Siles

Siles deserves more time than what we are spending here. It seems like every time we turn a corner, we see something worth investigating, like the 14th century arch right outside the door of our apartment. But we stayed focused on our errands for the day: mailing home a package of boots and books; buying groceries for the next five days; and restocking items from the pharmacy.

José María, who owns and loves our apartment, stopped by with a loaf of artisan bread from the bakery where he works. He and his seven brothers grew up here in Siles. He remembers the town having a population of 6000. Now it’s down to 2000 he says, because young people can find better paying jobs in the cities. In earlier days, when a subsistence village life was more common, the attics of the houses ( where our apartment is now) were used to store grain. We wondered if this was the case when we were exploring the abandoned houses at Olivico a few days ago, so it was interesting to get our suspicions confirmed.Read more