Lanjarón is the front door of the Alpujarras, and the first thing it offers is water. The springs that rise from the Sierra Nevada above the town are among the best known in Spain, and the mineral water bottled here is sold across the country. The town has a spa tradition that goes back centuries, with a grand old bathing house and a long main street of cafés, shops and hotels, and a public fountain where you can taste the water for free. It is cold and light, with a faint mineral tang.
Every year on the night of Saint John, the twenty-third of June, the town celebrates the Fiesta del Agua, a huge water fight in which everyone on the main street throws water at everyone else, with buckets, hoses and water pistols. It is both a tradition and a joke, and visitors are not spared. If you are in town on that night with a motorbike, move it well out of the way and keep your phone dry.
Above the town stand the ruins of a Moorish castle, a reminder that this region was one of the last strongholds of Muslim Spain. After the fall of Granada in 1492 the Alpujarras remained home to a large Morisco population, and when the Crown tried to suppress their customs, they rose in revolt in 1568, a bitter war that ended with their expulsion from the region. The terraces, irrigation channels and white houses of the villages are the legacy of their skill, and the whole area has a layered, slightly melancholy history.
The road up through the Alpujarras begins here, and it is a good one: a narrow, winding route that climbs through chestnut and almond groves, with views over the valley to the distant sea on clear days. The surface is mostly good, though patched in places, and the bends are tight, with little room for error. Traffic is moderate, with buses and local lorries, and the roads fill with tourists in spring and autumn. In winter, snow can close the highest sections, and in July and August the heat is considerable.
Lanjarón has about four thousand people, with fuel stations, shops and a good choice of cafés and restaurants, and Órgiva, five kilometres to the east, has more. Try the cured ham from the high villages and a plate of local goat or pork, with fried potatoes and a glass of the region's wine. Fill the tank before climbing, as the villages above have little fuel.