Atajate
Written by Geoff Forster
Atajate: This is the smallest pueblo in the area to have its own Town Hall and council. It is also a little unusual that the pueblo is built on both sides of the A369 road*. Most pueblos are built to the lower side of the road. (* June 2005 Atajate bypass opened)
We stopped in Atajate on the way back from a trip to Ronda it was early July and it had been close to 100F/38C in the shade. We walked around Atajate at around 6PM it was still very very hot. 
We parked the car in the car park at the entrance to the pueblo. The picture below is of Jane showing off her new hat. (Atajate is pronounced 'At a hat eh .....') There are pretty railings around the parking area and a great views across the Genal Valley to Farajan and Alpandeire. 
This is the A369 road through the middle of Atajate. Even a tiny pueblo like Atajate has a medical centre, pharmacy, bank, shop, restaurant, venta and a bar. 
It also has a large church and a pleasant little plaza. 
The town is built along the main road but there are a few side streets.
There is a by-pass being built around Atajate, it is a tight squeeze getting through Atajate at times, how the bypass will affect the prosperity of the pueblo remains to be seen. 
There were a few lovely tile plaques on the walls as we walked around the pueblo. here are a couple. 
We walked to the edge of the village up a quite steep little street. The people we met all said 'hola'. The view back across the village was worth the walk. 
We knew Atajate was small, It took around 30 minutes to walk around most of the side streets. It isn't the prettiest pueblo we've visited but it does have some redeeming features. The church is lovely with a large palm tree on either side of the steps. The plaza has a stone cross in the centre, not the grandest but it proves shade and seats for the villagers. Most of the houses are small basic village houses. There were some renovations happening as there is all over Andalucía.
We called in the village shop just before leaving. The old lady charged us 45 cents for a small unpriced bottle of water. We had paid 30 cents for one four times bigger in Benarrabá the day before.
She probably added 25 cents, but I'll never shop there again.
Other people have since commented to us about this shop, hopefully the bypass will mean less tourists get ripped off. We headed back to Benarrabá, about a twenty minutes drive.