subject: Aracena And A Walking Holiday From Your Andalucia Villas [print this page] This year you have set your sights on a walking holiday and have booked your ANDALUCIA VILLAS in the little whitewalled town of Aracena. When you see the main square of this little village you will surely feel as though you have been transported back in time. Situated there is an ancient quincalleria which to you and me is a hardware shop but upon entering you have stepped into another world. Inside you will find such alien things as leather shepherd's rucksacks alongside hand woven baskets used to gather sweet chestnuts in. Then there is the paella pans used when cooking outdoors next to a bundle of hoes. If this isn't enough there are knives for skinning game, cutting down wild fungi or grafting fruit trees. This is a place you could spend an untold amount of time just looking at what's on offer: this is defiantly something you would not see back home.
When you take into consideration all you have seen you will appreciate just how important food is to the locals. You may be only an hour's drive from Seville but you might as well be a lifetime away. Just on your doorstep is 184,000 hectares of land known as the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche nature reserve. As you walk through the rolling hills covered in forest you will begin to understand where the food comes from the villagers are so proud of. This is a place that produces the famous hams, goat and sheep cheese, honey flavoured by wild flowers, mushrooms and chestnuts eaten by the pigs. If you take a look at the price of a leg of ham you will appreciate its quality as it sells for over 200. The quality and price is the result of old fashion eco-farming in this part of Spain.
Just imagine walking along the same paths frequented by solders of old as you enter the maze of sandy lanes. After a while you will be walking through forests with stone walls separating one village from the next. There are shepherds tracks you can follow up into the mountains that twist and turn on their way back down. Let your imagination run wild with those who trekked here before you.
With your purchases from the quincalleria including a chestnut-wood walking stick you stand there in the warm morning sun ready for an adventure. First a visit to the outdoor cafe is in order where you can partake of a glass of straw coloured sherry, some olives, fish marinated in vinegar, sliced ham fattened by the acorns and produced by the locals. This is the only way to prepare for a walk through the beautiful countryside in all its glory.
Try and picture this scene in your mind's eye, you've left your ANDALUCIA VILLAS and are now lazing on a pathway waiting for your journey to begin when two mules slowly pass by with their load of chestnuts weighing them down as their owner acknowledges your presents in a cheerful manor. Then nearby is an elderly gentlemen cutting lush green grass into stokes in his little enclosure. Then out of nowhere comes a hairy dark swine searching for acorns. With all this going on around you it's time to start your journey into the past. It just doesn't get any better than this.
