Title: 
In And Around The Alicante Region

Word Count:
472

Summary:
Everyone who has traveled to Spain equates Spain's Costa Blanca with fun in the sun.  This beautiful stretch of sandy white beaches on the Mediterranean is situated in the Alicante province. Costa Blanca stretches form Denia to Pilar de la Horadada and Torrevieja. All of the towns in between are considered to be in the Community of Valencia.  It is easy to understand why this area is called Costa Blanca, which means "white coast" in English.  These beautiful and popular white...


Keywords:
Costa Blanca, Spain, Alicante


Article Body:
Everyone who has traveled to Spain equates Spain's Costa Blanca with fun in the sun.  This beautiful stretch of sandy white beaches on the Mediterranean is situated in the Alicante province. Costa Blanca stretches form Denia to Pilar de la Horadada and Torrevieja. All of the towns in between are considered to be in the Community of Valencia.  It is easy to understand why this area is called Costa Blanca, which means "white coast" in English.  These beautiful and popular white sand beaches are the specialty of the coastal towns in the area such as Javea, Moraira, Altea, Benidorm, Guardamar and Torrevieja.  They are all wonderful spots for a holiday, so let's look more closely at one of them.

Javea is 90 kilometers from Allicante and about 100 kilometers from Valencia.  Since both of these towns have large, international airports, travel to and from Javea is easy. Just take the A-7 highway, a popular and quick thoroughfare.  In fact, the A-7 connects Javea with just about the rest of Europe!  To visit Javea, just exit the highway at Ondara, exit 62 or Benissa, exit 63.  Javea is a wonderful town with something to offer everyone: beautiful natural landscapes for the naturalist, excellent beaches with its famous soft white sand for the worshiper, and a wonderful history and culture for the historian and sightseer.  And, if you want to see a bullfight, you don't even have to go to a bullfight arena. They hold the bullfights right in the street! Young, aspiring bullfighters stage an unbelievable show in the local streets of Javea. They close off the streets and set up a corral, and then taunt the bulls to show the bravery they will eventually exhibit in the real bullring when they become men.  For a further spectacle, these young, brave lads will put petrol soaked rags on the bulls horns and light them at night, all the while trying to dodge the angry bull. It is quite a sight to see, and not to be missed.

Besides tourism, there is another important feature of Javea. The raisin industry market is central to the town, to its history and to its economy.  Each summer, almost all of the locals head to the villas near town and harvest the grapes grown by the owners of these villas.  This is a long and difficult task, but the townspeople are certainly up to it.  The process encompasses the harvesting of the grapes, and once they are harvested, taking them to scalding bins where they are boiled and cracked, so that they will dry out and become raisins faster. The local muscatel grape is ideal for making raisins, and so the exportation of this product has made Javea renowned for its raisins.  Since there are so many products that use raisins, this has been a great boon to the local economy.