A Glimpse of La Alpujarra, Andalusia

I’ve been in few places for this last one year. The most I’ve ever had so far. Let me count it; I’ve visited South Korea twice, Japan once, North Sumatra, Aceh, and Flores, also gone forth and back to South Borneo – East Borneo – Jakarta – Bandung (bragging here?!). Whole trips were in less than 12 months. I wanted to share each place’s stories, but these last few months, especially since early 2017, I’ve been in my laziest writing phase. Troubles and downs have had their turn. Even to me, it sounds that I’ve been running away here and there.

So, here I am in Lobras, part of Andalusia region in Spain. This is the place that had never crossed my mind while planning my Europe trip way months ago. I didn’t have any idea this small village even existed before. Let’s say fate has brought me here or whatever easy explanation someone could approve.

Lobras which I’d never heard before is a small village belongs to those series of mountain villages known as La Alpujarra (Las Alpujarras), which are extended kilometers from west to east at the south slope of Sierra Nevada National Park, covers two provinces; Granada and Almeria.

That ignorance of mine brings me to surprising things every single day that I have passed here for almost two weeks.

Few things about La Alpujarra before my eyes this far will be provided in seconds.

La Alpujarra

One astonishing fact that I freshly got from the book dedicated to this region, La Alpujarra is one of prominent sites in Spain considering its natural and historical region status. La Alpujarra’s natural issue is related to Sierra Nevada National Park, with its highest peak is named Mulhacén, towering up to 3,478 m (and it’s my daily view 😀 ), while its prominent historic event is dated back to few hundred years ago, when it was once a main residence of Moslem Moors in Spain, which traces can be sensed in the custom and few architectures. I briefly read about Moors and keep on being wondered by the important history this far away region has been borne. The origin name of La Alpujarra itself has been a long debated between the Arab word, “Albujarra”, or phrase “Alba Sierra” of Galician language, which means “White Mountains.”

Another notable thing about La Alpujarra is the feature of its distinctive box shaped houses with flat roof, which are all painted in white (later I know it is not allowed to paint houses with the other colors than white), while the coastal area of Andalusia is said had to be painted in blue and yellow.

Getting to La Alpujarra

I reached Lobras from Barcelona in about 15 hours bus ride. It was a long haul, but actually easy. I needed to stop in Granada city first after 12 hours drive from Barcelona, and then took another 3 hours bus ride. From Granada, there is one national highway (check road N-323 on maps) that leads to Cadiár (my final stop before Lobras) and it passes almost the all series of La Alpujarra villages from the west to the east.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is a great route to take to explore the entire villages one by one. If you don’t have the time like me, the bus ride is enough to give you a glance of each village along the next smaller road (A-348).

I enjoyed the contrast view of monotone yet wonderful sight of those white villages to its greenery surrounding. It’s added by the thrilling sight of sometimes rough cliffs.

Things to Do

There are some activities that I think will be interesting to do around La Alpujarra, which are simply related to the nature, landscape, customs, gastronomic, and historic status. It’s all deepens on one’s preferences. I will talk about it on different post because I will stop my glance of La Alpujarra here.

‘Till next post… 😀 ❤