Las Alpujarras

Out of all my vacations so far, going to Las Alpujarras has been truest Spanish experience that I have had. Las Alpujarras are a group of small towns way up high in the Sierra Nevada. One of the towns is actually the highest in Europe. Our town was called Busquistar and when I say small town I really mean a small town. I’ll get into that more often. Let me first tell you what we did.

Fifteen of my friends and I rented a house in Busquistar. Yes, I’m not making this up. We found a house with room for 16 people. Actually our house could comfortably fit around 25 people with around 12 rooms, 2 kitchens, 3 fireplaces, and three bathrooms. The best part was that it was ridiculously cheap too. Anyway, I’m getting of topic. My friends and I took a bus up into the mountains. It was a three hour bus ride through hell. Our driver didn’t even bother slowing down for the curves, of which there were a lot, and this of course meant everyone on board got sick. One of my friends puked as we were pulling into town. I felt really bad for him but of course we laughed for a good hour after it happened.

As we were driving up the mountain we passed through a few of the other towns. Each town was a little cluster of all white buildings perched on the mountainside. The biggest city couldn’t have more than a thousand people. Ours probably didn’t have more than 200. We met our guide who took us to the house and showed us to the “biggest” supermarket. It consisted of one ten by fifteen room under someone’s house. Since there was only one restaurant in town and we weren’t entirely sure if there was room for all of us, we decided to make all of our own food. Our first night was pasta, then pasta again, and finally soup with pasta in it. The last wasn’t that good surprisingly.

During the one day where it wasn’t pouring, we walked around town and through the mountains. In our town were little farms with lots of sheep. We must have seen a dozen baby lambs all baa-ing from their stables. They were adorable. Once we got outside of town, we walked over to a part of the mountain that jutted out. We climbed all over it as we waited for the sun to set. We discovered what was apparently an abandoned stable and house at the end of the hill. It was a little creepy but exciting at the same time. The sunset was so beautiful. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera, not like I could have captured the beauty anyway. After we returned to our warm house and talked by the fire as we ate dinner.

The next day it rained all day so we just laid on the couches and were bums, which is what I do best. One of my friends discovered a local cheese that was the best thing I have ever tasted. It was made a few miles, or should I say kilometers, away from our house. I think by the end of the weekend we bought at least three or four wheels of it.

All in all, we didn’t really do much in the Alpujarras since it was raining, but I still had an incredible time. I definitely want to go back, at least to eat some more of that cheese. I can’t describe feeling of Las Alpujarras but I hope my pictures say more than I can.

Oh yeah, one minor little detail about my trip here. I decided that since I was in Spain, I should get a haircut like a true spaniard. Right now in Spain the cool hair-do is a mullet. So I had one of my friends cut my hair on night while we were there. It was a pretty rough looking mullet but it was amazing nonetheless. Don't worry, I got it trimmed when I got back. Only now I have a mullet mohawk. Way cooler. Im planning on keeping it until I get back.