"Las Alpujarras - Andalucia's best kept secret!" Top 5 Page for this destination Las Alpujarras by Swan7

I first heard about the region known as Las Alpjarras when I read the book "Driving over lemons" by Chris Stewart. Two things drew me to this book. First, that it was written by a guy who used to be the drummer with Genesis (was he mad, to give this up?) and secondly I was keen to read anything about anyone who had "up-sticks" to live in Southern Spain.

I read the book while on a trip to another area of Andalucia, and before I had finished it I was so totally hooked that we spent the last few days of that trip IN La Alpujarra looking at houses for sale!

By the end of that year we had our own "Casa blanca"!

The walls of houses in the Alpujarra are built of grey stone, often gathered when preparing terraces for planting. Whitewashing them is a comparatively recent innovation. The walls are about 750cm thick for summer coolness and as protection from winter storms. Because of the irregularity in the size and shape of the stones used to build the walls, the walls have curious ‘bumps’ and ‘dips’. They are also quite coarse to the touch, as they are finished with a ‘ live’ plaster that dries rapidly before it can be smoothed. The walls are rarely straight and true. They may lean in, or out, from the ceiling. Opposite walls are frequently of different lengths. All of which adds to the rustic charms of the houses! The rooms may be quite small, or they may be long and narrow. This is because stout beams of chestnut, or ash on the lower valleys, are laid from wall to wall. The length of these determines the width of the room. On top of these beams, a mat of canes or split chestnut is lain, and on top of this comes a layer of flat stones. Finally comes a layer of launa, the crumbly grey mica found on the tops of the Sierra Nevada. Tradition dictates that this must, and this is still observed to this day, be applied during the waning of the moon, otherwise the launa will not keep out the rain.

Las Alpujarra region nestles on the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and is particularly rich in wild flowers. Some fifty varieties are unique to these mountains, among them five gentians, including Gentiana bory, the pansy Viola nevadensis, a shrubby mallow Lavatera oblongifolia, and a spectacular honey-suckle, the 7 – 10 metre high Lonicera arborea. Wildlife abounds away from the roads; one of the most exciting sights is the Cabra hispanica, a wild horned goat which you’ll see standing on pinnacles, silhouetted against the sky. They roam the mountains in herds and jump up the steepest slopes with amazing agility. Bird-watching is also superb, with the colourful hoopoe – a bird with a start, haunting cry – a common sight.

• Pros:Sun, Skies, flora, fauna, fantastic people
• Cons:It is hard to leave!
• In a nutshell:Each time I leave my mind is full of longing to return!