La Garrucha of Jardín
On the opposite side of Jardín to the Cristo Rey there is another cable car – this one is in full working order! There is a pleasant walk along gravel roads and past a waterfall to get there, so a common thing to do in Jardín is to walk there, and then take the cable car back.
This walk was so good that we did it twice – once taking the cable car down, and once walking down a different way. Why is this walk so good? Well, the countryside is really beautiful, but also it’s full of birds! 🙂 The cable car is also very special, because it’s a home-made cable car! Yes, that doesn’t sound very safe does it! 🙂 We were assured that it is indeed very safe…the cable car is called ‘La Garrucha’ – which is apparently a spanish word for a mechanism to move heavy things along with a cable. It was built by the local farmer to bring stuff up from the town to his farm – and then it became a tourist attraction as well, so nowadays it brings up people as well.
The walk to the top only takes around 45 minutes, so the whole outing can be done in around two hours – including a drink stop at the top (or along the way if it starts to rain..). There are a LOT of rain showers in Jardín – it can sometimes be difficult to get more than two hours in a row without rain!
