What's up y'all?
Thanks for joining the Travel Tales and Talk podcast with Derek and Makayla.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
What's up y'all?
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
And thank you once again for joining us on our adventure in Spain, Ronda, to parts unknown.
It's pretty accurate.
So baby, where are we headed next?
We are headed to the Caminito del Rey.
For those who don't know, it's another hike for us.
A dangerous hike.
One of the most dangerous hikes in the world.
So this piece of hikeage, I'm sorry.
I don't hike so I don't know what the proper terminology is, but it is about, it's an 8
kilometer path, which is about five miles.
And it was once considered the most dangerous path in the world because it began to decay.
They laid down these foundations in like the 1900s and over time it decayed and they didn't
use it.
And then people would sneak in and people died trying to hike this trail.
Well, what Derek forgot to mention and add context to this hike is that these are paths
not really carved, but fixed to the sides of cliffs.
They are about 328 feet in the air.
They're suspended.
100 meters.
And there's even a suspension bridge that goes in between some of these paths.
So it's an interesting hike on the sides of cliffs.
The path was created so the workers at the hydroelectric plant could transport goods
and materials to maintain the plant and to feed themselves to have food and things of
that nature in stock.
Because they usually go and stay for weeks at a time because they were there to work.
So we decided to make this hike.
Not just a hike, but a family hike.
So we had London Rose with us, the 11 year old.
The 11 year old.
And this is not a quick hike.
This is a three to four hour hike, which is going to be fun.
So when we arrived, we arrived in the check-in right and you get a hairnet, a helmet, and
a radio.
With earphones.
And there are three different options.
The first option is you can have a guided tour in Spanish or a guided tour in English.
Or you can take the tour by yourself.
Unguided.
I think we should have done the unguided tour.
That way we could have took our time.
Yeah.
Originally, I booked this excursion.
And let me say this right now.
If you're thinking about going to the Caminito de Rey, you will have to book this tour about
two months in advance.
So they release tickets two months in advance and I recommend you try to snag one of those
tickets.
Because they only allow so many people a day.
I think maybe a thousand a day or something like that.
Something like that.
And then tickets are limited anyway from the beginning.
Yeah, they're limited.
And they release them in two months increments.
So you gotta check the calendar.
And the day hours went live.
I snagged them and thought, you know what?
Let's get the tour guide so we can kind of learn about this path and the walk, et cetera,
et cetera.
And I booked this darn tour guide.
He was amazing.
Don't get me wrong.
But this man was not with the whole pausing to take no pictures.
He's like, come on.
The group is leaving you.
Speed up.
And so I found myself in the back of the group often with another woman.
This other woman, she was with her husband and she had the same idea that I thought.
But when she booked her ticket, she booked her ticket like two weeks prior to our trip
and she had to get what was left.
And what was left was the tour guide.
She wanted to do the non tour.
The unguided tour.
Yeah, the unguided.
She can take all of her pictures at leisure as well.
I did enjoy the guided tour, but it did seem like he was pushing us along.
Oh yeah.
It was like, you got two seconds, maybe three seconds.
Hey, this is that.
All right, let's move.
Yeah.
And what you don't realize, when you're up there on those cliffs, the view is beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
And we really, like you could easily spend like a half a day.
All day.
Yeah, or in Derek's case, all day.
All day.
Up there, just watching, looking at the views.
Just imagine walking along the Grand Canyon, like being down.
On the side of the Grand Canyon.
Yeah, on the side.
Not on top, but on the side, inside the canyon.
Yeah.
So you can look down over the edge and see the water below you and everything.
And it's just breathtaking.
Yeah, I think with the guided tour, we could have had lunch in that rest area.
Oh yeah.
With the unguided tour, we could have had lunch in that rest area instead of blowing
right through.
Oh yeah.
I think he gave us like a five minute water break.
Yeah.
I was like, dude, I want to take this in.
Nope.
He was like, you got some cookies, eat that, drink your water.
You got some water, drink it, let's go.
Let's go.
And he mentioned something about the local habitat and the animals in the area.
And then he just moved on.
I'm like, well, are they going to come out?
Are they nocturnal?
Will we see one?
He's like, oh, there's a bird, there's a this, there's a that.
Let's go.
I was like, man, I wish he would slow down just a little bit.
Yeah.
So if you're thinking about booking a ticket and thinking, oh, I'm going to book this guided
tour, but I'm going to do a self guided tour.
