Exchange Zones

Our house is located in the southeast mountains of Spain (sistema Betico, in the “Parque Natural de sierras de Cazorla, Pozo, Segura y las Villas” near the small town of Yeste. On google earth go to lat=38.3286365695, lon=-2.44932073365.
There is a fair amount of tourist development in the area, but not really on the scale you can find along the Mediterranean and in the Pyrenees. Most we get to see are the occasional hikers that follow along part of the GR 66 (a long distance footpath 600 km trough Castilla la Mancha,) which runs by our house.
Yeste lies at about 25 min. drive from the house, all the groceries can be bought there and there are a few restaurants and bars. It also has a tourist office.
In Arguellite at about 7 mins there is a small shop that sells some of the basics and a restaurant. Both the rio Tus and the Rio Segura are about 7 km. away, there are a few campings/restaurants and a spa (Balneario de Tus) along the riverbeds.
So if you like to be entertained with busy shopping streets, big malls, everything right at your doorstep you will be disappointed. You can find all that in every direction, but you’ll have to drive at least 1.5 hours.
On the other hand if you like silence and enjoy biking, trekking, swimming you’ll like it a lot.
The house lies at an altitude of 1130 m. so even in mid summer it won’t get very hot; maximum temperatures of 28-33 C minimum of 13-18 C. In the summer sun is virtually guaranteed, you might get the odd thunderstorm once every 3-4 weeks. Air is clear and fresh, even in midsummer, which cannot be said of most of southern Spain.
Granada, Murcia, Cordoba, Alicante are all a (long) daytrip away. If you really push it you could make Madrid and Valencia as well but that would mean sitting in a car for 4 hrs. one way.
Likewise the Mediterranean is about 3 hrs away (Mar Menor, Santa Pola) but if you want to swim the Rio Segura at 10 minutes offers better swimming.


There are 5 bedrooms and a sleeping attic so at least 10 people can comfortably stay. Other than that there is high speed internet (satellite), satellite TV (mostly German & Spanish), washing machine, 2 bathrooms with shower etc.
The house is run on solar power, so we do not have electrical heating devices such as a magnetron, water cooker, espresso machine since those use too much electricity.
On the terrain there is a small water basin 3X2.5 by 1.5 m. deep that the children use as a swimming pool. The water remains clean and does not need to be chlorinated because there is sufficient in/out flow.
For kids (boys) there are all sorts of toys, sand, swing etc.
There are bikes and some camping equipment in case you would like to trek some.