hooting, blowing, whistling wind in the cliffs of stone. Two prey circling under the feet of a king. Shaking the thin body of Alfonso XIII to beat that mark the winds. Is more than seventy feet high, in a corridor of wood, iron and cement attached to a vertical wall that runs along the inside of the very narrow gorge known as the Los Gaitanes. Imposed. The hall only has a meter wide and is part of the Guadalhorce swamp water. It shakes the body of the king. The year is 1921 and the king's visit will create a legend. The Legend of Caminito del Rey.
Alora, "The Well Fenced"
Rest Álora cradled between three promontories. In one of them colorful, very tight, urban area to another member, which includes one on one the Guadalhorce Valley, the viewpoint of Ali Ben Al Baezi Falcum, in the third to the chapel of Calvary. Between them lies the heart softly white town Perote, stretched over a network that has as vertex the three points. Breathe in the village of Alora, take air at the beginning of his back, exhale old tradition in its corners. Despite having about 14,000 inhabitants, is still the essence of old town, with a Moorish design of undeniable past, irregular, broken, rebuilt. Turdetans, Phoenicians, Romans, Muslims, Christians ... The ancient civilizations inhabited the streets, defend your castle with strong faith, its walls were impregnable, its geostrategic location coveted by all. Not surprisingly, Alora is proud of his romance of "The Good fences" that has shaped the history of epic battle between Muslims and Christians that led to the death of the adelantado of Andalusia, D. Diego Gomez de Rivera in 1434. Arrival and parking
Being an Arab town and narrow path and steep slopes is recommended to leave the car near the city center and walk inside the city with ease and good legs . We come the road between Malaga and reach Campillos municipal Aloreña we turn at the first indication that points us in the city center. At the end of a long hill there is a large parking lot where the weekly market. From here we began ascending a visit flanked by orange street to reach the confluence of the street with Calle Algarrobo Cantarranas right. We find the monument to the faenera. to the Church of the Incarnation
Street Daedalus, the labyrinth of alleys and squares. Surprised at the Arabic layout structure in a city as populous. The extension of the town is large and complex network of streets extends over the hills, matching the geographical morphology of the land with unwavering architectural imagination. We arrived at the Town Hall Square, remarkable building, like other mansions we see in our journey. And is that Alora, in addition to being coveted by the great civilizations, also had a notable past in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through economic and agricultural potential, which has led to the existence of these large houses. It smells of late autumn, a pot and pan 
to 
perfumes fresh food, soups perotas (local culinary excellence tailored a base de pan y de hortalizas que luego probaremos), a hierbabuena. Y quizá siguiendo ese perfume descendemos por las calles camino de la plaza Baja o de la “Despedía”. En el camino observamos las casonas de amplio zaguán, de secretos patios interiores, de puertas historiadas, de portalones con dintel de columnas clásicas, de ventanas enrejadas con forja negra, con llamadores de bronce bruñidos con forma de puño, de garra o de paloma… Pasear por aquí es recorrer un pedazo de historia. No en vano descubriremos que frente a la iglesia hay una casa en la que una placa reza lo siguiente: “S.M. Felipe IV, Rey de las 
Españas, acompañado de su valido, D. Gaspar de Guzmán and Pimentel, Count-Duke of Olivares, and other courtiers, Alora visited this place on April 2, 1624, a room in this house ", that is. Question comes up gave off the square, the Plaza Baja, where Aloreña celebrate some of its popular traditions, but what prevails here is the body of the church, a large temple, exposed stone and high bell tower that sits by size and majesty as the second of the province of Malaga after the cathedral. Nearly one hundred years, ninety-nine to be 
exact, between 1600 and 1699, it took to build the building. Access to its interior by a side door and the first thing that surprises is its darkness. It is a dark temple, because unlike all those who have visited so far, its whitewashed walls are painted white, but it maintains the original stonework, giving the temple of a unique singularity. A group of children scurrying between the wooden benches, sing carols and flit between the dressing rooms ... The altar is prodigious and remarkable for its ornate style versus the simplicity of presenting the bare stone walls. Should look to the roof of the temple, as it has an impressive coffered ceiling with wood trusses that are crossed and uncrossed. We left. The castle, the old church and the viewpoint
