VALOR AND LAUJAR DE ANDARAX (ALPUJARRA)

Hello again,
after a quite bussy week, travel to Norway, week-end in the Almerias Alpujarra district, my doughters small, but grand wedding, I have a quiet moment and want to share our special weekend.

We left Granada on friday morning, driving towards Guadix going over Puerto de la Ragua, fine country skiing aerea in the winter, and hiking area in the summer, it was cold up there 13 degrees at noon, and we continued to the village Valor a little more than 1000 inhabitants and placed at 900 m, on the south side of Sierra Nevada, where we had lunch. The speciality from the area, groose in escabeche saus (made of onion, olive oil, vinager, and garlic) the groose is fried, and then cooked for a while in the escabeche, and then it must be stored for some days to get the real aroma, we had it with some local vine, La Alpujarra is becoming an important vine producing area, not big productions, but very nice wines.

After lunch we had a visit to the local church where you can find the  baroque Cristo de la Yedra, on the cross, and an image representing an Inmaculada figure from the school of  Alonso Cano, the church has a wonderful morish panneled ceiling.

Cristo de la Yedra.

The Inmaculada of Alonso Cano school.

This is may be the cleanest church in Spain, the ladies of the village  has their cleaning turns , and there is a competition between them of doing the best work.

In september (12 -15) you have the feast of " Moros y Cristianos ", where a lot of gunpowder is used,and the cristians are defending the territory from the moors has a tradition from the XVI th century, and are very popular still.

The village Laujar de Andarax.

Then we continued our way to Laujar, 1750 habitantas, where we booked into the nice Villas de Andalucia

Waterfall Andarax River.

Very friendly staff, nice rooms, and very ,very quiet, if you look for a retreat, just to have silence, walks in the countryside, and a nice swim in the pool, this is the place, you don't even need to bring any books, every room has a sellection of bestsellers you can read during your stay.

In the morning we had our breakfast, and then went to the source of the river Andarax, wich goes through the Andarax Valley and then turns south to the Tabernas Desert, it irrigates a large extention of citrus farms, before it leads to the Mediterranean Sea near Almeria.
Here you have a number of trails , several difficulties and information about he time you need for walking them.
The summer is just starting, nice and green, pic-nic areas, and even a chance to get your feet refreshed in the water.
You can also visit the Medal Laujar, where they make exquisite goat cheese, all atesanal manufactured.
The bodega Viña Laujar can also be visited, the production is 1 and 1/2 million liters per year, between the different vines, they both have on-line shops, links below.


www.bodegasvallelaujar.es
new.medalaujar.com

www.villasdeandalucia.com

Myself  and waterfall in background.

Patio from La Alpujarra.

The flat roofs are typical for the Alpujarra Villages.