Slide show of old photographs of Cadiar

The area around Bérchules is well known for the number of threshing circles or ´eras´. Guests often ask what they are for. As we have assisted probably the last ´parva´ of Bérchules in 2002, we are able to explain the process. Nevertheless we were pleasantly surprised to find a photo album on the internet with old photographs of Cádiar. Antonio Medina Santiago has put varias photo albums of Cádiar on ´windows live´. The slide show ´recopilacion de fotos del recuerdo´ took our special interest. 227 Pictures of life in Cádiar as it once was. Forgotten agricultural cores like the ´parva´ come back to live. On this photograph the ´trillar con mulos´ is shown. Gracias Antonio.

Día de Andalucía in Bérchules

The 28th of February, the Día de Andalucía is celebrated. This year it is the 30th anniversary of the statutes of autonomy of Andalusia. For this reason in Cádiar there are special commemorative festivities as we can read in the article from the Libro de Visitas de Cádiar.
In Bérchules and Alcútar it is this year called Día de Pucherico. On the ground floor of the Town Hall of Bérchules an Olla de San Antón and a Puchero de cardos will be prepared on Sunday at 14.00 hours. For the children there will be migas. The bar will be open from 12.00 hours onwards. The profits will be used for the repairs of the parish hall and the church of Alcútar, which both suffered a lot from the bad weather this winter. On Saturday the 27th of February, Trio del Sur will care for the music of a dance party that starts at 22.00 hours also in `los bajos del Ayuntamiento´ of Bérchules.
Something that was announced after writing this article, was the actuación of Al-Cadí of Cádiar and Los Vergeles de Bérchules, two grupos de música tradicional de la Alpujarra on Sunday afternoon.

Alpujarras and Sierra Nevada Sports Events

RUNNING 

GRANADA ULTRA TRAIL
Extreme Sierra Nevada trail running event. First edition in 2010 over 55K with thousands of alt.meters. 2011 edition not sure yet, but planned in july and over 120K
- video-nosomos locos,somos diferentes
- video de rubiloline

MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
Trail running. First edition in 2010 organised by Grupo Alpino Benalmádena with two races:
"kilometro vertical" 4,5 K with 1000 alt. metres uphill run
"carrera por montaña"14K with 2400 alt. metres,
related links:
-  details on corredordemontana.com

SUBIDA VELETA
Uphill trail run over 50K with 2600 alt. metres.

MOUNTAIN BIKING MTB 

SUBIDA ALPOSTERO ALTO
Mountain bike race of 75 K with  950 alt.metres up and down. Organized by club Verea Xtrem


RUTA "LOS BÁRBAROS": SUBIDA CICLOTURISTA PITRES - LAGUNA DE LA CALDERA
30K uphill MTB race with aprox. 1800 alt. metres


ROAD CYCLING 

SIERRA NEVADA LIMITE
Road cycling race with three possible inscriptions:
- 157K with 5500 alt.meters including climbing the Veleta
- 145K with 4410 alt.meters
- 40K subida cicoturista al Velata with 2710 alt.meters
related  links::
- biker101bikervivencias

- SUBIDA AL PUERTO DE LA RAGUA
117 K road race organized by Club Ciclista Acci in Guadix

- SUBIDA La MAMOLA - HAZA DEL LINO
16K with 1230 alt.meters as part of the Fiesta de Vino of Polopos-La Mamola

OTHER 

SIERRA NEVADA TRIATLON
Half and quarter triatlon in the midst of the Sierra Nevada.
First edition 24th of Jukly  2011


Related articles.
- Alpujarras outdoors activities link list

Related links:
- Nómadas. Outdoors activity materials shop in Durcal.

Luces de Sulayr, images of Sierra Nevada

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Sierra Nevada as National Park, there was an exhibition organised called ´Luces de Sulayr´ at the Centro Cultural de la Caja de Granada in Granada. ´Sulayr´ or ´Mountain of Sun´ as the Arabs called the Sierra Nevada has served as a source of inspiration for many artists, painters and writers. Apart from paintings, books and photographs, there is also a lot of unique material of botanists and cartographers. For the exhibition ´Lights of the Sulayr´ the most interesting images of the past five centuries were brought together. The exhibition was closed three weeks ago, but a virtual visit of ´Luces de Sulayr´ is still possible. This comprehensive website offers many paintings, photographs, soundtracks, maps and digitalised books from 16th century up to recent publications. To discover the content of this website is an adventure in it´s own and worth the effort. While glancing through one of the books, we came for example across this drawing of Bérchules from 1752! On this drawing the churches and mills can be observed, acequias and barrancos, but also the cultivated terraces like vineyards. This drawing is incorporated in the Álbum Cartográfico de Sierra Nevada 1606-1936 , by Javier Piñar and Manuel Titos (1995).