No, you're not going to do it because the hard hats they give you are color coded.
Color coded.
So I tried that.
That's how he spotted me.
Like, oh no, no, no, come on.
Yes, yes.
Because I had blended in with the unguided tour people.
He was like, no, your hat is clearly not the same color.
You belong with us.
Let's go.
The guided tour was blue helmets.
I believe unguided was yellow or something like that.
I think it was red.
Red.
Yeah.
It was a different color.
Let's put it that way.
Different color.
And this is where my beautiful wife in her Instagram moments, she's taking pictures of
every cliff, every rock.
Hey, London Rose, there stand here.
Now lean over the edge.
I'm like, lean over the edge.
You know, Good and Well, don't do anything like that.
Hold on to the rail and lean over.
I did not say that.
I want to get the mountain.
I'm like, no, I'm not doing that.
That's a long fall.
You're not going to throw me under nobody's bus.
You better get out of here with them shenanigans.
Once again, I have photographic evidence.
But they were spectacular pictures.
I was like, you better not do me.
Spectacular views.
No, no, it's once in a lifetime.
You got to do it.
If you're in that part of Spain, you got to take that tour.
You got to make that walk.
And it might sound crazy.
It may sound dangerous.
I know we mentioned that it was once the most dangerous path in the world, but they've renovated
it to where it's as safe as it can be.
Yeah, and it was only the most dangerous, look, dangerous, dangerous hike path in the
world only because when they shut down that area because the path needed to be repaired.
And people were sneaking in.
They were climbing over the fences, going through the fences to get on these cliffs
paths that weren't stable, and they were falling off.
And that's why it was dangerous.
It's not like now they build new, like the government actually came in.
The government said, hey, we're losing too many citizens to this.
Let's just go on and we'll spend the dollars to get this done right.
And that's what they did.
And because when you're walking along the path, you could see the old original stone
concrete walkway underneath these new and improved metal ones that the government set
into place.
Yeah.
And then also people were breaking in trying to scale the cliffs.
Oh yeah.
Like we're talking about straight up and down, and they're trying to scale these cliffs.
And unfortunately, they meet their demise.
But some people love doing that stuff.
I'm not one of those people.
And this is where, you know, I almost lost my wife on this one.
Stop it.
Man, she was running on this small path.
Her coat got caught on the side of the cliff.
And she goes a stumbling, I'm like, oh no, exaggeration.
She's going to fall over the side.
I'm like, oh no.
And she like, oh, I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm all right.
I only stumbled because I was, I was fast.
I'm not going.
I was not running.
I'm not crazy now.
Come on.
I was speed walking, speed walking really fast because you know, I am clumsy by nature
and that's why I thought I lost you.
He called my name in such an aggressive manner.
My reflex attitude clicked in like what?
Because I was like, stop running.
No, don't run.
And I guess God was like, I don't like ugly.
It made me trip.
And I tore my jacket on the side.
I don't even know what it, cause it's a smooth rock.
Like what, how did I tear my jacket against this cliff?
So my jacket was literally.
It was ripped open.
It was all I have was a sleeve.
It was ripped open.
And when you fell, I thought, I thought you had cut yourself.
I thought you were hurt.
No.
And you bounced up.
You, I'm trying to take these pictures.
I'm like, baby, are you okay?
Cause you knew, you knew the tour guide was going to yell at me for being behind the group.
So I'm trying to get my picture in real quick.
You calling me for unnecessary stuff.
There's signs all over it said, do not run.
I was not running.
Once we're going to sell this now.
I was not running.
You were a light job.
Whatever.
I thought you were going over the side of the cliff, baby.
My heart is beating so fast.
Don't call my name like that.
That's all I got to say.
Because I was terrified.
I'm like, she is not, she is not, oh, she's not, Makalah.
And you just start talking.
I was just trying to get to this spot that I saw with this beautiful view and I wanted
to take my picture.
And I knew that guy, the tour guide was going, yeah, come on.
No, I was not.
No, I want to get my picture in.
We were all into the other group.
They creeping up on us.
They were.
Oh man.
That was, that was hilarious.
That was hilarious.
But I wasn't the only one.
No, I was not the only one.
We met our new traveling family.
The Langles.
Yep.
Miss Langles.
She was back there with me as Beth.
Well, okay.
Let's rewind.
