Travel Back In Time Into the Wild Wild West

Our next journey was to Granada… Now this end of the road trip set itself apart from the rest of our Spanish adventure. 

Given the dynamic landscapes of Andalucía, we decided to visit it all!  Including the desert where The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (among other famous Western classics) was filmed. 

On our way there, we had discovered an interesting road side rest stop that put us back in the 1950s on Route 66.  With an old statue of Marilyn Monroe greeting you at the entrance, this place boasted of a pool table, a run down and probably not usable beet bop music machine, and lots of antiques from America in its 'heyday.' 

I had read about this restaurant in a Spanish newspaper at a scarcely populated rest stop we'd stopped at just an hour earlier.  It was interestingly started by a Belgian couple who had traveled on Route 66 in the US and loved it.  Then, during their travels in Spain, they came across the Tabernas desert region and decided they wanted to recreate the feel of Route 66 right here in Spain.  Surprisingly, despite the kichy decorations and run-down touristy look, it was a 'go-to' spot for locals. 

While there we ended up having lunch and sitting with a woman named Carina who is from the Netherlands.  She decided to start a new chapter of her life moving to the desert of Spain.  She wanted heat and solitude and she found it here.  She comes to this restaurant every week.  As we chatted, it looked like she wasn’t the only one. Anytime someone new came through the door they greeted each other as if they’ve known each other for years.  Eric and I started doing the same just because it felt so friendly and quaint.  We both started to fall in the love with the environment and the feel of the restaurant and the food was FABULOUS.  Carina invited us to stay at her home for the night, but we were on a mission. 

We wanted to reach Granada by the evening to catch the Three Kings Day Parade and in the meantime had our minds set on seeing the sites of the old Western films.  After traveling another 10 kilometers past the restaurant, we found Fort Brava, a former filming site from the Old Western movies (one of three).  It was pretty much abandoned even though there was still someone at the checkout desk asking for us to pay 19 Euros each for a ticket and a show.  I was thinking, “Who the heck is going to perform?! There is no one else in sight.”  Needless to say, we didn’t’ pay the man the money.  Instead, we started back on our way disappointed that we hadn’t gotten to romp around the old Western film sets.

Then we saw a sign that said “Desert Stars” and pointed towards the direction of a dusty road winding through a trench created by two desert cliffs.  We were curious as to what this could be and began to slither in and out of the winding dusty path without any sight of what could be ahead.  Eventually we saw a trailer.  Then, two dogs started barking violently at our car. 

Despite the protective watch dogs, Eric started up a small dusty hill towards a rundown house sitting at the top.  Already feeling a bit spooked, I started getting jitters in my tummy and immediately told him to turn around.  The combination of the creepy house, barking dogs, secluded location, and those nondescript signs indicating “Desert Stars” along the road, I felt like we were about to drive into the plot of a scary movie. 

And I was having NONE OF THAT. 

So Eric, God bless him, turned that car around on the smallest road imaginable with the back end a mere inches from a drop off, and two dogs circling our car.  The only other option would’ve been to drive all of the way up the hill to the house and then turn around…

And I was having NONE OF THAT. 

Amazingly, Eric turned the car around without driving into any ditches and with both dogs still alive and we “sped” off (As much as you can on a rocky, desert-y road.)

Phew…. I was so relieved to be out of there!

Still a little shaken, and disappointed that we didn’t get to see the Old Western film sets; suddenly I stopped Eric on a dime.  Believe it or not, I saw Western ruins about 100 yards from the side of the road. We stopped on the embankment and could not believe our eyes. They were literally abandoned ruins from an old Western film set!

SAY WHAT?! 

Of course, we got out and carefully dodged cacti as we proceeded towards the strange ruins set along the ridge of a flat mountain.  It was picturesque and eerily quiet as we stepped back in time walking alongside two old houses, a well, and some rotting, vampire-like trees.

This certainly renewed our curiosity for the Old Westerns, and we decided to check out the other two official film sites.  The largest one, Oasis, was closed.  Luckily we found Western Leone which was much cheaper and the price included a drink in the saloon.  

I'm so glad we went!  We basically had it all to ourselves.  We ventured through the saloon, the old school house, stables (where they had real donkeys, fuzzy ponies, and horses).  We then ventured up through the film set depicting a Mexican village where we found the strangest looking truck, almost like it was from Tremors or an old desert trekker from Star Wars.  Then we made our way up to the Native American Tee Pees. 

Now the time had come when I had to pee.  This place was so empty that I didn't even want to go to the bathroom alone.  I was surprised that we didn't see a tumble weed roll through the town.  In fact, there was even a hanging stand.

We eagerly (and eerily) took turns putting our necks through the rope and standing on the "bucket."  This wasn't my favorite part... it's a bit creepy having that rope around your neck... I didn't stay there long but we got some really good pictures of Eric.

Before leaving we wanted to see if they had any sort of interesting and fun things in their gift shop..... Especially since this trip brought to light that Eric is a gift-shop-aholic.  *Ahem… you know it’s true, Eric.

No joke. This was the worst gift shop we'd ever seen.  They had a sparse selection of things to buy and barely any of it was related to the Wild Wild West at all.  In fact some of the ceramics looked like they had come out of an elderly woman’s house.  There were some other trinkets that were either broken, unrelated to Western Leone, or just crap quality.  No kidding.  This place had mostly empty shelves.  We even had to hunt someone down to open the gift shop for us; otherwise they didn't even have it open to the public.  Now I can see why.

Well, we bought a post card (out of sympathy).  Although, I must admit, this old gift shop certainly added to the charm of good ol’ Western Leone.