October 2025 road trip
2025-10-12
Another road trip. This time only three days, but it feels as if we were continuing the August one.
The witches town
In the morning, we drove to Soportújar, the town of the witches. The parking was a tricky thing and the roads were so steep that for a moment there I thought that I might not make it, but the car managed. The town has some witches-related attractions and decorations, some of which, like a giant spider, were too scary to some of our participants. Though, I imagined the spider to be bigger; not that I would like to meet one like it.
The water town
Then we drove to a hotel in Lanjarón, where they produce mineral water. The town is small and doesn't resemble Malagan places. We went to the Museum of Water, which consists of two rooms and is really devoted to water. In one room, they played 3D animation about the water and I liked the style and I thought a videogame like that would be cool. On the way back I saw a poster about a sithar+tabla concert that was starting in 20 minutes, but we had to skip it; maybe I'll find some closer to home.
2025-10-19
Swing at the edge
The next day, we started from visiting Calumpio de Lanjarón where there is only one attraction: two swings at the edge of the hill; not very steep, but still. In theory it's possible to drive up almost to the swings, but it's a narrow dirt road, so we parked by the main road and walked a bit. Walking is good.
Cave dwellings
Then we drove to Guadix where there are dwellings inside caves carved in mountains, though I would rather say small hills; but rock formations regardless. I didn't know what to think about it, so I took it without any preconceptions. Still, it was more shoddy than I "did not" expect. While it seems to look cool on paper, it was nothing glamorous. Also, some of them were abandoned. What I thought, though, was that it would make a cool sci-fi movie setting. You could just shoot as is.
In Guadix there was a mirador from which we could see all those dwellings and generally the area was nice. One of the ways of saying I like the place is deciding that I could live somewhere. And I could live there. Not exactly but it has some resemblance to Shire because many houses' rooftops are at the level of surrounding ground.
We also saw that in one house they had three sheep, a goat, and chickens. We wondered how, and if, they ever let them out. It remained unsolved.
The end of the world
Then we drove to Mirador del Fin del Mundo (a viewpoint at the end of the world) and it really felt like driving to the end of the world because there was mostly no tarmac and no room for 2 cars (but we didn't meet anyone on the way). And the terrain was flat, so I was baffled as to what are we supposed to see when we get there. But then we drove to the edge of something that looked like a mini Grand Canyon. And I was amazed.
Hotel in a cave
From there we drove to a pizzeria run by people talking between each other in a language that we couldn't name. The pizza was okay. And from there we went straight to Almagruz where we had a room... carved inside a mountain. It was warm inside and it was not humid at all, so once again we stated that we could live there. Sleeping in a cave is an interesting experience because you're isolated from a lot of noise. And waves, I suppose. So in theory it should give a better rest.
(It was also where I finally finished "Aladdin," after 30 years.)
Park of sciences
The next day we went to Parque de las Ciencias (Park of Sciences) in Granada. The complex is big and we didn't see all, but we went to planetarium and a couple of places with interactive installations. Some of them woke up my inner 12-year-old nerd. There was a temporary space-related exhibition where we could see astronauts' suits and touch a real meteorite. Once again my inner nerd was more than satisfied.
Then we ate in McDonald's and returned via a scenic route that added 1 hour of journey.