White Towns. Jimena de la Frontera

Just like so many other hill villages, Jimena has ruins of an ancient castle up above it.

View of Jimena de la Frontera

Tower without Church

There is a cemetery on the other side of the plateau and water reservoirs between them. There is room also for a couple of horses to feed themselves on lush greens and possibly for construction vehicles to unload their supplies or crew. Visitors would have to walk up the hill: at least a few hundred yards if they were lucky finding a parking spot among the cars of the locals, or more likely all the way from the other end of the town as we did. Neither the magenta colored signs on street corners nor the town's web site hinted that the buildings would be closed off due to the ongoing renovation work. It seemed there were some tourists that, in a case like this, considered it their hard earned right to ignore the temporary barriers and stepped out onto scaffolding to snap their higher vantage point photos of the town below. We settled for the other side: for the unobstructed views of the hills of cork and vultures, and for the sound of a cattle.

Street in Town

Jimena de la Frontera has a population of nine or ten thousand. The town boosts several churches and retirement homes, a library with wireless internet connection, a selection of restaurants and bars, and a number of access spots to natural springs. For some reason the springs and public drinking fountains all run dry. Luckily, we found an unmarked stream at the outskirts of the town near the river and the canal built for a 18th century artillery factory. We did not have time to go check out their cave paintings from around 1000 B.C. but were convinced that the folks are proud of their history as an image of a ship from one of those drawings was turned into sculptures and weather vanes, probably souvenirs, too.

For fellow travelers and as a note for my future self I would recommend taking the riverside path back to the train station only when the weather is summery and the water level is normal or below that and secondly, trying to get some maps or coordinates for going to the Laja Alta cave as the maps provided by local businesses weren't too exact.

White Villages. Grazalema

Grazalema and Clouds

is probably the most frequently used gateway to the natural park with the same name - Sierra de Grazalema. The village is in the mountains that are one of the best in not only Andalusia but the whole of Spain in having the clouds drop their loads of precipitation they carry. One of the perks of all this moisture is a unique microclimate it creates, drawing nature lovers and walkers to the area. All this rain, they say, is good to make plants like Spanish fir (otherwise known as pinsapo pine) thrive.

A House in Village

The Thursday I visited was probably a regular spring day in the area. I was welcomed by misty gray clouds that within a few hours moved out from above the village. The rain was no obstacle in sightseeing. So I checked off my list several churches, couple of village squares, and local produce and souvenir stores. But on the hilly slope right outside a village wall I also noticed a flock of sheep announcing their movement with bells and being herded by a real shepherd with a hat and cane. I happened on a group of teenagers practicing the art of carrying an Easter or festival float by using one amongst them as the float. I found the rocky track leading out of the village to old worship sites slightly above it that turned out to provide great views of the village and the surrounding hills. I also took along a jar of honey collected from the aforementioned pinsapo trees but could not locate any products made from cork that could be seen covering the nearby hills. Perhaps they take the cork bark to some other village that has a factory.

Semana Santa

Mary on Float

or Holy Week is the week of Easter. In Spain it is not about cute bunnies or colorful eggs but rather about faith and Jesus and Mary. It is said that many people take the week off from work to be able to participate in the festivities. And the festivities, which consist mainly of parades of floats of Jesus and Mary, take place from Sunday to Sunday. Somehow they divide up the days or nights among the churches and religious brotherhoods of the town and then take turns parading the streets.

Costaleros

The two most important groups of participants in the parades are the nazarenos or penitents who can be either adults or children dressed in long robes and pointy head gear, wearing candles and costaleros who are the solemn members of brotherhoods and carry the floats. There are also participants that hoist silver scepters or crosses or distribute flower petals or incense. Sometimes there are women dressed in mournful black. And most always there is a brass band and drummers setting the pace.

Nazarenos

People come from far away to witness even one of these penance processions; hotels are fully booked and parking is near impossible. The cities that put on major processions are Seville and Malaga. That is why we escaped the heavily crowded streets of Malaga for much less doable Ronda. Perhaps those pointy hoods had something to do with it, too.

White villages. Benalmádena Pueblo

is fancier than some others.