Las Alpujarras

I actually went to the Alpujarras a long time ago, I've just been lazy about blogging. We went to Nerja, a beach, on this trip as well. We spent a day doing a 6 hour hike through the Alpujarras area of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was an hour drive to the hotel and the hiking spot from Granada. It was also only a two hour drive from these mountains to the beach. Granada's location is famous for allowing someone to go to the mountains and beach all in the same day. On a clear day, you can see the Mediterranean from the mountain tops. Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day. Since Sarah and I are both from the University of Oklahoma and were wearing OU t-shirts, we felt the need to take the stereotypical pic for study abroad students from OU. Though it isn't a good picture, it is memories!

We went to the mountains during the fall so it was pretty to see the leaves change as the trail went through the forest. Unfortunately, I had terrible allergy problems on this trip which made it kind of miserable. It was really dusty and 60 students walking along a trail made it even more so. It was pretty though, so I'm glad I did it.

The Alpujarras is also a historic and very old region of Spain. The pueblos in the mountains have been there since the Moors came to the area and established them. While on the trail you may see leftover parts of presses or items of the agricultural livelihoods of the people in the mountains. Below is a picture of them.

The white pueblos can be seen along the trail. We walked through several. They made me feel like I was going back in time. Though Spain is a first world country, the homes here seem to lie outside of the stereotype of wealth. Many do not have doors and look dilapidated. It is beautiful, just in its own way. There were many times when rural Spain seemed like a different country than urban Spain.

I can't believe I actually saw a man herding mountain goats through the pueblo (village).

Each pueblo has a little church. These are all white pueblos I might add. 

After we walked through the one in the pictures above, we saw the next white pueblo and even the one after that while walking on the hiking trail.

The picture below shows what I mean by beautiful but dilapidated

My last picture is just of one of many waterfalls we saw while hiking through the forest. There are areas of the hike that were very dry, like my picture with Sarah. There are pictures like the one below which are very green with streams and waterfalls. There were also some areas where all the leaves were changing. Overall, the Alpujarras were varied and beautiful. Their pueblos seem like small, close-knit communities locked in the past.