the area | granada | las alpujarras | lecrin valley | salobreña & motril

One of the many travel books devoted to Las Alpujarras is Gerald Brenan´s South From Granada, which recounts the adventures of a young man who, after serving in World War I, walked through Andalucia in search of a cheap place to live and write. He discovered the tiny village of Yegen, where he rebuilt a ruined house (now marked with a plaque in his memory) and lodged some of his friends of the famous Bloomsbury group of London. The area known as Las Alpujarras is in it's plural form because there are really three separate bits of Alpujarra - the Western Alpujarra and Central Alpujarra, both in Granada province and the Eastern Alpujarra in Almeria province.

To the west is the territory of the Valley of Lecrin, the Sierra Lujar, and the Contraviesa and has the highest peaks with perpetual snow. The main town and administrative centre in the valley is Orgiva. Due to good road connections there is easy access to Granada city and to the Costa Tropical as well as Almeria and Malaga, this area is also easily reached from Motril. In the middle we find the highest mountain in Spain, Mulhacen (3,478 metres), which towers above the village of Trevelez (1,476 metres). Trevelez is said to be the highest inhabited village in Spain and is famous for its cured hams which are dried 'in the wind of the mountain', and for the trout streams fed by the melting snow of the higher peaks.

To the east the landscape is amazingly different, more arid, but with many areas of green fertile land due to the abundance of water. The source of the Rio Andarax can be found at Laujar de Andarax. Amazingly, this is the only area in the whole province where grapes for wine are produced. In Laujar de Andarax there is a thriving wine producing industry organised within a cooperative and wine is being exported to other regions of Spain and to Europe. There is easy access to the Costa Almeria through Berja with the development of an excellent main road to Almeria town and airport.