El Corcho

It’s 9:15 pm. I poke my head in the restaurant. “Está abierto?” I ask the server. “Si,” he replies not looking up from his phone. I had been waiting for the restaurant to open while having a drink on the other side of the small plaza with an English couple I met at my Posada. I give them a thumbs up before tucking inside.

The floor of the restaurant is made of the same black and white cobblestones throughout the village. The rustic heavy door that separates the bar from the restaurant looks like something out of the Middle Ages with large metal bolts and hinges. A soccer game is playing on the television. I don’t understand the words but there’s a familiar rhythm to the commentary of the announcers and the drone of the crowd. 

I notice a short square stool made of cork. I look up and see a large fixture also made of cork. It’s constructed of pieces of different sizes arranged in a circular fashion, about 5 or 6 feet in diameter.

I read the name of the restaurant on the menu (a slip of paper with a QR code). El Corcho. It clicks. Cork! Earlier that day I ate lunch on the terrace (photo below) but I had to venture inside the restaurant to have that revelation.

Cork oak trees are all over this area.

I am staying at Posada San Marcos in Alájar, a small village with 5 tiny hamlets. It’s in the Sierra de Aracena, about 1.5 hours north of Sevilla. The ecosystems (four) are diverse. The land is fertile. Anything and everything grows here. Olive trees, pomegranate trees, orange and lemon trees, pears and plums, pine trees, chestnut trees, madroños (strawberry) trees. This only scratches the surface. Let’s get back to cork.

There are three types of cork oak trees in the area. I learn all this from Ángel. He and his wife Lucy own the lovely eco-friendly Posada San Marcos. Ángel took me on a guided walk (8 km) around Alájar on my first morning. He is enthusiastic, has a great sense of humour and deep knowledge on the plants and history of the Sierra de Aracena.

The cork from one variety is excellent insulation. It’s sound proof and fire retardant. The trunk is almost red in colour after it’s harvested (photo below), which is done every eight years. The acorns from this variety are bitter but the Iberian pigs that roam the land happily munch them up. 

Acorns (bellota) are one of the ingredients that make this tasty and expensive delicacy. Ángel explains the other factors – breed, lineage, land. It’s all controlled. The Iberian black hoofed pig is a unique breed, very different from white pigs. The lineage is well protected. To be classified as black label (top tier) both the mother and father need to be 100% Iberian. Finally, these piggies need a lot of land, 1 acre each to roam freely up and down the hillside and build up muscles for a couple years.

Iberian pigs aren’t the only animals roaming the land. Horses, cattle, lamb, goats. The goat cheese (queso de cabra) is strong and delicious.

I am getting off track. There is much to write about the landscape around peaceful Alájar. This is only the beginning of my week in the mountains. I am walking village to village along varied walking paths. There are 1100 km of trails. I’ll walk under 80 km. Lucy has provided me with meticulous walking notes and a GPS. I won’t get off track (and if I do the GPS beeps at me). Lucy also packed me a picnic. She’s a wonderful cook and included a piece of her zesty lemon cake that I have been inhaling at breakfast.

I start and end my six days of walking in Alájar. Population 700. There are a small number of restaurants and bars. El Corcho is the only one open Wednesday night.

The photos above are Linares de la Sierra, a village I passed from Alájar to Aracena (13 km). The photo on the left is a bullring that is used once a year.