I have recently being spending a lot of time shooting some video and photos for The Long Way Round Andalucia, and have come across a really great small village, high up in the mountains, with stacks of tradition, including the old Lavadoras.

Thank you to Jenny Edwards for her first hand account of the Spanish Hauliers Strike!, and some tips on where to buy great plants!

A day out in search of plants for the garden turned out to be rather more interesting than we had at first anticipated!

The other day, I had an errand to run in Almeria and decided it was a good opportunity to spend the morning there with a friend. I particularly wanted to check out the food market as I had only been there briefly once before, and I remembered the cloisters garden in the cathedral as being beautiful and tranquil so wanted to show my friend.

I read this great article yesterday, about dolphin hunting in the Alborán Sea, and even more interesting than that there are dolphins nearby, was the fact that the Norweigan fishing boat in the article, The Tiftevaag, has here in Almerimar as its home port, AND it has even been featured in a BBC series!

Its work is funded by an international environment charity, focused on documenting the dolphin and whale populations in the Alborán Sea (one of the most important ecological regions in the Med), and what factors are affecting their survival.

To see more pictures of the Almerian Alpujarra please visit our Flickr account.

John and Jacqui have recently visited the Almerian Alpujarra. This is what they thought of it:

We tried to follow Route 1 from the Touristic Map of Almeria that we picked up from the Tourist Office near Copo. However, we started and finished the route from Almerimar rather than Adra so it wasn’t quite the same.

Almerimar as we all know is part of Andalucia, which as well as being one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations, is also one of Spain’s largest regions. What I didn’t know was that Andalucia is actually made up of eight provinces, Almeria province, where we are, being one of them. The others are: Malaga, Granada, Seville, Huelva, Jaen, Cadiz and Cordoba, each named for its capital city.

I was thinking today that it is a good time of year to start planning the odd day out … for us maybe on our motorbike. Driving up the coast beyond Almeria there are so many great places to visit, and even in the middle of January, as today is proving, there is lots of sunshine as long as you are back in Almerimar by around 6pm!

Recently we took Chris´s parents to the Alcazaba (Old Castle) in Almeria which they loved. That same evening we were chilling out on the balcony admiring the sunset when Chris´s Dad noticed our very own little castle in the distance, and a ride up there was planned for the next day.

I always find it interesting that we often travel large distances to see some famous site but forget to check out what is on our own doorsteps.

As mentioned previously Almeria Castle is a good place to visit, as it is set in the heart of Almeria so you get to see the city and the port as well as the castle.

The Alcazaba of Almería is found around 90 meters above from the city. Next to the Alhambra in Granada it is one of the main castles in the south of Spain. It was constructed in the X century by the Califa Abderramán III. It offered shelter to 20,000 people at one time.

The original plan was to take some photographs and video of the Beetles Tribute band on Friday evening, but that was cancelled - well more accurately it just didn’t happen. No one seems to know why!

Plan B was to take some photographs of the American Car Show, but it was so windy that it wasn’t really possible to hold the camera steady enough, even with a tripod, so Plan C is an ‘old’ photograph of the castle in Almeria.

You will have seen the Castle in Guardia Viejas mentioned many time already on the blog. It has always been a venue for concerts, but in recent years they have extended out into the ‘grounds’ and had some really good weekend festivals.

This is an old video from 5 years ago when we had a really good friend from the US over and we went and had a look round. It is small but very well presented, with some interesting information and of course a great view of the beach and the sea.

There are a number of interesting things to do in and around Almerimar.

The Castle of Guardias Viejas

Wars and pirates caused the construction of lookout posts to protect the coastal populations. Only 5 mins from Almerimar, the Castle of Guardias Viejas was built in 1769. Today it is restored and houses and interesting museum. Located a few kilometres further the Balerma Tower belongs to the same defence system.

The Daymum

The province of Almeria is situated in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the shores of the Mediterranean and the coast line is approx. 120 km long. It is Europe’s warmest and sunniest region, with over 3000 hours of sunshine a year and the temperatures throughout the year are mild, reaching no lower than an average of 12ºC in winter, and no more than an average of 26ºC in summer.