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I love olives. Green, black, kalamata, with or without pits. Olive oil too. So of course I love Olvera. It’s surrounded by one billion olive trees. That’s what one writer asserted although who could have counted them? Many assume that is where the town got its name, although there is some debate. Regardless, we certainly saw a few olive trees on our drive in to Olvera from Granada.
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Luis at Hotel Tugasa Sierra y Cal welcomes us and lets me know they will do laundry for us, which is much needed. When traveling carry-on-only, we like to do laundry every 7-10 days.
Like most of the Pueblos Blancos, Olvera is nestled around a large rock, what east coasters might call a mountain. At the pinnacle of the town, a Moorish castle and catholic cathedral compete for skyline dominance. We decide to judge for ourselves and spend a day climbing and exploring Olvera..castle wins.
A circular road trip, Ronda to Grazalema then back to Olvera turns out to be one of our favorite drives ever. First, Ronda is one of the largest Pueblos Blancos and very famous for its Roman bridge. We walk through town to see for ourselves. Be careful, it’s windy. Tom nearly lost his hat! A stop for churros & chocolate and we head out of town toward the next white town.
Grazalema, population 2300, is situated in the foothills of a mountain range near the center of Sierra de Grazalema National Park. The drive is both stunning and hair-raising, with winding roads and steep cliffs. I’m appreciative of my driver more than ever. And it’s SO worth it. The town of Grazalema is one of the prettiest towns I’ve ever seen. It would be worthwhile to return here and spend some time hiking the many trails in the national park.
We forego a trip to Cadiz and instead venture to Malaga (the hometown of Pablo) to visit the Picasso Museum. It’s a bustling but pretty city. We easily find an underground parking lot and make our way to the museum a couple blocks away. While in the museum, the power goes out. It comes back on right away, so we don’t think twice about it (We later find out it’s because they have a generator). We have worked up an appetite trying to decipher Picasso, but the restaurants are all closing. That’s when we hear about the nationwide power outage. Even though no one in Malaga seems concerned, we decide to head back to Olvera. Fortunately the parking garage also has a generator and we are able to leave. Exiting the city is a bit dodgy, but nothing like some of the horror stories we later heard others endured. The power outage encompasses the entire countries of Spain and Portugal, some parts of Andorra and southwest France as well. No one knows why nor how long this might possibly go on.
Because I still had cell service in Malaga, I sent messages to my kids to tell them where we are. I decide to take screenshots of the Waze maps for our trip back and it turns out to be a very good call since we soon lose cell service. Without a paper map, we need the screenshots since the roads aren’t marked all that clearly. We made it!
Once back in our Olvera hotel, we join two other couples poolside and discuss our adventures in traveling amidst national blackouts. We all make arrangements for dinner with our intrepid waitress, who tells us “it will be cold”. Fine with me, as long as it’s food. At 8PM the restaurant opens to feed the gathering crowd. Once seated, there are cheers as the chef enters with coolers holding what is likely to be our meal. We have a plate of cheeses and two salads, probably our best meal in Olvera!
Sometime in the wee morning hours, the power is restored. But now the entire town has lost water. Still no internet or cell service until about 9AM. We had breakfast with our new friends from the UK, Kath & Mitch, exchanging travel stories. They are hikers, bikers, and travel more than we do! The other couple, Sara & Jarod, are interesting Americans currently residing in Germany.
We check out and drive to our next spot: Carmona.
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Around 60 million people were without power for nearly a day. That’s roughly the population of Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, and maybe more. Could you imagine if this were to happen in the US? What’s the big deal? Well no one knew how long it would last nor what the cause of the outage was. Tom & I were fortunate and minimally impacted, but there were many who had big headaches trying to travel or keep their business open. We definitely rely on our phones for everyday activities and this was a sobering reminder to prepare, which includes having cash on hand. Cards could not be accepted and no ATMs worked. Bring a power bank and always keep your devices charging at night. A hard copy of plane, train, bus tickets is a good idea too. Old School is Good School!
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Love reading about your travels…you have a gift!
I love olives too!! Everything sounds so amazing! Glad things are going so well, you guys are professional travelers now. Look forward to more posts 💜
We can have an olive party when we get home 😎🫒
Thanks Deb! ❤️
You are so seasoned you seem to think of every possibility. Really – screen shots against cell outages! And it worked:) you know how to adapt. Carry on and love each day more