CÓMPETA AND SURROUNDINGS

Cómpeta is situated in the region of the “Axarquia” in the province of Malaga; at a distance of little more than 50 kilometers away from Malaga city. Separated from the province of Granada by the mountain range that rises from Nerja; beginning at the northeastern border of the Axarquia, Cómpeta extends down in the direction of the coast and the mountains of Torrox or opens up on the Mudejar Route departing from Algarrobo and passing through Sayalonga village and then leading a short way through the countryside of Árchez before entering the municipality of Cómpeta.

The centre of Cómpeta is charming and attractive and visitors will fall in love with it in almost every street. It is almost obligatory to explore the town on foot, due to the distribution of its urban core, with winding steep and narrow streets, partially with stairs….

The most important street is San Antonio, starting from the central square, which divides the urban core into two boroughs: “El Barrio” (The Quarter or Borough) and “El Monte” (The Mountain). Eventually you reach the hermitage of San Antón and a spectacular natural viewpoint from which we can understand the name of Competa as the Cornice of the Mediterranean and the Axarquía.

BEACH
Very near to Competa, at a distance of some 15 km we find Torre del Mar, a former fishing village which in the 60s began to experience a substantial development of tourism influenced by the situation of the Costa del Sol. Torre del Mar has one of the most extensive beach promenades in the Mediterraean aerea, with a leisure aerea, snack bars and stalls. It also has an aquatic park and in Caleta de Velez you can find a sports port and marina.

On this same coast, some 25 km away from Cómpeta, you will find the town of Nerja. with fabulous beaches, or small towns like Maro, with several precious and intimate little coves.

NATURAL PARK
The Sierra offers a very varied flora among which we can find: Mediterranean pines (Pinus pinaster) and Pinus nigra; Mediterranean scrub junipers; forests of oaks, gall oaks and black oaks; thorny camephytes scrub, mountain broom mountain, rowan, Scots pine and yew, barberry, honeysuckle and pinkish mountain tree; cambronales, sub-desert and sea cliff vegetation; screes and dolomitic sands and mountain rupicola. Among its natural treasures, almost everything is remarkable. If we look at the “hardware”, that is the rocks, it consists of very different materials. There are some enclaves of quartzites, schists and gneiss from primeval times (over 500 million years ago).

The best known animals in these mountain ranges are mountain goats, ibx. Noteworthy is also the birdlife, represented by golden eagles, Bonelli, peregrine falcon and hawk, nightjar, black wheatears, gray and blond, red rocker, lonely and alpine alcentor. Has recently been the colonization of the red squirrel.

Due to the Natural richness of Sierra, many activities can be done outdoors such as hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, quad biking, off-road routes and many other activities.