Spain is thought of as dry and brown, but here up in the Alpurjarra  mountains you will see water running often in most unusual directions, down the side of a track or road or even across it.  

One day rushing down wide and wild and another as still and dry as anything.  This will be one of the hundreds of man made water ways called an ‘ecequia’ dating back to ‘The Moors’ who were also responsible for the terraced land.                              

The ecequias are carefully controlled with all the land owners looking after their own allocated hours of water flowing into their ‘albercas’ (water deposits) so that they can store it for the dry summer months. 

If we have been lucky enough to have a wet winter we may get hours of water allocated every week of the year.  Most of this water is used for irrigation but for those who aren’t lucky enough to have a spring, it can also be used for showers, cooking etc, well just about everything but drinking.