Ubrique, another pueblo blanco with beautiful buildings and a nice slow pace. The biggest difference with this town and others was the vast amount of people that were there! Perhaps it is just because we are just starting in on the tourist season, but it really felt like we were surrounded by more Spaniards than just tourists. The weather was beautiful too. Ubrique is most known for it's leather works of which there were a plethora of stores all with beautiful goods. Many stores had little wallets and other small pouches that it took us a bit just figure out what they were for. It is from this town where many of the famous designer labels get their leather made, such as Pierre Cardin. While Pierre Cardin gets the royalties for the belt sales, the product itself comes from Ubrique. It actually wasn't until the 19th century that leather works came to the town, brought by emigrants from Southern Italy. Prior to the leather industry, Ubrique was a town inhabited by Arabs, Visigoths, Romans, Christians - all the usual inhabitants of Southern Spain. Another difference with this town from other pueblo blancos is that it sits in a valley instead of up on the mountain cliff. It's geographical position yields it to be surrounded by rather steep mountains and a combination of being slightly isolated and having a good water source guaranteed that the city remained through all the various inhabitants.
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