Oct 30 Aracena, Spain

We left Seville the morning of Oct 30 and had a short drive to Aracena which is a small (about 7000 population) city in Spain near the southern Portuguese border.  This city is a bit higher in elevation than Seville (about 700') and is famous for two things. First, its grotto and second its museum of ham. We went to the grotto.

The first image shows our tour group walking up the main street with is nicely paved with cobblestone and has a linear mini canal about a quarter mile long with about a 30' change in  elevation. Water at the bottom of the street is pumped back to the top. 


At the top of the main street is the entrance to the Grotto of Marvels (Gruta De Las Maravillas). The second image is from discoverhuelva.com as no flash is allowed in the cave. 

The cave is truly full of amazing sights but also has several hundred steps many without guardrail and some slippery. It also has a number of places where you have to bend down to squeeze through.

After the cave we had lunch in a nice park at the base of the main pedestrian street. George is walking away from the mosaic marker of the city (third image) that is in the park. The marker advertises the cave in its design. 

I got George to stand in front of the marker (fourth image). In the background you can see a high hill and if you look closely (after clicking its easier to see), you can see a fortress on the top of the hill. The cave is under this hill. 
 

In the little park there was some nice landscaping and fountains and art (fifth, sixth and seventh image). The trees in the park are orange trees (orange trees are also in some famous palace gardens in Spain and Portugal) and we saw a few ripe oranges on the ground.