Surviving in the Mountains

Introduction:

This past weekend I visited the Alpujarras, a natural and historical region covering the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The origin of the word Alpujarra comes from Arabic and means “unpassable” because it was deep in the mountains and hard to travel there. The Sierra Nevada is a national park and is a protected area because it has over 300 types of plants and animals and 66% of these are only found in the Sierra Nevada. There are three villages within this part of the Sierra Nevada mountains where people still live.  These villages are Pampanerira, Bubion and Capileria. The Alpujarras is a popular, family friendly hiking route that passes through the three villages.

 

What makes this environment special or different?:

These three villages are very special because of their high elevation. They are all situated more than 1,000 feet above sea level. Historically, these villages were not easy to access because of how deep they are in the mountain. Back then, the muslims (or moors) were forced to leave Granada, Spain if they did not convert to Christianity. So they left to hide in these villages. Nowadays, the villages are easy to access via a long curving road. The road is so curvy that I got motion sickness travelling up to visit these villages. 

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