This user’s experienceby Matt Henderson, since 2003

This weekend (well, Sunday through Wednesday), we decided to take a few days and go on a short vacation to the Alpujarras — the mountainous region south-east of Granada that we discovered a week or so ago. In particular, we visited the valley of Poqueira, leading up to Sierra Nevada, and the highest point in the region, Pico Veleta. There are three Galician-named mountain pueblos in the valley — Pampaneira, Bubion and Capileira — all of which offer some interesting hiking, visiting and culinary options.

Day 1: Balcon de Pitres.

We left Sunday afternoon from Marbella, and headed up the coast, turning inland as we did last time at Salobrena. Entering the mountains in Lanjaron, we began ascending the small and winding road leading up to the valley of Poqueira. Rather than staying in one of the valley pueblos, we decided, after reading our Lonely Planet guide, to stay close to the lesser known town of Pitres. This turned out to be a great suggestion, as Pitres is just as beautiful as the other towns, but much less touristic.

Some four hours after leaving Marbella, we arrived to the Balcon de Pitres, the rural campsite where we planned to stay each night. The Balcon sits just outside Pitres, and offers camping and bungalows year-round to travelers. The four-person Bungalow we rented was small, clean, very rural, and offered more or less the bare necessities — three small beds (later, upon checkout we learned there was a forth hidden in a wall), a tiny kitchen and a bathroom.

I highly recommend the Balcon de Pitres. I don’t know whether it was just good luck, or characteristic of the place, but the travelers we met there were all really, really pleasant. Next to us was a group of German/Austrians on an ad-hoc spanish language course, a retired British couple, and a family of Spaniards from Alicante.

Although we didn’t eat there, the camp’s restaurant made some of the best coffee I’ve had in a long time. Their Rancilio non-electric espresso machine must be 50 years old, and creates its pressure using long pump arms. It takes a minute or so to make the coffee, but man it’s worth the wait! (By the way, the espresso machine I have at home is a Rancilio Miss Silvia — and is probably the finest home espresso machine on the market under $500.)

After getting setup in the bungalow, we decided to drive into Pitres for some dinner. We found an absolutely fantastic vegetarian restaurant named El Jardin, run by a British lady. We shared a stir fry with chinese noodles, quesadillas and humus with bread and raw vegetables. And, of course, the beer of choice in this area is Alhambra, from Granada.

Day 2: The hike up.

Monday morning we took the car early, and drove up the valley through Bubion to Capileira. We discovered why Pitres is such a good choice, as the valley towns of Pampaneira, Bubion and Capileira are just a bit too touristic for our tastes. They are beautiful, no doubt, but the Bavarian-looking painted signage and bad/expensive food left (literally) a bad taste in my mouth. In Capilleira, I had the worst breakfast and lunch I’ve had in a long time. (If you visit, don’t go the the Mameira pizzeria.)

After breakfast, we drove (as recommended by the very friendly Dutch lady working at the tourist office) 12 kilometers up the tiny, windy dirt road to the point where the road is closed, called Hoya de Portillo. We left the car, and started our three hour hike through the shady pine forrest to the Puerto Molina, where one has an almost 360 degree beautiful panoramic view.

On the way up, the backpack in which I carry our two-year old son broke, and I had to carry him part of the way up (the only non-shaded part, of course) and all the way down sitting on my neck. As a result, I’ll probably be visiting the chiropractor when I get home. My wife found the price of the cheap-o backpack quite attractive. I hope some day she comes to realize you get what you pay for.

Fortunately, we later found a hardware shop in Pitres, and I had the lost screw nut replaced, and then, in a moment of revenge, led my wife on for several minutes that I’d paid 10 cents for the nut, and 10 Euros for labour to have the man install it. When she started off towards the store with a tire iron in her had, I had to come clean. My back didn’t feel much better, but somehow I did. :-)

Day 3: The hike down.

We began Tuesday with some breakfast at the bungalow — cocoa krispies and milk, much better than the rock-hard toast I had the day before in Capileira — and then took the car back to Capileira to do another hike. This time, however, the hike was downhill, towards the river at the bottom of the valley. We walked for about 45 minutes before the nicely prepared path turned into a steep, snaking single-track trail. With a 15kg child in the pack, and a slightly aching back from yesterday, we decided to call it quits, and sat down under a shade tree for a snack. I must say that the valley was really beautiful — much greener than the high-mountain terrain we’d seen the day before.

We climbed the path back to Capileira and took the car down to Pampaneira, where we explored the town until lunchtime. A coke, nestea and two juices set us back eight Euros — most definitely a tourist town.

After lunch we made our way back to the campground, and headed down to the restaurant for some refreshments. We sat out on the shady porch and talked to our British neighbors who’d just bought a lot nearby, on which they plan to build a small farmhouse. (They need to talk to us at Henderson & Henderson, through I’m not sure our subs would travel that far. :-) The kids, in the meantime, chased a family of cats around the terrace garden.

Around 7:30 pm, we decided to check out some of the really isolated pueblos on down the road from Pitres. I was simply amazed at the beauty of this area, namely Mecina and Busquistar. I think if we ever look into a weekend getaway, this will be the place.

For dinner, we couldn’t help ourselves, and just had to return to the vegetarian restaurant in Pitres, “El Jardin.” The menu tonight included crepe with mushrooms, and (one of my favorites) Pimiento del Piquillo. For dessert we had a rasberry crumble pie, that was out of this world. We talked to the owner afterwards, and found out that she’s closed during the wintertime, since (a) the whole town is deserted, and (b) it’s far too cold to sit in their terrace. She closes in late October, and we promised to be back before then.

Day 4: Back to Marbella.

Leaving for home on Wednesday morning, we decided to take the “long way”. We first drove up to Trevelez (just to say we’ve been in the highest town in Spain), and then back down the way we came, arriving to Orgiva. In Orgiva, instead of heading back directly, we detoured over the mountain pass. That was one heck of a long, hair-raising (due to the sharp drop-offs), but very pretty drive.

Final note: One nice thing about the area we visited, is that there’s surprisingly good Vodafone coverage, which, through a GPRS connection from my Powerbook via a palmOne Treo, allowed for anytime internet connectivity. I know there’s a lot of people that would consider it heresy to connect to the net in a place like this. But, to be honest, I found it very convenient. Such access instantly turns a remote location like this into a feasible get-a-way work place.

As usual, I snapped some photos, so be sure to check them out in the photo gallery!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2005 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Trips. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.