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Chestnut forests surround the white village of Cartajima
By Chris Wawn & John Gill
Equidistant between the Ronda-San Pedro road and village of Juzcar, Cartajima is struggling to survive. The population has now dropped to below 250. Like many of the other inland villages, the pull of the coast down the San Pedro road is too much, especially with the boom in construction and tourism. To reach the village itself, a small narrow lane leads off from the Juzcar road by the cemetery, up to the pueblo, which is 845m above sea level. The alternative route is from the main San Pedro to Ronda highway, with the turnoff marked by the petrol station and a large restaurant.
 How anyone still makes a living is a mystery in this group of villages and is more so in Cartajima, which is one of the highest communities in the province of Malaga. A backdrop of mountainous limestone dominates the village from behind. Near by, the wind and rain have carved the rock into haunting wilderness sculptures. The contrast between the white limestone massif and the low-lying cork oak woodland is a sudden one, with an interphase of no more than a few metres.
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