Saturday, May 27th 2023
Setenil de las Bodegas
Our day starts off with Churros and Cafe con leche looking over the ravine thats etched into the stark landscape of the Setenil de las Bodegas townsite itself. This region has been the stronghold of mankind for thousands of years. It’s provided and protected it inhabitants for eons as the Troglodyte communities hung precariously over the valley and turbulent waters below, eeking out their existence in what’s little more than enough indigenous flora and fauna to sustain oneself through to the next day.
Meanwhile back in 2023, $4.00 Euro later, we sit in plastic chairs at a comfortable table eating a deep fried extruded dough Chorizo covered with bleached white sugar while washing it down with a cafine elixir that’s been shipped thousands of kilometres buy a jet powered aircraft at near the speed of sound to the Andalusian interior for our selfish indulgences.
Our little “ hole in the wall” Troglodyte cave has all the trapping of modern society. On demand hot running water, shower, bidet, toilet, stainless steel appliances throughout the kitchen, three bedrooms, a terrace for two, LED lighting, tilting throughout, flat screen TV, WIFI and dual pane windows. Not just your average Troglodyte hole in the wall.
Our hole in the wall in number 28 at the bottom left of the picture on one of the most photographed streets in the town, second only to the restaurants only a few meters across the ravine.
Each store/house incorporates the natural cliff into its interior by carving storage areas and shelves into the cliff.
We found the town map and went about our way exploring all of the unique areas hidden at different terraces throughout cliffs.
Looking down at the road we arrived on. People a vehicles somehow miraculously navigate up and down these winding narrow roads. The cars offer back uphill and the ladies with high heeled shoes navigate backwards down them.
A convocation, senior ambulance emergency and an electric three wheeled TukTuk all meet up at once in a narrow junction. Don’t worry, they’ll navigate around each other with little problem.
One of the narrowest paths in town.
The porous sandstone is relatively stable, until it isn’t.
While peddling towards Móron de la Frontera we notice a pair of fighter jets doing low altitude maneuvers over the sunflower fields. Not know what that was about, we were curious to find out. We discovered that there’s a US funded airforce training detachment in the area used for training purposes and for its NATO presence. The same applies to the Setenil de las Bodegas region as demonstrated in their display within the tower in the middle of the town. We headed up there to see the view and came across a photo display of both the historic beginnings of the regional along with its current military involvement in fighting pirates along the Somalian Coast. Andalusia is a long way from the Somalian coast but, when you have supersonic aircraft, warships and all the technology, people and budget to get things done, it seems like the thing to do. It was strange however to go into an historic lookout and find such a contract to what was we were expecting to see.
Our last stop is at the highest point of Setenil to see yet again another Catholic Church and to learn about what forces it took to crush the opposition into submission. Do I sound a little jaded? It seems that every single place we travelled to , be it a town, city, mountain vista, or place of significance to the native people of Spain has been concurred. It took the Christian’s nearly 85 years and a few tons of gunpowder, but eventually they put a bell tower around that Minaret.
The words of Wiki: Besieged unsuccessfully in 1407, Setenil finally fell in 1484 when Christian forces expelled the Moorish occupants. Using gunpowder artillery, the Christians took fifteen days to capture the castle whose ruins dominate the town today.
This area was used as the cistern to collect water for the towns occupants and was one of the last strongholds to be overtaken during the battle.
That’s a wrap for this hole in the wall town and we’re out of here first thing in the morning. We have a 5 Km uphill to start out our day and then hopefully a lot of downhill for our 45 Km day. We’re trying to beat the upcoming rain forecast tomorrow at 2:00 so we’ll be getting at it right after morning coffee and Chorizo. Adios Amigos.