Related links.
- exposition catalogue: Luces de Sulayr, cinco siglos en la imagen de sierra nevada (or catalogos de exposicion)

Bar-cafe El Duende opened in Berchules

A few weeks ago, Miguel and Carmen opened their new bar in Bérchules called ´El Duende´. They decided to give it the same name as their discotheque along the Bérchules - Alcútar road.
The bar is located at the parking annex busstop square at the village entrance. Years ago this location was used as bar Edelweiss. Bar-café El Duende offers space and atmosphere that you might not expect from the outside. They serve excellent coffee, tapas and sandwiches and have planned the opening of the dining room at the Puente de Andalucía next weekend.
Opening hours are every day from 09.30 - 02.00 hours.
WIFI internet service available.
Telephone 679 823 200 email: mikilaser@gmail.com



Related keywords: comer y beber, eten en drinken

Cafe-piano-bar Cueva de Mora Luna

"La Cueva de Mora Luna" is a small café piano bar in the village of Mecina in the Taha valley.
In a relaxed and casual atmosphere, the cheerful owner Carlos Anibal di Palma Acuña, serves drinks as well as nice food amongst which a wide variety of salads and pizza´s. It is situated along the road that connects Mecina Fondales and Ferreirola. There is a small terace with nice views over the Sierra de Mecina. Carlose´s place is often filled with life music, and whenever a musician knows how to play a tango, the Argentine host will join in with a song.
It is an excellent place to stop for lunch while doing one of our Taha walks.

Opening hours are from 12.00 - 24.00 hours in summer and 12.00 - 17.00 hours in winter.
Mondays closed.
telephone: 958 765202
montebaires@yahoo.es



Related links:
- videos of performances on Youtube

related keywords: musica, muziek, musique, musik, comer y beber, eten en drinken, manger et boir, essen und trinken

Bodega Barranco Oscuro, video

The Bodega Barranco Oscuro is situated on the high slopes of the Sierra de Contraviesa, above Cádiar. Manuel Valenzuela is a passionate winemaker with a very personal philosophy on organic wine making. This video, broadcasted on Canal Sur television on the 2nd of Janury 2009, shows Manuel and his bodega as we got to know them in our first year in the Alpujarras, helping out with the harvest. In this video he explains the making of the sparkling wine or ´cava´ using the local vigiriego grape variety. It is a ´vino natural´ so no additional sugars are added, not even from other grape varieties. These grapes, growing on the highest vinyards of europe, were actually harvested after snowfall but as he explains, without killing the natural organisms needed for fermentation. Although Manuel´s personality and talking are convincing, ´the proof of the pudding is in the eating´. Salud!



Related articles:
- Wineries or ´bodegas´of the Alpjarras
- Rubaiyat of Barranco Oscuro at El Paraje

related keywords: wines, wijnen, vinos, vins, weine

Guia de vinos de Granada 2009

´Guia de vinos de Granada 2009´ is a wine guide of the Granada province that was published in 2009. It is a comprehensive guide with beautiful illustrations of Juan Antonio Martín Jáimez. The Alpujarra Granadina covers about two hundred of the four hundred pages. Almost all the local bodegas that can be found in a earlier blog article about Alpujarran wineries are covered in this guide. Of the different bodegas a description is given of the winery, wines, vineyards, tastings and recognitions. Distribution, address and website details can also be found in this guide.
Fundación Caja Rural de Granada
ISBN: 978-84-613-2168-1
tel. 958-242475

related keywords: wines, wijnen, vinos, vins, libros, books, boeken, livres, bücher weine,

San Blas celebrated in Nieles

The patron saint San Blas, Saint Blaise in English, is honoured in two Alpujarran villages. In Cádiar there was a mass and procesion on the feast day itself, the third of February. In Nieles the villagers celebrated San Blas yesterday. There was a holy mass in the morning, a get-together in the afternoon and the image of the saint was taken out of the church at six o´clock. The sun was just setting and it was a quite moving to hear the band playing and to see the procession slowly moving through the narrow village streets with the last rays of sun iluminating the image. After the procession people lined up to buy their ´listones´. These are silk ribbons, which are used for the blessing of throats as San Blas is traditionally believed to intercede in cases of throat illnesses. Information on other fiestas in Nieles and all kinds of things related to this small village can be found on the informative website of Ángel Bañuelos. Quite recently he added new texts about ´el agua´, the history of Nieles and its church. His five ´cuadernos´ on different historical-cultural aspects can now be downloaded from his website as well.

Sunrise at El Paraje

The weather improved a lot over the last week. Although we surely will have some bad spells in the coming months, we now enjoy the first almond blossom and springlike temperatures. ´El temporal´ seems ages ago.

Guía Turística de la Alpujarra de Granada

Two weeks ago on the International Tourism Trade Fair, the Fitur in Madrid, the Granada tourist board presented a new publication ´Guía Turística de la Alpujarra de Granada´ - ´El Monte del Sol o La Alpujarra Mágica´.
Yesterday we met Antonio Jiménez Dumont, the chairman of the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Alpujarra Granadina. He gave us a copy of this new guide. It is a comprehensive work of almost five hundred pages that comprises cultural and historical aspects and information on wildlife. Besides, it has a lot of useful touristic information like on all the signposted walking routes and all sorts of interesting thematic tours to get to know the area. Each village has got about six pages with background information, important telephone numbers and website links. As there are continously many new initiatives in the area like el Museo del Agua in Lanjarón and the Vía Verde walking route between Tímar and Lobras, it is a good thing that this new publication has been developed. Many images are not as up-to-date as the information, but this has probably be done to keep the cost down. Antonio couldn´t tell us yet what the price will be. We also don´t know when it will be available in the different tourist information centres in the Alpujarras and in the bookshops, but some time soon.

ISBN: 978-84-613-5519-8
Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Alpujarra Granadina 958 850521 http://www.alpujarraturistica.com/


PS About a month ago we found out that an English version has become available. We obtained a copy of the Guide Book to the Alpujarra of Granada from Pagamenos in Cádiar for 15,00 euros. The ISBN of the English publication is: 978-84-613-7416-8