One of the first things we encounter on the road up to the trail is a rock slide. Most of it has been cleared, but it looks like there are still a few boulders coming down occasionally.
Can you see it on the left? On the road up to the trail, we passed a huge mansion that never got finished. People say it is haunted. The man built it for his wife but she died during construction and he died shortly thereafter.
A little better look at the ‘haunted castle’. They clearly don’t want trespassers. The gate to the property was 12 feet tall and full of barbed wider.
On the way up to the trek, we passed a wall that people use for rock climbing. The rock in this area evolved under extreme pressure that created these crystallized formations.
The Pipeline walk starts out as a two track path as there are a few farms up the valley and people drive their pickups to those farms. We had a great day with no rain.
Some kids we ran into near the beginning of the trail. They claimed they were working in the forest. There mother maybe was. She was nearby in the thick forest.
The super rickety old bridges got wiped out last year and one got replaced with this metal beauty.
So this is the second bridge. You walk on two pipes and hold onto the water pipeline.
This is the third bridge which again replaces a bridge that was swept away last year.
This is a variety of a flamingo flower. We saw several.
Another type of flamingo flower. Maybe a pink flamingo.
This fruit, called a yuri, is about the size of a small orange. The outside has a prickly fir somewhat like a kiwi, but these firs are more like sand burr spikes that are painful and hard to remove. When the fruit is ripe is does turn orange. It tastes something like a cross between a kiwi, orange and lime.
I ate half of this yuri. It was good.
Lots of cool leaf patterns.
A friendly looking lizard.
We heard a troop of Howler monkeys above us and our guide, Ed, had a telescopic lens where we could get a picture of one of the monkeys. Without the camera we could see them scampering around at the top of the trees.
This is one of the highlights of the trek. About two-thirds of the way up, we come across an ash tree that is maybe about 1,400 years old. It has somehow survived the two most recent volcano eruptions at 550 years ago and 800 years ago. The volcano is just a couple miles up and to the left.
My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with the 1,400 year old ash tree – and the much younger Charlotte!
Do you see it? The young woman that went on the walk with us was an expert at spotting lizards. Here is a dragon lizard.
A glass winged butterfly where you can see right through the wings.
Another lizard. Now if it was 10 feet long, that would be pretty scary.
This is the water pipeline that the trail is named after. Most of it is covered in moss like this. They trap groundwater runoff in the high elevations and pipe it down to the town. The water here is really good.
This is a new leaf about to unfold.
This is an extreme closeup. It is one of the smallest orchids that is visible to the naked eye.
There were vines everywhere. Some trees looked like more vines than trees.
This plant is about 15 feet tall and looks a lot like the cultivated papaya trees. The wild papaya is said to be comparatively tasteless but can still be used in soups and other dishes as a thickener.
Nearly back down the valley, we come across a small swarm of damselflies.
Some wild raspberries on the way back. Much like the wild raspberries in North America.