Andalucía often acts as a synonym for Spain as a whole: a sun-dappled, fiesta-loving land of guitar-wielding troubadours, reckless bullfighters, feisty operatic heroines and Roma singers wailing sad laments. Despite creeping modernization, this region remains a spirited and passionate place where the atmosphere sneaks up and envelops you when you least expect it – perhaps as you’re crammed into a buzzing tapas bar or lost in the depths of a flamenco performance.
For eight centuries the region sat on a volatile frontier between three faiths and ideologies: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This cross-fertilization produced ancient mosques and synagogues transformed into churches; vast palaces replete with stucco work; a cuisine infused with North African spices; hammams and teterías (teahouses) evoking the Moorish lifestyle; and a chain of lofty white towns that dominates the craggy landscape, from Granada’s tightly knotted Albayzín to the hilltop settlements of Cádiz province.
Significant stretches of the region’s coast remain relatively unblemished, especially on Cádiz’ Costa de la Luz and Almería’s Cabo de Gata. Thirty per cent of Andalucía’s land is environmentally protected, much of it in easy-to-access parks, and these conservation measures are showing dividends. The Iberian lynx is no longer impossibly elusive; the ibex is flourishing; even the enormous bearded vulture is again soaring above Cazorla’s mountains.
One of Andalucía’s most intriguing and mysterious attractions is the notion of duende, the elusive spirit that douses much of Spanish art, especially flamenco. Duende loosely translates as a moment of heightened emotion that takes you out of yourself, experienced during an artistic performance, and it can be soulfully evoked in Andalucía if you mingle in the right places. Seek it out in a Lorca play at a municipal theatre, an organ recital in a Gothic church, the hit-or-miss spontaneity of a flamenco peña (club) or Málaga’s remarkable art renaissance. It is this type of experience that Spanish Links Tours wishes to craft on your behalf.
Andalucía often acts as a synonym for Spain as a whole: a sun-dappled, fiesta-loving land of guitar-wielding troubadours, reckless bullfighters, feisty operatic heroines and Roma singers wailing sad laments. Despite creeping modernization, this region remains a spirited and passionate place where the atmosphere sneaks up and envelops you when you least expect it – perhaps as you’re crammed into a buzzing tapas bar or lost in the depths of a flamenco performance.
For eight centuries the region sat on a volatile frontier between three faiths and ideologies: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This cross-fertilization produced ancient mosques and synagogues transformed into churches; vast palaces replete with stucco work; a cuisine infused with North African spices; hammams and teterías (teahouses) evoking the Moorish lifestyle; and a chain of lofty white towns that dominates the craggy landscape, from Granada’s tightly knotted Albayzín to the hilltop settlements of Cádiz province.
Significant stretches of the region’s coast remain relatively unblemished, especially on Cádiz’ Costa de la Luz and Almería’s Cabo de Gata. Thirty per cent of Andalucía’s land is environmentally protected, much of it in easy-to-access parks, and these conservation measures are showing dividends. The Iberian lynx is no longer impossibly elusive; the ibex is flourishing; even the enormous bearded vulture is again soaring above Cazorla’s mountains.
One of Andalucía’s most intriguing and mysterious attractions is the notion of duende, the elusive spirit that douses much of Spanish art, especially flamenco. Duende loosely translates as a moment of heightened emotion that takes you out of yourself, experienced during an artistic performance, and it can be soulfully evoked in Andalucía if you mingle in the right places. Seek it out in a Lorca play at a municipal theatre, an organ recital in a Gothic church, the hit-or-miss spontaneity of a flamenco peña (club) or Málaga’s remarkable art renaissance. It is this type of experience that Spanish Links Tours wishes to craft on your behalf.
