Almería is known for deserts and beaches, but its northern edge is a different country, a high, cold plateau of almond orchards and pine-covered sierras that the locals call Los Vélez. The town of Vélez-Blanco, with just over 2,000 people, lies under a castle on a rocky crest, and María and Chirivel are smaller places on the plateau. The region is protected as the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, and the air is clear, the sky enormous, and the nights cold, even in summer. In late winter the almond trees bloom pink and white on the slopes below the peaks.
Vélez-Blanco has two stories to tell. The castle, a Renaissance fortress built in the early sixteenth century for the Marquis of los Vélez, has a handsome interior courtyard, though the original marble patio was sold in the early twentieth century and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a fact the locals do not forget. The other story is older. The Cueva de los Letreros, a rock shelter in the hills, holds paintings from the same tradition as the Levantine sites, among them a figure with raised arms that became the Indalo, the little stick-figure charm that you now see on car stickers and doorways across Almería. The cave is protected, and visits are arranged through the town.
The shelter listed as Chiquita belongs to the same landscape, and treat it with the same care: paintings of this kind are thousands of years old and fragile, UNESCO listed the group in 1998, and access should be arranged locally. The surroundings reward a slow ride. Roads on the plateau are quiet, with gentle bends and long views, and the wind can be sharp. Winter brings frost, and sometimes snow on the Sierra de María, so check the forecast.
Vélez Rubio, a bigger town of about 7,000 people ten kilometres away, has fuel stations and supermarkets, and a big baroque church, the Encarnación, with twin towers. The local food is hearty, with gurullos, a pasta-based stew, migas and almond sweets. Spring is the best time, with green slopes and blossom.