Axarquía The Hidden Heart of Andalucia

17/08/2024

Maroma showing the villages of Cútar and of Benamargosa

26/06/2024

Cútar

Cútar in the Axarquía is also home to other reminders of Al-Analus, including the Aina Alcaharia fountain and Algorfa arch

24/06/2024

La Plaza, Cútar. Nos vemos 🎊🎉🎼🎸🎸

31/05/2024

Axarquía evening light 🥰

23/05/2024

Last night

02/05/2024

AN UPDATE
BAR PLAZA IS NOW CLOSED.
THERE IS NO LONGER A SUNDAY RASTRO NOR AN INTERCAMBIO LANGUAGE GROUP.

If you’re visiting Cútar which is on La Ruta de la Pasa, the Raisin Route , you will find a friendly bar under the town hall in La Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Bar Plaza is open from Thursday thru Saturday from 8am and Sunday from 9am with a Rastro where there are market stalls selling everything on the first Sunday of each month.
On Saturday nights there is often live music.
The food is very good and you can eat breakfast, lunch, supper and tapas all day with a good selection of wines, cava’s, spirits and beers.
The coffee is great and they even have soya milk.

30/04/2024

View of the sea at Torre Del Mar and Benamocarra

30/04/2024

Que privilegio vivir en Cútar 🙏
What a privilege to live in Cútar

30/04/2024

La Peña del Hierro
Cútar

29/04/2024

Photo taken in Cútar before the storm.
Photo credit: Angel Javier Moyano Giménez

27/04/2024

Delighted to have been at the book signing and presentation of “Con La Cara Levantá” by author Antonio Alarcón Gutiérrez with him reading some of his poems about life growing up locally in the Axarquía and more especially in La Dehesa de Triana. I lived for some years in the house that his family owned and where his youngest brother Jose Alarcon was born. Now known locally as the Blue House of the Travers family.

15/04/2024

Comares top left,
Cútar centre stage,
Periana far in the distance right of centre

15/04/2024

Cútar through the flowers.
Cútar a través de las flores silvestres

12/04/2024

El Acebuchal the restaurante in the Lost Village of Acebuchal near Frigiliana has had a facelift and there is another covered terrace. The food is better than ever

12/04/2024

CÚTAR

Join us Tomorrow night , Saturday in the town hall square, Bar Plaza presents El Patillas from 9pm. Singing and dancing Flamenco 💃🏻

Mañana, El Patillas en Bar Plaza este sábado a partir de las 21:00 hs Cante Flamenco 💃 y Rumbitas …

08/04/2024

The entrance to Granada from La Axarquía,
La Boquete de Zafarraya

14/03/2024

Walking from Cútar to El Borge over the top of the mountain

09/01/2024

La Peña de Hierra.
Photo taken from the village of Cútar

06/01/2024

La Maroma taken from Cútar ❤️

05/01/2024

Cútar
After the much needed rain

17/12/2023

Not actually in the Axarquia but once you drive through El Boquete de Zafarraya you are in Granada Province where the roads are flat and because of the altitude of the town 1,100metres, the surrounding mountains seem tiny as you can only see their tops.
The best view is driving back from Granada Province through the Boquete where the Axarquia appears startlingly to drop down below you. On a clear day this is an amazing view down to the sea so be sure to take a camera or have your phone charged up as it’s a view to capture.
Here is a little video I made of my visit a few days ago to the Iglesia Vieja de Zafarraya.
As you can see it’s not an actual church it’s a ruin that has remained standing since the terrible earthquake in 1884 and has taken on a new life as a tourist attraction.

14/12/2023

COMPETA

Cómpeta, pronounced by stressing the Com and not the Peta, is a high mountain village situated in the foothills of Sierra Almijara. The road leading to it is long and winding and as you drive onwards and upwards past lorries hurtling past you at breakneck speed you just know that when you get there this village will have everything you need to sustain you as you are not going to want to keep driving up and down 18 kilometres to the coast every day! It is on the route of sun and wine and has a vast population of some 3,600 people from about 35 different nationalities. A kind of United Nations of the mountains!
You can drive all the way up to the central square, la plaza Almijara, where there are plenty of bars, restaurants and shops sitting submissively below the Church of la Asuncion with its unique belfry tower, a reference point on the Cómpeta skyline. It seems to rise right up through the clouds as you stand below to admire it. Walking through the arch to the Paseo de las Tradiciones you find a much needed shady terrace with public toilets and the history of the village shown in a series of ceramic murals. You can´t park your car there but you can drop people off so they don´t have to walk up the steep cobbled streets.
Other places of interest are the Hadriano Museum in the oldest part of town, which is just a house with a mill inside! The Chapel of San Cayetano which sits behind the museum on San Sebastián street and in turn leads to the quieter end of town, the cemetery! There is also a wine museum that sells different types of local wine, produce and handicrafts as well as serving food and drinks.
August 15th is the Noche del Vino, the annual festival where free drinks can be sampled throughout the streets which are alive with Flamenco and other dance and music. In the morning there are demonstrations showing the treading of the grapes followed by lunch of migas and sardines with salad. Traditionally the villagers leave the town on this day to go to their country houses to harvest their grapes, placing them on enormous drying beds, that look like giants graves! and turning them in the harsh sunlight. Once sufficiently baked the grapes are then collected and the stalks snipped off, rendering them ready for consumption. If you listen you can hear the hills are alive with the sound of snipping in late September. The leaving party, as the villagers departed for their finca´s, was made an official fiesta by the local council in 1975. It is worth making a note in your diary as it is one festival you should attend at least once to enjoy the history and tradition of this vast mountain village.
The best way to get to Cómpeta is either up from Algarrobo, past Sayalonga and continue on up, or up from Torrox Pueblo. From the A-7 it will take about 30 minutes.

14/12/2023

CORUMBELA

Corumbela
The very name conjures up images of pantomime fairies and cats! However the Romans named it La Paloma, the Pigeon! The villages perches, perhaps a little pigeon like, 600metre above sea level, with spectacular views of the Sierra Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama as well as the verdant valley below. It is situated 16 klms from the coast and is probably the smallest of the Pueblos Blancos to be found in the Axarquía.
Not much is know about the origin of the village but in 1493, catholic monarchs gave the village to Diego Fernandez of Cordoba, second Earl of Cabra, as payment for his services during the re-conquests final years. Later the Medinaceli family owned it until 1811 when the Parliament of Cadiz banned family ownership of villages. From then it had its own council until 1868 when it was joined with Sayalonga.
During the years 1884 – 86, Corumbela along with Sayalonga and some coastal areas suffered from an outbreak of phylloxera, the disease which destroyed the vines, this and a series of earthquakes during this time resulted in most people leaving the area. Nowadays Corumbela remains a sleepy village with about 300 inhabitants. One of the most striking things about the place is the church with its Mudejar style minaret, apart from that there is only a small bakery and Meson Los Arcos a bar-restaurant.
For more entertainment Archez is a few minutes drive away with plenty of restaurants and bars. Or the bustling much larger village of Cómpeta is not far away.
Corumbela is 49 klms from Málaga and is on the Mudejar route of the Axarquía. The easiest way to get there is either to drive past Arenas and Daimalos, or up past Algarrobo and Sayalonga then turning left for Archez and carrying on over the bridge to Corumbela

05/12/2023

Canillas de Aceituno ready for Christmas.
All decorations made with plastic bottles.
So clever 💖