RUTA 2. TREVELEZ-BUSQUISTAR-PITRES

Trevelez to Cortijo de la Roza

Leave La Fragua Hotel to the right, under an arch following the sign ‘Ruta de los 3 barrios’ until the washing place in the Calle Horno street. Turn left along the street and follow it right along following the signs for ‘Ruta los Tres Barrio’ signs.

An the Y junction turn right to the old washing place in the Barrio Alto. Now abandon the Ruta de los 3 Barrios and follow GR7 sign pointing left to ‘Busquístar 10.5 km’.

Follow this path finding a panel of information for the GR Sulayr 240. Follow this route towards Capiliera.

Cross Rio Chico on the newly built dam and immediately turn right ascending and follow the zigzag path to meet a dirt track with a sign for the GR7. Follow the sign left towards ‘Busquistar, GR7’.

You will reach (wp1), which signals to Alto del Chorrillo and Sulayr footpath and on to find (wp2) where a side path meets the track. Continue along the track following the GR7 red and white waymarks to wp3.

After approx 500m the track bends sharply to the right the you will see a path leading straight on with a red and white GR7 waymark on it. Take the path ascending, it will rejoing the dirt track at wp4.

Rejoin the track turning left to follow the GR7 waymarks. After approx 700m the red and white way marks will lead you off the track to the left through the trees. The route is flat to begin with and then descends to rejoin the track at wp5. After wp5, you arrive at Barranco de la Bina where a great storm in 2009 destroyed the bridge. Now you can cross it walking but the path is very steep on both sides, take care.

Continue along the track and cross another ravine close to La Bina and follow the track. Ignore a GR7 turn-off left (wp6) and ignore the signs to Capileira (wp7). Continue straight on following the GR7 signs and take the turn off left after almost 300 meters (wp8).

Cortijo de la Roza-Busquistar
Once at the farmhouse Cortijo de la Roza García (wp 9) just 850m further on from wp8 you may find some dogs barking and following you, just tell them firmly “NO, ATRAS” and don ́t let them know you are afraid. They are simply letting their owner know you are there.

Leave the farmhouse and pens on the right and head to the threshing floor. You will find the path a little left between the rocks. It runs between a pine forest and some deforested areas.

Continue to follow the well-marked path (red and white waymarks). You will arrive to a makeshift gate, be careful, the path is quite deteriorated in this area (Please, close the gate behind you). After the Barranco de los Alisos, the path descends running between an oak forest to flatten again crossing two ravines before the footpath junction (wp 10).

Approx 10km in to your walk you will arrive at an obvious path junction. Turn left following the GR7 signals descending approx 15m to a fork in the path. Stay to the left to follow the GR7 waymarks. This track used to carry the iron mineral from the nearby Maria Cristina mine.

Turn left on this track and go downhill for 1km to turn right (wp 11) with a GR7 signal passing a farmhouse on your right. When the track takes a sharp bend left, continue straight on, following the red and white waymarks. The path runs down between Mediterranean bushes, crosses an irrigation canal (wp12) and widens to a broad track towards a house. 450m further on you will arrive at a concrete track. The cemetery is on the right and the sport ground on the left.

Turn right after the cemetery (wp 13) and immediately left following the GR7 red-white to reach the main road in Busquistar (wp14).

In Busquistar you can find a pharmacy, a grocery, a bakery and a bar next to the church. It is a beautiful village worth exploring a little.

Busquístar-Atalbéitar

Our route continues along the main road towards the right for about 600 metres. Our route follows the road to turn off left onto a broad track (wp 15) just in front of a big house on the right wheere the road begins to ascend steeply. There is a green arrow on the road barrier (on the track side of the barrier). Take the track to the fork, here go right, keeping the metal fence of an olive grove on your left.

After 250m turn right (wp16) following the path signed on a stone as ‘ATALB’.
The path goes through a shaded area and drops down to a junction (wp 17). Go ahead

following the PR yellow-white footpath on the left.

Pass the old mills close to the ravine. Cross the ravine by a bridge and 250m later ignore the track on the right and cross the Barranco del Castañar.

Pass an old house on the left and go on to enter the hamlet of Atalbeitar next to the washing place with mulberry trees and footpath signs (GR7 and PR A299) (wp18).

Go ahead through the village passing the fountain ‘Fuente de Atalbeitar’and another at the square with a tree.

Continue towards the church and leave the village on the tarmac road which leads to Pitres.

Atalbéitar toPitres
You will find a sign post ‘Pitres 40 min’ and on the left the “Ruta Medieval” (wp19).

Continue ahead on the tarmac road for about 15 minutes, ignoring two turn offs to the left to the farmhouse of Cortijo Viñuela and a dirt track on the right before you come at the Y- junction of tarmac roads.

Ignore a left fork signed ‘Ferreirola’ and continue straight for 100m. When the road bends to the right you leave the tarmac and follow straight, on a trail with GR7 signs (wp20). This path leads you to cross the Barranco Bermejo.

Continue straight on before the river when the GR7 signals go up to the right.

The paths descends and then splits. Go left and cross the river stepping on the stones and ascend a narrow path, overgrown in parts, to meet a water channel . Turn right to walk alongside the water channel to a crossing. Cross the water channel and continue along the path, ascending to the path junction.

Go left when you find the Camino de Aguagria on the right (wp21), and ahead up to the next junction to pass by the Albergue signed ‘Refugio IYH Gite Berghutte’ and reach the tarmac road. Cross it and turn left to the Hotel San Roque.

Practical: you can have dinner in your hotel. If you walk towards the main square with the church, you will also find some bars, a small supermarket and a health centre, and even a cash point.

Pitres and the villages of La Tahá (Busquistar, Capilerilla, Mecina Fondales, Atalbéitar y Ferreirola)
The history of La Tahá runs parallel to the history of the other villages in Alpujarra; an area that due to its geographical isolation has developed its own characteristic culture. It had its moment of splendour under the Moorish Andalusian period when all of the Alpujarra was an important agriculture centre, specialising in silk production. After the Christian re- conquest of Granada in 1492 by the Catholic Kings, the population suffered to an unbearable extreme and thus, in 1568, Hernando de Córdoba y Válor, a rich landowner proclaimed himself as Abén Humeya, uprising against Phillip II, causing a general revolt

among the Moors from all over the kingdom of Granada. Internal disagreements amongst the Moors, who in 1569 assassinated Abén Humeya, allowed Don Juan de Austria to terminate this revolt. The Moors were eventually expelled in 1609. The Alpujarra was later inhabited by peasants from Galicia, León, Asturias and Castile.

The villages of La Taha share the typical features of all Alpujarra villages, i.e. a single type of architecture in the buildings, adapted to the structure of the land and to the climate of the area. This is characterised by narrow streets, a memory of a Moorish past.