About
Lanjaron is famous for it Spa Water. It can be seen in bottles throughout Europe in the supermarkets and restaurants and on the side of its huge trucks as it is transported up and down the country.
The town itself has dozens of ‘fuentes’ (natural springs) along the side of the streets or in little plazas or up back lanes, anywhere and everywhere. Some just a hole in the wall and others have been made into features to be admired. Visitors and locals alike collect water, some more popular than others depending on the properties of the water. Some are said to have minerals to help your eyes and others to help your stomach and so on. The Balnerio (The Baths) dates back to 1770, it is a beautiful old building, which has been well extended for its many treatments, massages, facials etc as well as of course the baths themselves. On a daily basis you see a procession of elderly people heading from the town hotels towards the Balnerio, mostly carrying their water containers ready to take the waters either from the fuente there or to be told where to go to get the best for their ailments.
La Casa del Viento does of course have its very own fuente which can be drunk straight from the tap!
Continuing with water:- Spain is thought of as dry and brown, but here up in the Alpurjarra mountains you will see water running often in most unusual directions, down the side of a track or road or even across it. One day rushing down wide and wild and another as still and dry as anything. This will be one of the hundreds of man made water ways called an ‘ecequia’ dating back to ‘The Moors’ who were also responsible for the terraced land. The ecequias are carefully controlled with all the land owners looking after their own allocated hours of water flowing into their ‘albercas’ (water deposits) so that they can store it for the dry summer months. If we have been lucky enough to have a wet winter we may get hours of water allocated every week of the year. Most of this water is used for irrigation but for those who aren’t lucky enough to have a spring, it can also be used for showers, cooking etc, well just about everything but drinking.
- The ruin castle, newly renovated, or rather held in position to at least preserve the remaining walls. Once up there inside the walls and looking down towards the coast or across towards La Casa del Viento you can understand why they built the castle here. A view to see all who intend to invade. Very few visitors nowadays so a lovely quiet place to visit, I enjoy sitting inside the ruin just to imagine how it was. Below the new laid car park is a short walk through a wood of eucalyptus trees going steeply up to the park at the far end of town. Make a round trip back down through the tourist gift shops, good for local produce like honey or jamon, or crafts, like cane baskets and furniture, pottery, or rugs. Take the bypass road and cut onto the castle view point and then back to the castle.
From La Casa del Viento the views are stunning, looking over the village and mountains.
Never bored with the changing scenery, every day something new, from the kitchen window it is like a picture, better than any television! The chore of washing up a pleasure! First thing in the morning the sun coming from behind the house keeps us cool and in the shade for a while but it is intriguing to watch the shadow move slowly across the village the sun gradually coming towards us as we rush to get all the watering or manual jobs finished before the heat is upon us. In the Autumn you may wake to a rolling mist coming in from the coast, looking as though a tidal wave is moving in, sometimes it tucks into the valley, the village disappearing leaving La Casa del Viento looking down onto a lake of cloud and a view of mountain tops on the opposite side. Yet another day will be crisp and clear and there looking like it is no distance at all is the sea and a boat and if you are lucky the coast of Morocco, or at least the mountain tops of Morocco. In the evenings sitting on the patio the sunsets, especially of the winter months can be spectacular, sometimes I really believe the sky is on fire. Later the stars, an astronomers joy I can image (this I am not) but I do get very excited if I see a shooting star or a comet!
The summer evenings hot, hot, hot, and gloriously light till late. Still lazing by the pool at 10.00 at night and eating really late, or just sitting with that view with a chilled glass of tinto de verano or beer and a tapas. Get up early to enjoy the cool and take a stroll to the nearby chapel which you keep viewing from your terrace, breakfast with that view, swim, sunbathe, read (we have quite a library) and after lunch SIESTA!
It is so beautiful, seeing the changing seasons. Spring:- The almond blossom, pink and white very quickly becoming the first tree to gain its green leaves and the almonds forming early. Spring bulbs (not common in Spain) line the paths at La Casa del Viento and later a huge amount of blue, purple and yellow Iris, then the fantastic orange flower of the Aloe and the yellow broom. Summer:- The clear blue water of the pool, with a shady gazebo covered in the deep green of the grape vine, a mass of grapes in the making. An inviting cool drink from the bar, (rustic in style, not manned, it’s an honesty bar!) covered by a huge olive tree and a rambling kiwi vine. A barbeque being set up, a weekly event or sometimes a paella night or a tapas night. Autumn:- The changing colour of the leaves, bouganbelia still blooming bright and pink, the first cool evenings, lighting of the log fires, roasting chestnuts, sunsets. Winter:- Olive picking time, bright green nets spread under the trees to catch the shiny black olive, all the citrus now bright on the trees, lemons, grapefruit and oranges sweet and juicy. The mountain tops alight with white snow but not here in Lanjaron, well perhaps we will wake one morning to a lay of crisp white snow, build a snowman quick because it will be gone by lunchtime. Days beginning to draw out and Spring in the air...
All sounds good, then why not come try the wonderful La Casa del Viento for yourself!
