Pampaneira and the Tabernas Desert

Pampaneira, Spain

Pampaneira is one of three mountainous villages located along the Poqueira Gorge in the Alpujarras region. We visited in the evening as the sun was going behind a hill and slowly casting the whitewashed village into dusk.

As we walked along the streets, I noticed that the jandals I had purchased a few days before were squeaking with every step I took. I felt very self-conscious about it because we passed by some locals sitting on their front steps and chatting, and there were the tourists, squeaking along.

The next morning, we returned to sample churros for breakfast - similar to sugar coated doughnuts that you dip in a thick hot chocolate. They were much appreciated.

They had a little market set up, with produce and fresh fish. Though I didn't enjoy the fish smell, I did like watching the fishmonger giving scraps to a tiny cat.

The Tabernas Desert (Desierto de Tabernas)

Hot and dry, as you might expect of a desert. While there are no proper deserts in Europe, this is one of the only semi-deserts in Europe. Oddly enough, it wasn't the hottest place we had been in Spain (Cordoba took the prize for that). There was, however, a lot of prickly pear cacti, which lived up to our expectations of deserts.

Tabernas Desert is the location of Texas Hollywood. Many spaghetti westerns were filmed here as it is similar in appearance to the Wild West. Some sets still remain, but are overrun with tourists now and ridiculously expensive to visit. They even stage gunfights at high noon. 

As we drove past the entranceway, a dude dressed as a cowboy (poncho and all) was standing by the road as advertising.

We visited the ruins of a Moorish castle that had been partially rebuilt for the filming of a western. The clouds were giving great effect to our photo. Thanks, clouds.

On our way back north, we stopped in a Little Spanish desert village. Delightful!