May 25th ~ Aracena

After breakfast, we drove on to Aracena via the Rio Tinto mines, the largest open caste mine in Europe (see pic). Aracena is most known for its caves, which we decided to give a miss, as unlikely to be as good as the caves in Gibraltar and Nerja. Instead, we opted for the Museo del Jamon (Ham museum or “Iberian Pig Interactive Center” as their leaflet proclaims), which was dedicated to the history and production methods of Iberian ham. As so few people visit, we had a guide to ourselves – a pleasant young man who took his job very seriously, who wanted to practice his English, as he had his English exams in a few weeks.

We made our way slowly through 7 rooms of information panels and a video explaining the life cycle of the pig (basically grazing in free range pastures and eating large amounts of acorns from 3 types of oak trees), its slaughter by traditional methods, the use of its intestines, and the 3 year process of curing the legs of ham using salt and special drying methods. Apparently, a pig has to eat 18 kilos of bellota (acorns) to put on 1 kilo of weight. The other interesting fact is that acorns are rich in Oliec ? acid, which produces ”good cholesterol”, and so the fat of this ham is ok to eat. Each ham is also graded by the pigs diet and how it was reared, and registered from a particular area in the same way wine is. An hour and 30minutes later, we staggered out into the sun to visit Archena’s more traditional sites of churches, convents and of course, ruined castle above the town.

We camped at a small rural campsite outside the town, and were immediately adopted by 3 friendly dogs, unusually, a father and his 2 puppies.