post, in a couple of weeks, will be a smorgasbord of different hikes and walks I did on mainland Chile this past month. In the mean time, enjoy the outdoors where ever you happen to be.

The Vagabond Hiker

Levadas and Peaks of Madeira

A Smorgasbord of Chilean Walks

Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) Archeological walks

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