Day 13 Ventas de Zaffaraya to Alhama de Granada

It was freezing yesterday, and even though I had two calefactores (heaters) in my room (definitely not the best ones), I decided to sleep in my jacket. Apparently the insulation of the house was so bad that I actually woke up in a pretty cold room in the morning when it had been alright when I fell asleep. 

There was no reason to hurry so I only got to my included breakfast at around 9:30. It consisted of baguette with the typical tomato sauce and some olive oil, accompanied by two cafés con leche. I find it very interesting how said tomato sauce varies from place to place and imagine that this particular one was probably freshly made from tomatos that were grown in the valley of Zaffaraya. 

Around 10:30am I was finally ready to go, after fighting to close my backpack which decided to be too full for no apparent reason. The instructions in the guide were a bit misleading but I had the route prepared on the phone so I found the way out easily. 

Javier, the guy who gave me a lift into the village, had told me that now the valley was empty, but in summer there would be endless work in the fertile fields. Said fields I got to see now as I walked on a track parallel to the street that led towards Alhama de Granda, where Javier was from and where the probably biggest carnival fiesta had taken place on Sunday, telling from his pictures. The views weren't very breathtaking, except from some snow-covered mountains in the distance, but I found it very interesting to walk through the lands from which lots of our vegetables probably come from.

Speaking of snow: the Spanish weather forecast had told me there would be sun, but for the first two hours it was snowing, sometimes more sometimes less. The puddles on the way were frozen and I was glad i hadn't thrown away the gloves yet which I had brought "just in case" for cold nights. For some reason I was in good mood though and just cursed the snow as I sometimes do with cars that don't stop for me when I'm hitchhiking.

(This would've been a nice refreshment... if it hadn't been SNOWING! goddamnit)

Around 1pm I got to a hotel with restaurant, where I had yet another cafe con leche and tried to eat some bread, chorizo and cheese without the bartender noticing. I guess he did anyway but just didn't care, haha.

After that the track led away from the street, short cutting the way through the back country, and as it was now bright sunshine all over I took the risk. 

This part wasn't that exciting either, which is probably why I finally noticed the funny shape of my shadow. Reminds me of a turtle at first sight, but maybe the kafkaesque beetle is more fitting? ;)

I reached the street leading up to Alhama again much sooner than expected, but the walk along the river on the other side took longer, probably because I stopped every hundred meters to admire the amazing cliff formations and imagine whether it was possible to climb there or if the stone was too sandy. Then the town of Alhama came into view and it was just breathtaking once again. By now I wondered at least 27 times how I could possible not know about places like this at all. It's just so... dramatic!

After a last steep climb I checked in at Pensión San José, where I seem to be the only guest again, just like yesterday. The price is 20€, but this time without breakfast. I managed the whole check-in process as well as asking for the wifi password, directions to the supermarket, a ferretería, and a nice place to eat without a single word of English. Yes I am proud of that. I can hardly believe it myself, because you wouldn't have been able to get a single word of Spanish out of my mouth two weeks ago. Now I'm talking like a waterfall and even had a chit chat with an old man who called back his dogs for me on the way into town. 

Anyway, I headed outside again right away because I wanted to disfrutar of the remaining sunlight, which wouldn't do much against the freezing temperatures though. I bought some fruits and a tortilla (the Spanish kind, which means a potato omelette), while having to abstain from the bag of dried figs I saw in the shelf and which I had been craving since day 3, because I still had a bag of dates and didn't want to carry too much at the same time. Then I found the way to the ferretería surprisingly easy and the owners just came back from their siesta, but unfortunately they didn't have the right cartucha de gas. So no more home cooked dinners I'm afraid! And some more useless weight I'm going to carry... great. 

But to be honest, my backpack didn't feel that heavy anymore today, even though I'm still very much aware of the fact that at least 4 or 5 kilos of it are useless to me right now. I also did today's route in 5 hours including the 20 to 30 minutes lunch break, while the "official" time is 5h30min, so I guess I'm in good shape. Still it is annoying that I had no choice but to stop in Alhama de Granada even though I would've easily been able to walk another 10 or 15 km, because there wouldn't be any accommodation on the way, which I am depending on now that I don't have a functioning tent. On the other hand, who am I kidding, I probably wouldn't dare to sleep outside when it has minus degrees at night anyway.

So much in short about (some

of) my recent inner debates, here are some pictures of Alhama de Granada. There were infoboards all over the place but unfortunately the English translation was mostly so bad that I understood as much when I read the Spanish description. Apparently I am stil - or again - on the Ruta de los Almorávidss y Almohades, which I had already encountered on my fourth day on the way to Jimena de la Frontera. Alhama is a lovely town and the views over the gorge are just amazing, but to be honest it was just too cold to take a lot of pictures.

After my little sightseeing round I went into one of the bars of the central plaza, where they looked at me as if I was from the moon when I asked for food. At this hour (5pm)? No, nada! That really surprised me because until now there had always been some tapas, no matter at which hour. 

But apparently it is custom in Alhama not to ever serve anything to eat between noon and 8 o'clock, because in the next bar I got the same reaction. Entonces, the tortilla it was then ;)

Map of the Day: