Los Guajares

Tuesday -- our last full day in Vélez. We'd hoped to spend part of it at the beach, but after looking at the weather forecast and the Almuñecar webcam, S decided a local walk was a better bet, so we went to Los Guajares -- three villages in a single valley. We parked in Guajar Faragüit, walked down from there to the river and then had a steep and knackering hike up to the ruins of a rather impressive 13th-century hillfort on the ridge; it was described as a castle but was actually a group of houses within a defensive wall, with fantastic views all around. From there we descended right down into the valley again and then had a more leisurely walk through the lovely citrus, avocado, and olive groves you can see here. Some of the olive trees were truly ancient (see extra) -- the valley has evidently been cultivated for centuries.

Eventually we made it to the lowest of the three villages, Guajar Fondón (visible on the left of my blip), where we hoped to quench our thirst in the bar. The only "bar" turned out to be the pensioners' social club. We had a beer there anyway, while a group of three elderly men had a shouted conversation about the avocado harvest. Not that we could understand their thick Andalusian accents, but the word aguacate kept recurring, and we'd seen someone harvesting them earlier.

Thus refreshed, I refused S's offer to go and fetch the car, and we had a short, steep climb back up to Faragüit. Here there is a real bar, and I felt amply justified in having another beer and a free tapa (no tapas in the social club, but the beer was only a euro). At another table, a group of half a dozen men were having a conversation about avocados while podding and eating raw broad beans. Though strenuous, it was a lovely walk through really varied landscapes.

By now it was lunchtime, i.e. 3 p.m. We decided to try the roadside restaurant we've frequently passed on the road from Vélez to Motril; the car park is always packed with cars, a reliable sign of good value if not necessarily haute cuisine.  Amply justified; it's a huge restaurant, and when we arrived the barman was lining up about 50 cups and saucers on the bar ready for the after-lunch coffees.  Even with 50 people eating, there was still room for us; the busy waiters whizzed around bringing us three copious courses of better than average food in record time. Including that annoying Spanish habit of plonking your dessert on the table while you're still eating your main course! Still, the bill was 22 euros for three courses, a glass of wine each, and coffee, so we were perfectly satisfied.

The rest of the day was spent packing and cleaning before our final Vélez wine and tapa in our usual bar. What a lovely time we've had! We liked Vélez and the surrounding area much more than we thought we would; we'll definitely be back. There's a lot to do and see, it's convenient for both coast and mountains, and because so many northern Europeans spend months there in the winter, there are lots of cultural and social events too. Also, we have not nearly finished with Seville.