Day in Las Alpujarras

Even though we’ve been in Orgiva for four nights already, we haven’t really gotten to properly explore the area.  Today, I insisted we check out some of the other mountain towns in the Las Alpujarras region.  After reloading on “magic water” from Lanjaron, we drove up, up, up to a cute little town called Pampaneria.

I almost wasn’t going to stop – since it seemed like a tiny speed bump village, but Sue and the kids were wearying of the windy roads, and parking was readily available.  Now, I’m glad they spoke up.

Pampaneria is about 4500 feet above sea level, and as we explored it for 90 minutes or so, we were delighted by the cute shops and people we met.  There was an excellent rock and fossil shop, which had some cool trilobytes and other geological curiosities.  And some of the crafts stores were neat as well.  And as we walked deeper in town, everything got better.

First of all, we found the Abuela Ili Fabrica de Chocoloate (Chocolate Factory).  In spite of the fact that chocolate doesn’t grow in Spain, they had a great collection of custom chocolate flavors, including some unusual ones like rum raisin, pepper, and mustard, and other tasty treats like lemon, orange, raspberry, banana, coconut and more.  They also had an ice cream bar, with various chocolate flavors, as well as a honey almond that was to die for. I picked up a “Nestle’s Crunch” style bar to go.

Next stop, dinner shopping.  We’ve been eating in for dinner, primarily since our house has great ambiance, and we eat lighter and healthier if we do so.  My go-to meal is Spanish Ham on fresh baked rolls with local Olive Oil, and I found an amazing little ham shop (called Museo de Jamon). The owner was extremely accommodating, and I bought some slices of his best local ham, and container of Olive Oil to take back to San Francisco.  He even let Laurel pose for a photo slicing ham.

 
Laurel, "hamming" it up. 

Finally, we went to a store that has a loom from the 16^th century, and a woman named Mercedes who has been working ot for 35 years.  She was extremely friendly and accommodating, and made some amazing tapestries and wall hangings.  She even showed us her “silk farm”, with the works busily making silk cocoons.  I bought a really nice scarf from her, and she agreed to pose for a photo with us as well.

The other cute thing about Pampaniera is the way the town is laid out.  Like some of the other towns in Spain, the streets can be really narrow, and one we encountered had an aqueduct/creek running down it, as Bryce demonstrates:

After Pampaniera, we drove up a little higher, past the towns of Bubion and Campaniera, and did a small hike. This area is known for its hiking trails, and there are tour guides that will take you trekking from village to village.  I wanted us to get some exercise, and also check out a little bit of hiking and natural beauty. While our hoke was short, we could see the Mediterranean in the distance, and the mountains all around were beautiful.  Behind us were snowy peaks, still mostly covered despite it being mid-May.

I really like this area, and I feel we haven’t really explored it as much as I would have liked.  I can see coming back here and really getting to know it better.  The people are great, and it’s really healthy living.

I leave you with two more photos that show a few more facets of this marvelous region:

 

A Bird of Paradise from our Garden

 

Campaniera and Bubion, from our Hike

The Shepherd of Orgiva

Today was officially designated as a lazy day.  It was relatively hot, and the kids (especially Bryce) just wanted to chill today.  It was a perfect pool day, so we hung out at the house until 3 PM, and then ventured into town for lunch/dinner. We found a traditional Alpujarra restaurant, with a nice patio, and had a delicious lunch.  Mine was especially interesting: Migas (fried breadcrumbs) with melon, oranges, veggies, fried sardines, squid and sausage - sort of a country paella.  This was promoted on the menu as a specialty of the Alpujarras region we are in, and it did not disappoint.  Sue & Bryce stuck to their tried and true dishes: Sue had yet another bowl of gazpacho, and Bryce had patatas bravas. Laurel ventured out and had a tasty bowl of garlic soup.  Dessert was a killer flan, and a tasty rice pudding. Hopefully we'll be able to return to this place one more time before we depart.

Not wanting to have a totally wimpy day, we walked the two blocks through town, visited a bakery, and then drove fifteen minutes to the neighboring town of Lanjaron. Lanjaron is known for two things, it's "magical" and tasty drinking water, and its ham. We stopped at a fountain in the middle of town to fill up our water jugs, and everyone agreed that this was some of the best tasting drinking water ever.

As we returned home, a herd of goats was grazing in the grassland next to our house.  They made a soothing sound with their bells as they grazed. I chatted with the shepherd, named Antonio, for a while. He had four dogs, three of them were border collies, and one was a little brown hunting dog. Antonio told me he got the oldest dog (Chico) from England 16 years ago, and has given one hundred puppies sired by Chico to his fellow shepherds in the area.  He trains the dogs himself.  Chico and his two sons were responsible for about 100 goats and a few sheep today, and they were just like the sheep dogs you see on TV. Antonio makes goat milk and cheese from his herd, and the occasional cabrito (little goat) for eating.  He was very friendly, and even posed for a photo.

Our New Home - Orgiva / The Alpujarras

We've been in a different hotel the last three nights, and I felt it was time to "settle down", so we reserved five nights in a farm community called Orgiva, in a region called Las Alpujarras.  The feeling I get here is that it's like the Tuscany of Spain.  Orgiva is pretty small, with a main street, a church (of course), and some small offshoot streets with a few shops on them.  About 5,000 people live here. The area is known for its bountiful produce, including oranges, olives, lemons and figs. And it has a hippie community (mostly Brits and French) who coexist happily with the Spaniards - so we're told. We are about 1000 feet above sea level, so it's hot but not oppressive.

Our house is great. It has a pool, three bedrooms, several decks and terraces, and it is really comfortable.  Our neighbors (who also care-take the house) have orange and lemon trees, and they invited the kids and I to pick some fruit so we could make juice.  We also borrowed some olive oil from them, and had our first home cooked meal in five weeks: pasta with anchovies, garlic and oil.  The olive oil here is some of the best I've ever tasted, and it turned my otherwise ordinary cooking into a mini masterpiece.

The kids picking oranges

Out and About

So, the past few days have been mostly in our rental Mercedes B-class something-or-other. Bryce is thrilled. We have gotten back from Morocco and are back in Spain, braving the awesome waves to body-surf!

Okay, let me explain. The plan is to take two weeks traveling around beach towns, with about a night in each. We have stayed in three awesome hotels and have just settled down in Orgiva, a small town with crazy heat. We will stay in a rental home for five days and then head back on out for more awesome beachyness! Yay!

By Laurel