Bubión

Unlike Pampaneira, unless you specifically head for Bubión, you probably wouldn't even notice that you have passed it. This is the charm of this village. It is off the tourist bus route and therefore the quietest and the most authentic of the the three spectacular white villages cascading in clusters down the Barranco de Poqueira. It is also the smallest. Together, this group of three villages has been designated an "area of historic and artistic interest" (Conjunto Histórico Artístico).

Bubión's situation between the two other villages at an altitude of 1.300m, gives it the better and most dramatic views: if you look up, you see Capileira crowned by the highest 2 peaks of Sierra Nevada, El Mulhacén and El Veleta. If you look down, you see Pampaneira as a foreground to the Poqueira Valley and on clear days to the Mediterranean Sea as far as the coast of Africa. Some would add that this privileged position also gives it the better climate of the three: Pampaneira is siturated behind a hill and benefits from less sunshine hours a day and Capileira being the highest suffers a harsher Winter.

That said, it is certainly the most popular for tourists to stay when visiting La Alpujarra, for it is a haven of quiet and peace after a long day sightseeing, trekking, mountain biking, paragliding etc. This may be the major factor that prompted me to buy, in 2002, "Almanzar (the view) of Bubión" as a rental investment. It is a purpose built block of three independent flats set at the lower end of the village, with 5.000m2 of land at the front, planted mostly with walnut trees. It also has some olive, cherry and fig trees. The vines produce the sweetest and juiciest grapes ever. I think, possibly with a little bias, that Almanzar de Bubión has better views than any other house in the village.

Buying this property is a good example of my impulsiveness. It was brought to my notice when Dominic, one of my business partners, was in the process of selling it to our first client soon after we set up the estate agency. The buyer was an English builder, long experienced in the holiday rentals business. Both my partners who already knew the property, sang its praises. For reasons too long-drawn to list here, our client decided to pull out of the deal, demanding his 10% deposit be returned to him. On impulse and without first inspecting the property, I decided to take on the mortgage the client had previously obtained on it, give him back his deposit and buy it myself. This is just what I did! I saw the property for the first time after coming out of the notary's office having signed the deeds. Dominic took my friend Christine Collier and myself to show us where it was. Christine was as excited and as curious as I was to see what I had gotten myself into. What a relief when I found it all I had hoped for and more.

Before building the Carretera de la Sierra, in the days when cars were few and far between in La Alpujarra, I am told that the ramblers' route which passes by the property, was the route that many a young man took to visit their fiancées in the next village.

As practically every other village of La Alpujarra, Bubión, with some 370 inhabitants, was first built and prospered during the Arab rule, evidence of which is its parish church, Nuestra Señora del Rosario, built over an old medieval mosque and the turret of an ancient fortress. One of the old Moorish houses, La Moraleda, has been restored and is now an ethnic museum.

This is not all about Bubión, as if its many fountains, Its Mexican sombrero-type chimneys, considered to be the most beautiful in La Alpujarra, its famous cherries and chestnuts were not enough, it also boasts being the birthplace of the first European to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist Lama. Osel, as he was named by his parents, Paco and María Torres, was discovered to be the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe at the early age of 14 months and was soon after to be recognized as such by no less than the Dalai Lama himself.

Bubión is also self-Sufficient and it has all the necessary shops, pharmacy, post-office and some of the best bar/restaurants and hotels in La Alpujarra. it also has the only tea-room in the area called Nómadas, where at times you could have your tea at the sounds of live guitar music. A public swimming pool is now under construction.







Photo 1, Bubión in the early 80s, with Capileira above. Courtesy Inge Olsen
Photo 2, Recent photo of my friend Janet taken in a Bubión street
Photo 3, Almanzar de Bubión Photo by Jack Clark
Photo 4, A Bubión chimney
Photo 5, Osel lama