So in our group, like I mentioned, there was this couple that got their tickets late.
So they had to get what was left, which was our tour guide.
And they were Beth and Hank.
And Beth spent a lot of time with me.
So she and I would swap pictures.
Like she loved pictures as much as I did.
So and what I do rather.
And so she would take pictures, you know, and if I took a picture, a beautiful picture
and she was in it, we would airdrop it to each other and everything like that.
So Beth was back there too, getting her shots in, collecting her memories as well.
But Derek would like to take a moment to tell you a little bit about the Langles.
I just can't stop laughing because you almost fell off the side of a cliff, baby.
I'm so sorry.
But the Langles though, we met them standing in line and we started to talk.
We sparked up a conversation.
We come to find out that I think Beth and Hank both lived in Kentucky.
Beth graduated from UK and their retired school teachers touring Europe, Spain and Portugal.
It's a bit exact.
So let me interject.
So how they stood out to us, okay, you know, we're here in Spain and even though like we're
on these tours, it's not often that we see another American.
So it's like, hey, you know, it's almost like seeing a family member.
It's like, hey, you're from my country.
Because we were in line and there were a lot of people from different parts of Spain, Germany.
There were a lot of Frenchmen there in our group a lot.
And then it was Beth and Hank and us.
We were the only ones from the United States.
So we naturally gravitated towards each other and linked up.
So yeah, we just sparked a conversation like that.
And they spent some time in Lexington.
We currently live in Lexington.
They're retired educators.
I think Hank was a principal and Beth was a fifth grade teacher.
So we had that where my wife is a Spanish teacher, had that connection and they kind
of live close to us in Columbus.
But they retired and moved to Colorado.
And they're in Spain or in Europe because it's like nine feet of snow in Colorado.
They said they have to get out of there.
I was like, yeah, why did you retire to Colorado?
Snows all the time.
Well, that's my birth state.
I was born in Colorado Springs.
I mentioned to Hank, I said, I've never heard anyone retire to Colorado.
They always go to Florida, somewhere in Texas, somewhere warm.
So and the crazy part about them, they had a business card, a travel business card where
they had all their information on it, email address, phone numbers, QR code.
And what they do while they travel, in most cases, they go to like these third world countries
and help out with their dentists.
They help people with dental hygiene, those who can't afford it, they go out and provide
it.
An amazing cause.
So we're going to hopefully link up with them one day and make one of these trips.
They were from, they had just came in from Nepal when we met them in Spain.
So those are going to be our new travel buddies.
So, we're still on this walk and there's this, was it a rope bridge that we had to cross?
It was a rope bridge.
I didn't want to do that.
Like Indiana Jones.
I did not want to lie to you.
I wanted to turn around.
I thought it was going to be like the path was going to be like that, the wooden path.
I thought it was going to be our way, all the way to the end.
They didn't mention this suspension bridge made of ropes.
Yeah, the rope bridge was how you got out of the Camino de Rey.
That was your last tour of the hike.
You got across this bridge to get to the other cliff to get out because that's where the
exit was.
And I think what got me was the tour guide said, there can only be four people on it
at a time.
I was like, oh, come on, bro.
Are you serious?
Are you serious right now?
I didn't even hear him say that.
I guess because I was in the back.
You were in the back.
Yeah.
And I was like, four people at a time?
More than four.
Well, it can only handle so much weight.
I was like, oh, man.
I've been bamboozled.
I don't know if I would have made this trip if I knew that was the last part of it.
That was pretty scary for me.
I don't know.
I was excited.
I felt like Indiana Jones somebody.
I really did.
You the adventurer.
We're doing all this because of you.
I think you're trying to get the insurance money.
Hey.
So we're wrapping up the hike and we really have no plans.
We have to make a decision.
Where are we going next?
Are we going to go to Granada?
Because it's pretty close.
Are we going to drive directly to Sevilla?
So what did we decide to do?
This part of our trip, I had no plan.
There was no plan.
There was no plan for the Ronda day.
There was no plan for after coming to the day.
And I just remember on that little break, our little water break, looking at my phone
thinking, hey, where are we going next?
And clock in locations.
And I thought about Granada, which is another city in Andalusia.
I wanted to see the Alhambra there.
This beautiful.
That's another beautiful Moorish building that we learned about in Spanish class.
And then the other thought was Malaga.
Because when we landed in Spain, we went and we saw Gronika in Madrid, which is that huge
Pablo Picasso painting.
