Thursday 23rd May Seville to Aracena 


This is how lovely the reception area was for our hotel, the tiles are stunning, they also had a piano bar at the hotel that we enjoyed for about quarter of an hour last night, after eating so late it is almost time for bed! Today we visited a pig farm to learn about the Iberian Jamon (ham or more like prosciutto) The Iberian pigs are free range, and live one per acre, the live only organic food, and particularly acorns from the Holm Oak. they are kept free of stress, excepting that they are all neutered, but at 2 years old ….well !



On this photo you can see on the right hand side the tree trunk has been stripped of the cork bark as it is mahogany in colour, here they are left to grow nine years before stripping again. But the pigs, they become this…
We went through the factory, saw the salting room, and where they hang for three years prior to being sold There are no other preservatives than the salt, but they do clean the mould off yearly with a brush and sunflowers oil, I had wondered what all the sunflower paddocks were for was thinking of the seeds because of all the olive oil. After walking through the factory we had a Jamon tasting, comparing acorn fed and non acorn fed, there was a difference.

Then it was on to Aracena, a hillside town, and tonight we stay in a converted convent I will have to set my alarm for the middle of the night so I can change beds 

some of the more intrepid of the group climbed up to the church and castle at the top of the hill, where the views were spectacular of surrounding countryside. It was close to 29 degrees at this stage so was a bit of a slog



This is looking down on the converted convent where we are staying its the light brick coloured one with dome, and below a great sculpture, emerging out of the rock.





We then walked down to visit Gruta Maravillas grotto , we had to wait an hour for our tour, luckily there was a bar nearby for a cooling beer whilst we waited. The caves were just beautiful, we walked for about a kilometre underground on different levels apparently at one stage we were directly under the castle, unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, but one of the Australians thought he was allowed to take one.


We had drinks by the pool prior to dinner at the hotel, we were all delighted by the presence of a storks on a tower next to the dome, I’m sure the locals thought we were mad all taking photos


We dine in the hotel restaurant in the evening, the food was lovely, Spain seems to be a lot of meat and potatoes, and if you ask for a mixed salad they are likely to put tuna in it, so very difficult for a vegetarian,. the prevalence of pork on the menu seems to have come from when Isabel and Ferdinand started expelling the Jews and Moors, if they converted they had to be seen to be eating pork as proof. So over 599 years of eating ham!






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