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Cortijo Buena Vista: Alpujarra and Nevada
La Alpujarra is a region belonging to the provinces of Granada and Almería placed in southern side of Sierra Nevada. Their limits go from Cape Sacratif to Punta Entinas, on the coast, and on the north, to the heights of Sierra Nevada, the biggest heights at Iberia Peninsula (Mulhacén 3482 m, Veleta 3398 m, Cerro Pelao 3144 m, Cerro del Caballo 3013 m) including mountainous chains of Lújar, La Contraviesa and Gador, crossed by many streams which spill theirs water in the three main rivers: Guadalfeo, Adra and Andarax. Everything forms a though, rocky scenery that goes from everlasting snows of Sierra Nevada to the subtropical agriculture on the coast.
The physical environment we have just described is crowded by a constellation of little white villages built in their picturesque architecture, distinguished by several peculiar features: their balconies, their flats roofs covered by in a gray impermeable sand, their thin chimneys ending in their slate gables.
The beauty of scenery and the villages of La Alpujarra is not less attractive than its cultural originality: local festivities, rich folklore, popular traditions and a wide gastronomic variety (with the well known products such as Trevélez ham, morish cakes,....). The famous English writer Gerald Brenan was living and knowing this wonderful region.
Latitude, changes of height in the little distances, temperatures, rains, agriculture, geomorphology, natural and cultural resources, help, all together, La Alpujarra acquires its amazing originality
Nevada is one of the council in La Alpujarra and it is composed by four villages (Laroles, Mairena, Picena and Júbar). It spreads over 77'6 km2 and it is placed in the region subdivision called Alpujarra Alta. It limits with Bayarcal and Alcolea in Almería at the east, and Ugíjar at the south and Válor at the west, in Granada. Aldeire and Ferreira (in the region of Marquesado- Granada) limits at the north, separated by Sierra Nevada’s heights.
Rivers Mairena and Laroles cross the council’s territory, as well as several streams coming from the mountains. San Juan’s peak at 2781 m is the higgest point and the lowest is at 500 m over the sea. This difference of altitude allows the presence of several ecosystems, passing in a very short distance from "borreguiles" (ecosystems similar to the "tundra") in the heights to the dry lands and "bad lands" nearly desert in the south of Picena; between both of them, oaks, ilex, chestnut, pines and walnut woods, as well as cultivated lands with olives and almonds trees, ...mixed up with fertile valleys where vegetables and all kind of fruit trees (silk mulberry, prickly pear, apples, pears, cherries, oranges and lemons,...) grow.
Most of these cultivation areas are developed following the terrace system, heritage from Muslim’s period, as well as the irrigation systems or the urbanism and architectural features of this region surrounded all the year by the snows of Sierra Nevada’s Natural-National Park at the north and the water of Mediterranean Sea at the south.
Between those, there are many well known places, suitable to the practice of any leisure activity (trekking, mountain bike, cross-country skiing, sleigh races, ...), or just contemplative life. We could underline the "Puerto de la Ragua", the streams of "La Salud" and "El Hornillo", or the places called "Piedras Blancas" or "Dondurón", as well as the rivers banks.
