We’d struck a dry week, on several levels. Not only has P2 been off his appetite for beer and panaderías, with a bad dose of the man-cold, but the weather had that consistently good clean quality. Temperatures are now sitting higher overall, pollen counts are definitely higher (there’s lots of yellow - green residues about town adding to sinus sufferers woes), and spring activity is popping up everywhere, with lots of little vege planter boxes in the old town apartments looking tended to. Sunday was the best choice for what I’d been meaning to do for so long. No trucks on the N road, and the Costa Brava rally drivers had shipped out, with tyres marks in their wake to the west of town. Leaving P2 and his ill state, I took off up the Vall ... read more

It’s said time passes faster with age? And I’d add, experiences. Approaching 4 weeks here, the noticeable change in temporary population reinforces that the Spanish off season is definitely the preferred time. We imagine Barcelona would be intense all year round. Girona has a lot of architecture and tourist attraction to boast, so, on a fairly quiet Monday morning, we headed to the nearby Arab baths. We made an about-turn immediately after a big school group entered, being only four rooms big. Later in the day around 6pm, we passed and enquired, to find a quiet haven, without anyone else. In we went. It may have been grey / grim / artistically ‘moody’, but you’d easily conjure up visions of bathers, moving through the changing rooms, frigidarium, tepidarium / flotarium, and calidarium all generated from a ... read more

Settling into Girona life we had to apply some ‘Amazing spaces’ adjustments to The Nest to make the small space work better. A simple setup, the wobbly orange fold out couch got the first fix with the Allen key, then table to the window, then the bikes with their funny cantilever brakes. Driven by the difficulties of cartage up and down 3 narrow flights of old town stairs with the said bikes, we’d then converted our space to that which we’d visioned. Me, sat by the window, gazing at life on the third floor metres away in the old quarter, thoughts of lingering work obligations diminishing, and a decent ride done, or planned. The time slipped by. And with the weekend comes an influx of visitors to Girona. A quiet season to visit we’re told, midday ... read more

Route Map... read more

The plan before leaving Monteverde was to add in a second natural reserve dedicated to conservation as was Curi Cancha. Unlike before, the alarms got set for a slightly later time to take our shuttle bus. Ascending several 100m from Santa Elena town, we climbed for a good fifteen minutes up a bumpy gravel road, with several works in progress trying to recuperate it with the imminent wet season. The mainly European tourists aboard joined the bus bit by bit, but fortunately, being the off season, the chances of entering were greater than it could’ve been. A beautiful lush scene of dense rainforest lay before us, and in minutes we’d parted with $25NZDpp to enter this paradise. Of the 48km of trails laid here, we’d time for a fraction choosing the ‘de bajo’ and ‘encantadora’ in ... read more