And it got me thinking, hmm, Picasso has a childhood home in Malaga that is now a museum.
And I thought, well, why not?
We could take London Rose there.
She's learning about Picasso in school.
She just saw Gronika.
Why not?
So I had Derek.
I said, hey, here's our option.
We got Granada or Malaga.
We can do them both.
We can drive to Malaga, then to Granada.
Or you want to go, you know.
Then we just said, hey, let's just do Malaga.
Malaga's pretty close, 45 minutes away.
And let's go.
So we hop in the car.
And we're off.
And we checked the tickets.
Tickets were pretty affordable to this, you know, Picasso museum.
And we get to Malaga.
Yes.
And drive straight to the museum.
And what are your thoughts?
My thoughts are we should have done more.
We should have done a whole lot more.
We dropped the ball once again in Malaga.
Well, I'm just talking about Picasso's house.
Oh my goodness.
It was kind of disappointing.
I thought it was going to be his childhood home.
It was.
But I thought there was going to be furniture.
Maybe his old cribs and couches and sofas, something.
It was just his paintings.
Yes.
Kind of a letdown.
It was his home, which I could imagine was beautiful back in the day.
It was multi-leveled, you know, beautiful architecture.
But it was basically an art gallery.
They had one room set up to the way they thought his living room would have looked based off
of pictures and things.
And you know, the nerd in me, you know, the home decor nerd in me was like, oh, this is
beautiful, you know.
But after that, it was just like, you know, back to reading about the paintings.
Not to say that, you know, that wasn't exciting.
It's just that when you're expecting this, but you get this, it's like, oh, I wish I
had did a little bit more research.
And maybe we could have just drove straight to Granada.
I thought it was going to be something like Graceland.
Yes, exactly.
But it wasn't.
And you know, my family didn't want to eat or do anything there.
It was just like, oh, let's, I'm tired.
I'm tired.
We did a hike and then we drove all this way to go see these paintings.
Let's just go to Sevilla.
I don't feel like driving to Granada.
And so I'm looking at the GPS and I'm seeing, you know how you look at your, the map you
can kind of see when there's a water.
I'm like, wait a minute.
Are we by the beach?
The beach was like behind.
It's probably a mile away.
Not even a mile, like a couple of blocks away.
And I don't feel like going to see no beach.
Let's get on the road.
I don't really do beach, baby.
I would have liked to just, just seen it.
Just seen it.
Just say, hey, we went to Malaga and we went to the beach.
You saw the beach.
And nope.
So we hopped in the car and not realizing that we missed out on a lot because, you know,
and I talked to my friend, the one that lives in Spain, she was like, oh no, you should rather
do this in Malaga.
There's not much to see in Malaga.
And I was like, okay, well, all right, forget Malaga.
Man, we started doing some research.
Derek, tell them what we missed out on.
We missed out on a lot.
A lot, I tell you.
So we missed out on the cathedral of Malaga, also known as the one arm lady.
I wish I was seeing that just because of the name.
And then they said the port of Malaga, it's this amazing architecture.
You should get, you gotta go see it when you're there.
I looked that up and said it's a must see.
And then go to the beach.
You mentioned it.
We should have went to the beach.
I kind of want to go now.
Cause they said they have nice beaches.
Nice beaches that we missed out on.
And then the fortress built by the Moors.
Can you pronounce that for me, honey?
The Spanish teacher, the linguistic.
The manquita?
No, that's the one arm lady.
We have notes you guys.
Right here.
Oh, the Alcazaba.
Yes.
Yes, we missed out on that.
Another Moorish structure that we missed out on.
Yeah.
I love taking that stuff in.
You know, we're learning so much about the Moors all up and through Spain and particularly
the Andalusia region.
Very.
Another structure that has stood the test of time.
And the great thing about it is once again, they didn't destroy it.
It's still standing.
Yeah, cause you never know.
When Ferdinand and them came on in, they either, they chose to either keep what these Africans
built or tear it down.
Yep.
The good thing they kept it, cause it's from what I read is in Marvel.
It's a must see and we didn't do it.
Well, we just gotta take another trip.
I'll let you plan that one too.
Let me find somewhere to hike.
I don't know about no more hikes, babe.
So we have, I have a question for you.
I think we talked about it.
So what is it that you wish you would have known before you arrived in both locations
that we visited on that day?