From the square down the Broad Street side, significant upward slope. Along with the start of the road is the viewpoint of Cervantes recalls the author's presence in this land of Cervantes Malaga when he worked for the royal administration. We take the walk up the high hill with confidence and a certain parsimony. The plot twists even more. The road is worth it. Getting here is having one of the most complete and impressive views of the Guadalhorce valley. It also notes some of the other neighborhoods that make up the municipality Aloreña. Across the Sierra de Mijas, Sierra de las Nieves to the right. After 
us a defensive and religious complex system composed of the primitive church of the Incarnation, which was built on the city's Muslim mosque in the year 1484, after the final conquest of Alora by the Catholic Monarchs, the viewpoint of Ali Ben Falcum Al Baezi, and the strength of Phoenician origin raised in the tenth century and built and rebuilt by the Romans of old Iluro, the Arabs who gave their name to Alora and final Christian troops. It is in this scene where the romance of "The Well Fenced Alora" which tells the story of the death of Diego Gomez de 
Rivera, the Governor of Andalusia in 1434. And that says: "Alora, the well-fenced, / you who are a couple of river / cercote the front / one on Sunday morning, / with laborers and armed men / fact had a wicket. / Viérades Moors and berries / that they fled to the castle; / berries wore clothes, / the Moors, and wheat flour. / Above the parapet / her banner are lying. / There, behind a turret / quedádose has a morillo / with a crossbow / and she put a gang. / And in a loud voice saying / that people have heard it: / - Truce, truce, come on, / that yours is given 
castle! / He lifted the hood up, / So see Quie had said, / apuntáralo to the front / salídole has the occiput. / Take him Paul rein / hand James, / which were two of his slaves / boys who had grown up. / Llévanle teachers, / to see if they give lair. / At the first words / by Will said / he commended himself to God / and soul has gone. " went along its walls without access to the inside and understand the magnitude of its geostrategic importance, the difficulties they pose to the conquest of large walls, the infallibility of their erect towers. We walk and walk and walk and look like rocks from Alora hills. From the chapel of Veracruz to the convent of Our Lady of the Flowers
descend from the fort and walk through the maze Aloreña. We walked quietly soaking in the taste of the town, considering its half-timbered streets, discovering an ancient well, a hidden square in the eyes of visitors. In this way we got to the plaza de Arriba, Town Hall Square, where we ask for the chapel of Veracruz. It shows us the way with one hand and "" can not miss it. " Meander and come to a seemingly simple building, corner of a row of houses and marking the old road towards Malaga Station and Alora. The chapel is a white building, finished in colors c 
rows and whose main value lies 
architectural in its belfry. Back to where we parked the car. Our next goal is two kilometers from the center, is the Convent of Our Lady of the Flowers. We leave the center until you reach a roundabout which will take us through the old road to the religious center Carratraca. This road is frequented by groups of walkers who exercise in the art of wandering "to the convent and return." Small groups of women walk with determination, a couple of men accompanied talluditos of a dog, two teenagers with rappers cap ... We went to the convent, leaving behind the Cross Shrine. Situated on a hill, from where views are dominated by very prominent, which senses the high siphon Gaitanes Gorge and the peaks that surround the river to encased in one of the most prominent sites d ela province. The church of the convent, built in the seventeenth century and subjected to various reforms in the eighteenth and twentieth century is notable for its great simplicity. The courtyard above the entrance is a haven of peace. We sat. We let the freshness of the gardens Aloreña reaches us. In the heart surrounding the impatience we arrive, after eating, to glimpse the Caminito del Rey, the mouth of the canyon, deep cut in the ground. Food
Today
not eat alone. A distinguished guest Aloreña and we have quoted in a popular restaurant in the city and is situated just two kilometers from the monastery. The site in question by the name of "Bunny" and is an institution. It is also one of those places where you can taste the "soup perotas" dish Aloreña ancient tradition that has its own festival. Greetings and hugs to all, great conversation, relaxed conversation, many with swing sets, birds and turtles and good food. We ask for four p eople 
