Andy Rodker's photos with the keyword: Estramadura

Due to the new reservoirs built in the '50s and '60s, many villages and towns were abandoned and flooded. Granadilla was high above the new reservoir but was effectively surrounded by it and cut off from its farmlands (please have a look at the aerial map to get a gist of this isolation). The population moved to the cities in the main. Some decades later as the place became something of a tourist attraction, a few souls moved in to open a restaurant or two and some tourist shops. I've posted a couple of other shots under my Estramadura album: www.ipernity.com/doc/2247598/album/999420 There is also this wikipedia entry; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granadilla,_Spain I thought of 'When the levee breaks', a great blues song for this, even if it's not strictly relevant to the photo. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYThZwcDUXk I selected a 'reaction' Youtube version of this Led Zeppelin classic, just because it was an honest and sincere reaction and it amused me!

Cacares Province, Estramadura. Nobody there. Everyone that can afford to has gone away to the cooler north of Spain. Everyone else is firmly indoors with the blinds down. Jenny, I know you commented before, but when replying I accidentally deleted the shot! Sorry! Here it is again and if you wish to comment once more, I would be honoured!

We didn't enjoy this town. It was filthy, smelly, the people seemed surly, building repairs were of the corrugated iron type and yet it prided itself as a tourist hotspot. No, it was resting on long forfeited laurels. And indeed, a visit in 1983 had been very pleasing. No longer. The place had let itself down badly in the meantime.