Salobrena

We have taken holidays in the Salobrena area for about six years, and yes we can see changes taking place. It used to take about two hours to drive from Malaga to Salobrena, then a new section of motorway was opened from Malaga to Nerja, which cut the journey to one and a half hours. Work is underway now on a new stretch of road which is reputed to be the most expensive length of road to be built in Spain, because of the terrain, requiring tunnels and viaducts to be built. It will run from Nerja to Salobrena and beyond, which will mean the driving time from Malaga will be cut to about one hour. This opens up the area more to package holidays and requires more buildings to go up to accommodate the influx of people. Prices of properties have increased dramatically.
Salobrena has one of the last of  many sugar cane factories, that were dotted along the coast. Lots of hotels and flats have sprung up along Salobrena beach.
Most of the holidays in this area we have stayed on, or just below the Monte De Los Almendros, an area of hillside with lots of different, privately owned villas. A lot of the plots between villas had remained unsold for many years, giving the area a spacious feel. But now any where you can build, is being built on.
So after this holiday we will be looking again for more out of the way places to stay.

The terrace that runs around the front of the villa we were staying in, with views of the Monte de los Almendros (Hill of the Almonds) as it used to be just that.

View from the balcony with the beach/town of Salobrena on the side of an outcrop of rock, with a moorish castle on top. All sorts of fruit are grown on the terraces below.

The view from the rear of the villa is of the Sierra Nevada, snow clad on the tops, with fresh winter snow.

A quiet little village called Salares, with a mixture of old and new houses on the side of a hill, a small river (at least in the winter it is) with an old Roman bridge crossing it.

A village house typically adorned with plants, this house unusually has the plants in clay pots.
We have seen old buckets, tin cans and even top loading washing machines used as plant containers.

And the next door neighbour likes plants too !!!

Photographed outside a house, on the main road into Orgiva.

"Forgotten but not lost"

"I only left it for five minutes,honest"