Cúllar, Spain - December, 30, 2020

 Cúllar is a traditional Andalusian town of around 5,500 inhabitants and is around 890 m above sea level. 

We arrived at the garage at 10:00 in the morning. There was some ice on the roads and a light dusting of snow on the surrounding Sierra de Ocre mountains.

The mechanic took a look at the disconnected exhaust system while eating part of a sandwich; after several minutes of humming and thinking, he said he could do the repair today by welding it back in place. This was great news because ordering the replacement exhaust for a '93 Mercedes Sprinter would have taken several days to a week and cost at least 100 euros. We understood that SAM would not be repaired until around 2 pm and that it would cost around 80 euros. This meant we had between 4-6 hours to explore the area. 

After a cup of tea in SAM, we bundled up warmly and took our mountain bikes and headed out to explore Cúllar. 

A lane lined with cyprus trees on the way to the Moorish Torre del Alabí (Tower of Alabí) 

This is a cave house. The facade is what you see, but the house is mostly underground built into the clay of the hill behind it!

Torre del Alabí (Tower of Alabí) 

This 14 meter tall rectangular Moorish tower on a hill across from Cullar dates back to the 11th century and is attached to the hermitage of the la Virgen de la Cabeza.

We rode from the tower back down into the river valley below the town and climbed back up to this viewpoint where we had a snack and shared a thermos of hot tea. It turns out we were practically sitting on someone's roof! Those small pipes in the distance that look like rocks are actually chimneys.

This picture shows a more modern chimney and skylight tube of a cave house.

This LGTBQ art was around the corner from the following caves as we rode back into town in search of lunch.

Poinsettias hanging under the lamps in the main town square. 

The bakery where we bought lunch had a lot of treats! Many of which are special for the new year...

The hot chocolate here is thick like warm pudding!

City hall or Ayuntamiento

Street lights for the holidays are everywhere.

17th century renaissance church: Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación

Lovely creative finishes on a building

Herman playing on a motocross course we happened upon during our ride

We spied this cave house from a distance and it looks like it uses the entire hill so we went to explore...it turns out it used to be an ecological center and before that a farm.

This is the side view and front view...while we were looking around, the owners (Diego and Ana) drove up with their two teenage children. They invited us to have a look around! How incredibly lucky!

As we entered, Diego and Anna explained that they are not open to the public due to COVID, but they would be happy to show us around. They have lived here for four years and are the curators of their own museum now located within this huge cave!

The cave was from the early 1900's and had long hallways and two long sky tubes through which the original farmer inhabitants dropped feed to their animals. The farm animals and farmers lived within the cave together.

Diego explains about Aben Humeya (1520 - 1569) Andalusian leader who commanded the Morisco Revolt against Philip II of Spain in the Alpujarras region, near Granada.

Shadow puppets, marionettes and the Arabian Nights                          A letter tree

          Books by local Andalusian authors

The books above are the equivalent of our Beatrix Potter tiny books, but even smaller (5 cm x 7 cm), made for children to carry around in their pockets. The Spanish author Saturnino Calleja (1853-1915) wrote and published these books with beautiful illustrations in an innovative and inexpensive manner which made them available to masses of children at a time when school books were scarce, poorly written and expensive.

The series of photos below are of Ana telling us the story she and Diego wrote and illustrated in a big book made for sharing with groups of up to 20 children....

The whale has a pop - out 3-d mouth

The book above with the tree is a book has a 3-d cover. The mouth of the tree is a puppet and the lips can move. The one with the girl and kite are all woven with yarn made locally and woven before being sewn onto the pages.

Another book created by Diego and Anna that explains the history of print.

This book has boxes that open and inside of each one is a step of the history of  the development of written language

 

                         Carved or painted onto stone                                        On wood

                                    Animal hide                                            Papyrus

                                                                        Paper

          Hans Christian Anderson                                                Fairy tales and legends

A book is a dream that you can grab in your hands

Below are photos of Ana showing us another large book they made. The cover is 3 d made of paper mache and the mouth is a puppet and the eyes of a marionette which actually move!

Front cover                                            Back cover

The following photos are of the Roald Dahl area with a huge BFG (big friendly giant). Can you imagine how scary this might be for kids even if they know he is a friendly giant?!

                    Sitting he is already over 2 meters tall!           Standing he is around 4 meters tall!

Books by Roald Dahl

This hallway of the cave has a curved roof and they can project onto it and make the area into a planetarium. Ana is in the theater pictured below with the black light on.

One of many glowing puppets they have to share stories of the universe...

**----------*----------**

When we finally returned to pick up SAM, it had a flat rear tire! So we paid an additional 10 euros and waited while that was repaired. We are happy to report SAM is running better than ever and it was a wonderful, miraculous day full of surprises all because we had a mechanical issue the day before!