Bubión: to Capileira

We walked up to Capileira today, and again the trail started right from our door. It stayed fairly level for about 100 meters or so. Soon there was a sharp drop off on the river side, but it wasn’t worrisome because the trail was wide enough. Then it began to climb, sometimes helping us out with stone stairs on the steeper parts. When we got close to Capileira, we crossed a bridge over a stream, and immediately on the other side was a very washed out section that caused us enough trouble that we didn’t even think of getting a photo of it. We backtracked and worked our way up to the road. As we came around a curve, we could see that the road itself had been washed out at a point just above where the trail was washed out. Workmen, cement trucks, and temporary signals to handle one-way traffic made for a congested stretch. When we talked to the flagger, he gestured to the hillside and said there had been a lot of water during the winter storms. I’m guessing from having heard similar stories in almost every village we’ve been in so far, that last winter’s storms were the worst they have seen around here for a long time.

While in Capileira, we made the track for a walking tour of the village following the research that Agustín Sánchez Hita put into the fichas and his book La Architectura Tradicional en la Alpujarra Alta. The highlight of the day was walking out to two eras on the northwest side of the village. Here we had a marvelous view of Mulhacén and all the other high mountains nearby. How I wished I could just walk right on into the heart of those peaks.

The panorama at the mirador told us that one nearby mountain was named Las Alegas. Now we know where the name of our house came from!

Like Bubion, Capileira is full of tinaos, so we enjoyed searching out a number of them. We found the one that matches Donald Gray’s sketch of 25 years ago. His comment: “The tinao is one of the most characteristic elements of this area of ​​the Alpujarra and Capileira has some of the best specimens. This tinao and another one there form part of a street protected from the sun and snow. The absence of tourist merchandise allows you to appreciate the authentic Alpujarra.”

We also saw our first “Postigo del Pan.” Through this narrow opening, a widow, Señora Concha, sold bread until the 1970’s, a job that many widows relied upon to survive. It made me think of the photo we saw last week of the women sitting on the street in Órgiva selling wares from their baskets.

We were surprised by a granite statue of a bull that looked like it had lost its head, but on closer examination, it was still there - just artistically rendered. It is a replica of one of the Toros de Guisando, Iberian sculptures from the 3rd century BC. found in El Tiemblo, Ávila. The Provincial Council of Ávila donated the statue to Capileira to celebrate the centenary of a trip that the writer Pedro Antonio de Alarcón made to La Alpujarra in 1872.Read more