Sea changes are easier at a younger age, because yes, adaptation is easier, and the age deterioration hasn’t really started. But it shouldn’t be a deterrent. And hey, it will be easier at 66 that at 76…so today is the time to start.
Totally understandable! To be honest, my knees were on fire on the way down. And climbing Popocatapetl at 50 is impressive, amazing achievement!
When I was 50s, OH and I used to play mountain goat above Engelberg and Garmisch, where we lived. My iliotibial band played up only on the downward marches (of sometimes 5 hours). Now it still gives me grief on gentle hikes, but only on the downward. Age forces some sanity…
I’ve always been slim, but I could stand to lose some 4kg of the sub-cu fat that Izzy mentions. At 70+ I blame the running thing on age and weight.
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Wait a min…since a couple decades ago there’s an advice to stay away due to minor eruption activity. It’s not like a 50 ton rock is going to fall on your head, or deadly pyroclastic flows or lahars. But, if the volcano farts a bit too much hydrogen sulfide or CO2 at the right time and with the right wind…
I was up there on the saddle between Popo and Izta in 1977, and I was pretty short of breath at 14,000 ft.!
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indeed, indeed
indeed, indeed; i was there some 7 years ago, and 200 m short from the top, the army found us and forced us to turn around. 
by then, we had already noticed a strong H2S smell, and some solfataras.
Being in the right mountain at the wrong time is my specialty.
Being on the wrong mountain at the right time, my partners’…
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There is a wayhouse, no idea how high, but high enough to say you climbed Popo, above the wayhouse is off limits to thecasual hiker. I stayed overnight and went down the next day.
Hiked Izta, or at least set off to go around the lake, but fell asleep on a slab of stone.
So the hiils were alive with the sound of snoring until some bugger kicked me awake.
Come to think of it I went up the grouse grinder in Vancouver at that time.
Lordy, we are an interesting lot, aren’t we? I was on my way to Catania in 1982, and on the bus to the airport I read the newspaper over the shoulder of the handsome man sitting in front of me. Etna had just started an enormous eruption, it said, so I asked him about it. He invited me to join him and his 3 local friends who were intent on seeing the lava. We piled into a car and went up to see the spewing explosions, allowed in by some jolly cops who were supposed to be keeping the road closed. Memories…
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Watched Etna throw a wobbly a few time from Malta.
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The downside to losing weight is that the first visible sign of loss is the face. This will make you look older as you lose rounded features.
When I shed my 18kg, I was asked on more than one occasion if I was OK. People who had not seen me for some months thought I had cancer…
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Never thought I would like to ride a bicycle but actually now I do.
Thanks, that made my day. Actually in my youth I was kind of slim, too much sports. But as they say, “Sport ist Mord”. Broke almost every bone in my body in several accidents, skiing, motorbike, paragliding and on top of all both of my knees on a mountain hike. I suppose I loved all those free helicopter rides…
So I had to stop sports and replaced it with eating and drinking. Until I reached 125kg at 1.70 high. That brought me a nice diabetes which almost killed me 20 years ago.
I never did diet but somehow lost more than 30 kg. I think it was because of the pills I have to take until today, probably I get them back when dropping the 6 different (legal) drugs I have to take. I still eat a lot but only in the morning (almuerzo Valenciano). Almost never have dinner, no appetite.
It’s not just food, the amount of calories in alcohol is insane.
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Yes, but I drink only Cazalla, Beer and one Whiskey with the coffee for my second breakfast. OK, today I had some Mistela for dessert too. And a 500g Entrecote, raw, almost alive! That is why my siesta today took like until now!
Looking at that maybe the food really was not the problem… 
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There aren’t too many calories in many alcoholic drinks - the problem is that people end up having more than one, or two, or three.
The calories soon add up.
- Single measure of gin (25ml) with diet mixer = 54 calories
- Single measure of gin with mixer or fruit juice = 108 calories
- Medium glass (175ml) wine = 159 calories
- Small bottle (330ml) beer = 142 calories
- Pint of cider = 216 calories
An ice cold beer at the end of a hot day though is magic!
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That makes a bottle of wine only ~700 calories, like 250-300 grams of bread 
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When did we go from a single ice cold beer to a whole bottle of wine!
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I had been about 84kg for around 45 years, by just eating 400g of meat a day for 5 months whilst walking on average 15,000 steps a day dropped down to 70kg which was a bit too low so have increased to 73/4 which is where I have been for the last month or so. Eating fairly normally now but under 2000 calories a day.
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just missing the patxaran to round it up… 
. Are you still one of the old-fashioned almost disappeared species who drinks also a sol y sombra and a real carajillo ?
“the best way to avoid temptation…is falling into it”
Naaa, that is the Whiskey with the coffee.
I did drink my last Patxaran like 1984 on a hill near Bilbao, made and served by an old lady. We had a little too much of it and it made me sick, cannot stand the smell since then.
I get served a carajillo when I ask my favorite waitress for a coffee with love. Sometimes other guests look estranged when I order just a coffee and she asks me “?con amor?” But of course that is not the Madrid carajillo where they put in a coffee bean and lemon peel, burn it with brandy and put out the fire with coffee.
Sol y sombra was a thing from the 80’s and 90’s. I like the Spanish brandy but I don’t like the sweet Anis, prefer the dry one which is called “Cazalla” in Valencia. But it is very strong, so one only before breakfast to open the stomach.
For the Brandy mixer I would prefer the sweeter “Lumumba” if you remember that. Cholet with Brandy.