, tropical salad, soup perota, a chicken fillet for our illustrious companion, a skewer, a Moorish-style goat, soft drinks, water, some dessert and coffee. Perota soup is another of those dishes subsistence has stood the test of time becoming a separate institution. Soup made with bread stale bread lightly fried, with added water and that is accompanied by onions, cucumbers and some fruits such as grapes, oranges and prickly pear. Good food, good company. Gaitanes The Gorge and the Caminito del Rey
After lunch we headed for a sweep of El Chorro, a path winding road that passes between houses, cottages, neighborhoods, gardens and terraces to lead to the dam of El Chorro, fed by the river that seems to escape the strictures that make up the gorge to escape . It's awesome, a landscape of stone cliffs cut peak, compliments of the land, natural architecture impossible and including three buildings: the human, a huge trap that lies near the ancient ruins of Bobastro in the form of high column cement and used to drain the 
pressure drop of water from the dam from more than twenty feet above the mountain and the Little Way del Rey, a line outlined against a cliff that juts out into a groove drilled into the rock, and natural, a very narrow gorge (in some point does not reach more than ten meters wide) in vertical columns with an altitude of between 70 and 100 meters and three-kilometer route that goes into a dark throat. Short of breath. We approached, the more surprised still. Contemplate the magnitude of this natural impossible 
seems chiseled, carved into the primordial matter of the mountains, a sharp break from the mountain, a violent partition whose dark river shallows driving a subtle and brave. The natural landscape Gaitanes Gorge starts at the neighboring town of Ardales, starting from the dam Conde del Guadalhorce and goes into the mountains for a little over three miles to reach this vast and deep gorges. This is from where the call Caminito del Rey, a narrow passage through the iron attached to the massive concrete walls, suspended in the air and has made it a favorite of adventurers, climbers, daring and reckless for years. Named because the roads and built 
for King Alfonso XIII could travel the works following the lifting of the dam and the flow of the river between the mountains. This happened in 1921. The languages \u200b\u200btricks emphasize that the king looked at the abyss and politely declined the possibility of a ride. The assembled structure has served ever since for hundreds of people traveling on this road only in the province of Malaga. The passage of time the facility has deteriorated and it was an adventure has become a real danger. El Caminito del Rey has been closed. But to the delight of future and past visitors, there is a comprehensive rehabilitation project will begin in the spring of 2011 and detailed in the following newspaper article SUR . We are many, we include, which we look forward to the time of its reopening, go to the wall vertical spectacular enclave. For all those who do not know the Caminito del Rey we present here two examples in video format taken from the YouTube website. If any reader is curious, simply type Caminito del Rey in the above websites and you might see many references. Farewell
The wind did not stir the lean body of Alfonso XIII, but spurred our imagination and we are now painted over that mighty hall, scanning the bottom of the riverbed down there, far below. We see a flock of pigeons flying under our feet and two birds of prey. Comes to our ears the thunder of the river as a promise of danger infallible. We sighed and waited. We look forward to its reopening. The reopening of the Caminito del Rey.
Useful information and links
perotas Soups: As the website says the Tourist Board of the Costa del Sol The fame of the 'soup perota' has somewhat overshadowed the variety of cuisines in this area, mainly based on excellent products of their fertile plain. The recipe perota soup is, in principle, apparently simple, because the ingredients do not go beyond a sauce mixed with water and pieces of bread, which is often accompanied by seasonal fruit (grapes, pears, oranges and even cucumbers and raw onions) . The tricky part is getting the right size and the special flavor of this dish. Thus, the first Saturday in October marks the annual "Day Soups perotas " culinary journey dedicated to the dish during which the City distributes more than 7,000 servings plus lots of tasting of typical products and as a large number of activities organized during this time.
Links of interest: We take as a reference website Tourist Board of the Costa del Sol and municipal web page Alora to which we must add the numerous references in YouTube and web browsers on Los Gaitanes the Chorro and Caminito del Rey.
This blog is open to comments, notes, opinions sailors wish to perform. See you at the blue sky.
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