The Cueva de los Letreros is what most people mean when they say Vélez-Blanco, and the rock shelter at Inferior Letreros is part of the same story. Famous images in the main cave include a little figure with raised arms and a bow-like shape that locals have adopted as the Indalo, now the good-luck symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on walls and sold on keyrings from the beaches to the mountains. The paintings belong to the Levantine tradition that UNESCO lists as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.
The village is a lovely place to arrive. Vélez-Blanco is small, about two thousand people, white houses climbing a hill under a square Renaissance castle built in the early sixteenth century by the Marquis of Los Vélez. The castle is a story of its own. Its beautiful marble courtyard was bought and shipped to New York in the early twentieth century, and now stands inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which leaves the shell oddly empty and the village mildly sore about it.
The country around is the Sierra de María-Los Vélez, a natural park of limestone ridges with pine forest, almond groves and wide, pale uplands, where the northernmost corner of Almería meets Murcia and Granada. Maimón, the highest peak, is above two thousand metres, and winter snow is not unusual. In summer, the area is hot but breathes far better than the coast, and evenings are fresh.
For riders, this is excellent territory, with quiet roads climbing from the valley into the sierra, with long views, bends of every radius and almost no traffic. Surfaces are mostly good, though patched and dusty near farms, and the wind on exposed ridges can be strong. Early spring and autumn are best. Velez-Rubio, three or four kilometres away, is larger, with about seven thousand people, and has fuel, bakeries and bars, so fill up there rather than trusting the smaller villages. María and Vélez-Blanco itself have cafes where you can sit with a view of the castle and wait for the heat to pass.