8 November Monday 0800-2200

The ship will dock in Motril this date, but it appears most will grab a bus and go to Granada to view the Alhambra.

Photo Link

But when we signed up for the Alhambra, the tour was full. So we took a tour of the mountain villages of Las Alpujarras. It turned out to be very enlightening even if one felt like a mountain goat climbing up and down little streets.

The bus took us from the moll across the flat plains on the coast, then started uphill. At 500m elevation we stopped to view a dam, the pride of the area. However, the tour guide pointed out, no one has ever funded the piping necessary to get the water to the places where it is needed.

We continued uphill. The road grew narrow. It came to be short straight sections between sharp 180* switchbacks. Finally we reached 1,100m altitude and the white village of Pompaneira.

Since it sits on the west side of a steep mountain, Pompaneira is in the shade for a considerable part of the morning. I believe the sun rose about 1015.

Out tour guide showed us around the central part of the village of 200 or so, including the public toilets. He included an up-and-down hike including the little flow of water which ladies used in the past to wash clothing. It flows down a mid-path gutter to gardens.

There are quite a few small stores and restaurants. The place makes money on tourism, and does a little rag-rug making. There is bit of agriculture as well.

D & O wandered around for a bit, then took chairs in the plaza at a restaurant. We each had a glass of the local red, not bad at all. They served a free tapa, little pieces to nibble. O fed a small part of a meat piece to the house cat. Then we joined the group tasting in another restaurant.

This tasting had a plate of nibbles also, and red wine. Nice touch and a chance to chat.

We began the return trip down the same mountain road, but diverged to Lanjaron, another, larger, village. Our tour director led a ¨walk¨ through the town that more resembled a footrace. He stopped only in the central plaza and at the end where we re-boarded the bus. I should mention that the guide spoke excellent English and gave out a lot of information.

Now we continued back downhill to the plain and to the ship. We returned to 7067 to put up our feet. We only did 1.7 miles by number of steps, but some of it was vertical.

Can you find Pompaneira & Lanjaron on the map below? The mountain range is the Sierra Nevada. The dam is Embalse de Rules.