Capileira
Steeped in story and history, Capileira lies in a landscape of mountain valleys and rivers, chestnut and walnut trees, paths edged by acequias of water, with starry skies and views clear to the sea and Africa beyond. This region of white towns in the Sierra Nevada mountains was the last place the Muslims held before they were expelled from Spain; here, they once made silk and the mulberry trees they planted still live in certain forgotten corners.
I’ve chosen it for this retreat because it’s a place that healed me when I needed it. A place where the natural elements are so tactile: the earth surrounded by verdant mountains and valleys, and dotted with flattened grass circles where ancient inhabitants threshed wheat.
Sometimes, short spells of wind run through the narrow streets like the memory of a dervish, and then die away to a sublime stillness. Its aether enters every one of your senses and you feel the myth and metaphor of this place - once populated by Tartessians, Muslims, Andalucian farmers and herders - you feel the earth remembering its own stories and inviting yours…
