Last weekend, despite my better judgment, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try rock climbing. The night before, I started wondering if I should write a will, practice the crash position and superglue a safety helmet to my head. In the end, I decided to drink a bottle of wine, take some aspirin to prevent a hangover and pray that my friend was not going to allow me to experience free falling.
Fortunately, the reality of my experience was nothing like my insane fears. Rock climbers are adrenalin junkies, they are focused, they are determined, and their mental and physical strength is awe inspiring. They also use a lot of bad language, and I learnt a lot of Spanish words and phrases that I wouldn’t find in a dictionary. However, truth be told, none of that was my lasting impression. The thing I took away from this experience, besides a broken body and some humiliation (of course I was RUBBISH – if there was an elevator up the rock, I still wouldn’t have made it!) was the sense of camaraderie between climbers.
We were like the United Nations; there were climbers from all over Spain, from Poland, from Germany, from Russia, and GET IN, from England. Some climbers had met before and some hadn’t and yet it felt like these people had known each other for years. In fact, it felt like these people were from the same family: sharing food, lending equipment, giving advice and supporting each other in success or failure. In my opinion, the essence of this strong bond, this relationship between climbers, is based on trust and respect.
Despite the fact that I’m not sure I will go rock climbing again, I can honestly say I learnt a lot about the genuine goodness in people, and in my book that’s worth more than a million bucks. In addition, I had the opportunity to fall in love with Andalusia all over again. What more can a girl ask for?!
So, if you want to step out of your comfort zone and try something different, or maybe you just want to meet some new people in a beautiful setting and wear a sexy harness, then get in touch with Carlos. Carlos has calve muscles as round as apples and as hard as marble, he climbs rocks like an Ibex and he is the perfect trainer, he encourages, he motivates, he’s super friendly and he makes you feel like you can do better. He is also the owner of Vertikalia an Andalucian climbing shop and training centre.
So, get a group of friends together, check out his website: http://www.vertikalia.com/ and give him a call on: +34 691 80 4223
Inglés Málaga 