The work that I present covers part of the Natural Gorge of Los Gaitanes, I have also included part of Sierra Llana and Sierra del Valle de Abdalajís that in my view should be included under this protection figure independently or next to the Gorge. I understand that for geographical reasons - landscape -, geomorphological, geological and even historical, this should be the case.
This book I have made as if it were for me, that is, not only pretending a later publication, that is why it is written as if I had been thinking aloud and somehow it will be reflected in this text. So, more than a technical description of the route, it is more a reflection on what I see and perceive, if I could express with words what I perceive in the mountain, it would not be necessary to carry the photographic equipment. Although sometimes I need to write down something that I feel and that I'm not sure I can show it with my photographs.
A significant challenge that I propose with this book is the one that involves confronting the text with the images, of all it is known that a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case it suits me to try to transmit more with photography than with my poor literary prose. So I hope to compensate with the images the details of the text so that as a whole you can interpret and understand the exposed.
I have always tried to give an interpretation of the landscape, which is what really attracts me, above all, taking into account the definition of the European Landscape Convention of October 2000 celebrated in Florence, where it is stated that: "landscape is any part of the territory as it is perceived by the populations, whose character results from the action of natural and / or human factors and their interrelations ".
This work is not about a book with the descriptions of the "routes" proposed as a guide, indicating where you have to go from milestone to milestone or making technical sheets. Rather, it is about doing something different, a book that proposes a series of itineraries that enrich the vision and knowledge of the environment that is being traveled. Today there is so much information and technological means to make a trip that almost forget that the important thing is to soak up the mountain and nature, rather than schedules, tracks, waypoints, and if Fulano made it in such a "bulla" and running or Zutano cut the space "pulling" cross country and save the zigzag of such hillside, I understand this as crossing a territory looking but not seeing. I think that this is also due to the amount of writings and photographs that exist in an area, and the ease of access to the remotest places with little effort for the existence of lanes.
With all this, we can think, or allow myself the license to think, that there are no longer only mountaineers in the mountains who then relate their experiences, but "hikers as tourists in nature" that make books or tickets in their corresponding blogs or pages on social networks. What can lead to a massive use of these spaces causing in some cases the deterioration of the environment, so I do not make detailed descriptions of the itineraries, I prefer who wants to visit this area, have a map and imagination and travel these formidable mountains that deserve all the possible effort for its imminent conservation.
I try to transmit the landscape looking for new points of view of the same territory seen by others, that is, the same panorama from another angle of vision produces the discovery of a new landscape, which is why it is necessary to travel this space through different routes and lean out every corner. The landscape can be seen with different eyes, mine, try to channel and accommodate landscapes in history and in the past, and others see the scenarios for scientific, artistic, geographical or purely commercial purposes as in some natural environments that should be pay to see. My desire with the support of photography, is to leave testimony of a state of the landscape to have them reference in times to come and see how their evolution has been.
I take this opportunity to thank Eduardo Martínez de Pisón, Emeritus Professor of Geography at the UAM, for having the kindness and courtesy of writing the prologue. To Francisco Mingorance, Nature Photographer, for writing the preliminary. To Francisco Gutiérrez, Javier Alonso Torre and Raúl Saez, Nature Photographers, for making a first reading of the book and offering me their advice and comments. And of course: also my family, friends, farmers, shepherds, countrymen, ... all of them also reflected in the chapter of acknowledgments of the book. In short to all those people who have somehow been close during the development of this project and who have helped me.
¡¡ea!! Well here I present it to you and if you want to enjoy it.
TITLE: Hikes around and throud of landscapes of Sierras de Huma, Abdalajís and Llana.
AUTHOR: Sebastián González Suárez.
EDITORIAL: EDICIONES DEL GENAL.
ISBN: 978-84-16021-77-2
DEP. LEGAL: MA 1254-2015
PLACE OF EDITION: Málaga.
Nº PAGES: 160
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