Getting to El Caminito del Rey was quite the challenge. Patrick and I originally wanted to get to El Caminito Del Rey by staying in the nearest town of El Chorro. There is a train that goes to El Chorro from Malaga but the day we wanted to go, the train tracks flooded and the train derailed. So instead we went to Ronda and took a day trip to El Caminito del Rey and it was perfect.

To get to El Caminito del Rey from Rondawe had to take an early morning train to Bombadilla. Once in Bombadilla we should have been able to take another train straight to El Chorro but it still hadn’t been fixed from being derailed so the train people organized a Taxi for us (no extra cost) to take us to El Chorro. The taxi driver, however, was awesome and had done this drive several times. He dropped us off at the trail head to El Caminito del Rey. Our way back to Ronda was similar, except the train people forgot to send us another taxi to get us back to the train station. So I had to go ham on them over the service phone till they sent us and a few other tourists taxis. It was much of the same process to get back to Ronda. Definitely doable in one day.

The in between part of all this travel, El Caminito itself was epic. We got there a bit earlier than we needed to be for our ticket time so we ate breakfast at the little cafe pictured above, and then went to the turquoise lake across the street to throw rocks and bask in it’s perfect glory.

Turns out, this cafe is the start point for getting to El Caminito. Off to the right of the building in the picture (we ate breakfast there) where the trees start is the beginning of the walk. You have to walk about 2 kilometers to get to the ticket both/trail head. There is a line where they let you in according to the time slot on your ticket. After you get in, they give you a hair net and helmet that you are expected to wear during the duration of your walk. They are super not cute and make for really funny pictures of when your guy proposes to you. The walk to El Caminito is really beautiful. There are trees and you follow a river at some points of it and get an overall good look at the fauna of this part of Spain.

If you didn’t know, El Caminito is quite perilous, or at least it was historically speaking. El Caminito del Rey translates to The Little Pathway of the King. It was constructed over four years and completed in 1905 for Spanish workers to build a hydroelectric damn along the Guadalhorce River. King Alfonso XIII walked on his namesake in 1921 to celebrate the completion of the damn. For decades after, the pathway has served as a means for inspection, a concrete boardwalk hanging over 300 feet above the river below, allowing workers a short cut between power plants. As El Caminito became abandoned by workers, it became a destination for tourists. Over the years, due to a series of deaths, El Caminito became known as one of the deadliest hikes in the world. The trail was closed by the Andalusian government in 2000. Years later, the restoration began, and the pathway reopened in 2015. Walking along the reinforced boardwalk, you can still see the steel and concrete ruins of the original path, a skeleton perilously hanging over the gorge.

But don’t let that deter you from going! It is awesome.

During the hike you will walk through two gorges. Built into the sides of each gorge is a sturdy board walk with a railing and chain link fence. There are a couple hundred feet above you and a couple hundred feet below you ending in rocks and river. It is really cool.

In between the two gorges is a bit of flat and solid ground that isn’t scary to walk on. And that is where Patrick chose to propose to me. I believe it had a lot to do with the fact that if one of us dropped it, it would fall on dirt and not through the cracks of the board walk and down into that perilous and scary looking river. I was totally okay with that!

It was the most beautiful proposal ever. We were in the middle of Spanish wilderness, in a beautiful area, surrounded by tall mountains, rivers and plants and we were wearing dirty travel clothes, hairnets, and helmets; the sexiest outfit for the most beautiful moment of a couples relationship. Luckily I was wearing the makeup I had bought from Kiko in Malaga. As you can see below, we looked super cool.

The whole rest of the hike I walked holding my ring finger up to make sure it wouldn’t fall into the abyss (which it didn’t) and taking what we thought were creative pictures of me and the ring. Believe me, they were creative…

El Caminito ended with a really cool bridge that you cross. It spans the gorge and there is a worker stationed at the opening to make sure only a few people cross at a time. Talk to this person. They know stuff and can tell you cool information about the gorge and point out neat things like the confluence of the gorge water meeting the other water, as pictured down below. It is something I would not have noticed on my own without the guiding eye of a very nice fellow near the bridge. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Talk to strangers. They know stuff that you don’t know.

Travel hint: Wear good shoes for this hike.

And also good pants and a good pack

that won’t slip off your shoulders.

You don’t want to drop anything. 

The guide at the bridge is really good at directing traffic so that people can get an uninterrupted picture of just them on the bridge. And that is a nice thing because otherwise it would be like trying to get a picture with the Disney castle alone. AKA impossible.

After you cross the bridge and finish your personal photo shoots, you walk along a cliff to a place where you dump your helmets and hairnets in a bin and walk down a dirt path to El Chorro. In El Chorro there is a train that should be able to take you back to either Malaga or Ronda, but as I said earlier, this train had been derailed and wasn’t available. And as I also said, the train people forgot to send us that promised taxi. So after a slightly heated conversation with Renfe I secured us and a few other tourists a taxi and we went and sat down in a cafe for a celebratory engagement lunch. We ate good foods, drank wonderful tea from pretty cups, told our friends and family that we were engaged (finally) and took some more artsy pictures of the ring on my hand. You can never have too many pictures of you and your engagement ring. Never ever.

When our taxi arrived we loaded up and drove out. He stopped so we could have a nice view of the bridge and then zoomed off. He got us to the station just in time for the last train and we got back to Ronda and ate our super fancy meal of Spanish Cup-O-Noodles while watching New Girl and then went to bed for our early departure to Sevilla.