Well, for the Caminito del Rey, I wish I had brought snacks and things.
I did get a little hungry and I was thirsty.
I wish I had done that.
And I felt like I did a pretty good job with the shoes I had on.
I wasn't uncomfortable, but that, for me, that's pretty much it.
I wish I had brought more provisions.
What about you?
For me on the hike, I wish I had better shoes.
It's a rocky surface.
Once you get off the walkway, there are rocky surfaces and my ankle would turn a little
bit.
I do have ankle issues, Achilles tendon issues.
So that did cause a problem later on in the day.
And then the next thing, headphones.
Oh yeah, I forgot.
The headphones, the headphones they gave us for those radios were trash.
They were like Dollar Tree headphones.
I wish I would have brought, I wish I would have knew because one side didn't work or
it'll go out and it's all scratchy.
I wish I had better headphones.
That would have been a better experience for the guided tour.
I would have even preferred to bring the earphones that I save, the ones you get from your flights.
Those were better.
And cause they all use aux cord.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I would have brought better headphones if I would have knew that.
And then we just spoke about Malaga.
I just wish we would have spent the night.
Spent the night, went to the beach and gave the city a chance.
We had a family friend tell us, oh, there's nothing to see here.
We should have do what we always do and just hang out.
Yeah.
You know it's different when you live in a place.
It's different than use your tourist eyes in your hometown.
Cause they see it before they see it all the time.
So it's like an everyday occurrence for them.
For us it was brand new.
So we missed out on that.
We're going back.
I'm claiming it.
We're going back soon.
So we're back in the car babe and we're headed to our final destination.
The reason why we're in Spain.
Yeah, we are listening to my husband Derek.
I want to go to Granada.
How close was Granada?
Granada was a two hour drive.
Sevilla was a two hour drive.
In the opposite direction or the same direction?
No, it's the opposite direction.
It was going north.
So we're going to go two hours in a different direction than where we're headed.
Don't act like we have not done it before.
I know.
Don't do it.
I'm just saying.
That's why I made my decision.
You weren't driving anyway.
I told you to take a nap.
I just wanted to lay eyes on Alhambra.
That's all I wanted to do.
Lay eyes on it.
That's okay.
We're going back.
That was also our first experience with getting gas.
Leaving Malaga.
We went up to the gas station.
Oh Lord.
You want to explain now?
I went to the gas station.
I think I gave the guy 30 euros.
I thought the gas hand was going to move, but I forgot.
It's in liters.
You forgot to mention the full service.
Full service?
Yeah.
We went in and we drove into the full service gas station where they pump your gas and everything.
We didn't know what to do.
And we didn't know what to do.
I just told Derrick, you know what, let's just go find new places.
Let's just go.
You had these guys coming out to pump our gas.
We don't even know what type of gas to get.
So we just kept on going.
Like, no, we're not doing that.
We just found our own self-service gas station.
So yeah, we finally arrived to a gas station, self-service.
And I said, hey, put 30 on five.
The gas hand did not budge because they do liters, not gallons.
So I thought I was getting 30 euros, 30 gallons, well, not 30 gallons, but $30 in gallons.
But I got liters.
Gas hand didn't budge.
Didn't budge.
So once again, those small little differences from the United States to Europe, liters versus
gallons.
Gas hand does not move with 30 euros in liters.
So lesson learned.
Lesson learned.
And then also, we filled that thing up.
When we turned that car into civilian, what we should have done, we should have did was
let the rental car people fill it up.
Because when you use your debit card in Spain, it holds 125 euros plus what you put in gas.
So I think we put 130 bucks in petrol in that car.
Then they held another $125.
It's a dollars or a euros?
Euros, 125 euros.
And when I saw that on my bank statement, I almost lost my mind.
I thought someone had used my card after I left.
Oh yeah, I remember.
So I called the bank.
I'm like, hey, someone used 100.
No, that's just the hold.
Why do they hold so much?
They don't hold that much here.
They hold like what, 50 bucks?
They held 125 euros.
So another call out there.
So we're off to Sevilla.
All right.
We're in Sevilla for the big party.
Can't wait.
Until next time.
Next time, guys.
If you made it this far, you are the true champion.
You could have been anywhere, doing anything, but you instead chose to spend your time with
us.
And for that, we say thank you.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makyla.
Rate, like, and subscribe.
Do good, be good.
Until next time.