Albufera de Valencia, how to visit a traditional hut and go boating

Un trip to Valencia opens up the possibility of visit the Albufera natural park which is located just 10 kilometers south of the city.

This is a natural enclave during which you can relive some of the traditions of this Levantine land.

And the center of this visit is located in the town of El Palmar, a very popular enclave to go to taste a paella in one of the various restaurants there.

Go to the Albufera from Valencia It means completely changing your mindset, because in just a few minutes you can move from the urban environment of a city like Valencia to the natural environment of this place that was declared a World Heritage Site. parque natural in 1986.

This is the Albufera, a natural park in Valencia

The Albufera es the largest lake in Spain, which currently occupies 21.000 hectares, although when it was formed during the Roman era it extended over some 30.000 hectares.

This large lake has a depth of just one meter across its entire surface, and is separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land with dunes and pine forests.

Over the past centuries, land has been reclaimed from the lake, known as marshes, to be covered by rice fields.

At first they were the inhabitants of the then town of Ruzafa, now a neighborhood of Valencia, those who went to the Albufera to fish every day, but it was the king james i the one who in 1250 granted the right to fish to the inhabitants of the Palmar Island, which then began to be populated, and the towns of Silla and Catarroja.

Talk of the Albufera of Valencia is to talk about the Palmar Island.

Nowadays El Palmar It is a small district of the city of Valencia, with a registered population of about 400 inhabitants, but, above all, it is a tourist enclave where visitors go to Get to know the Albufera.

Tours and excursions to visit the Albufera from Valencia

To visit the Albufera you have several options, beyond going on your own on a scheduled bus that takes you to El Palmar.

For example, sign up for this Albufera excursion from Valencia, which you do by bus and then take a boat ride on the lagoon, with a total duration of 4 hours.

If you arrive on your own to El Palmar, here you can book in advance of your visit a Boat trip around La Albufera of 45 minutes duration.

Another more exclusive option is the 4×4 excursion to La Albufera, which also includes a boat ride and lasts 4 hours.

This is what a boat ride through the Albufera is like

In our case, we took the walk along the Albufera aboard a traditional boat with Latin candle , which was traditionally propelled with poles (long sticks used to push from the bottom of the lake) or oars, and now with a motor.

On this pleasant excursion you will sail between the large clumps of reeds, while you can see the birds that live in the Albufera, especially in winter, specifically, the herons.

You will also learn that the lake is primarily used for fishing eels and mullet.

During the summer the most common activity is to take this excursion to to see the sunset.

Where and how to visit a traditional Valencian Barraca

This excursion brought us the surprise of being able visit a traditional Valencian hut.

This type of dwelling It was used in the rural world of the Levantine provinces, but it had its greatest use by the fishermen who lived on the shores of the Albufera.

Currently, there are few barracks left in this area, of which only two are more than 200 years old.

The one you can visit during this excursion dates back about a hundred years.

Almost at the end of the excursion with the barge through the Albufera, she stops to see the barracks.

It is a very curious and instructive visit, since the interior of this Valencian barracks It is perfectly decorated as if the fishermen who lived there still resided there.

Eating a paella in El Palmar, this is the recipe

The best way to complete the day is eat a paella in one of the many restaurants in El Palmar.

You know well that gastronomy of Valencia has a universal value, which is Paella, a dish whose fame transcends the region and has been associated with the external image of Spain for many years.

But in all Valencian Community Not only are there many different dishes based on rice, with a gastronomic richness that, if you like rice, as is my case, allows you to enjoy very tasty preparations, but there are even different ways to prepare the famous Valencian paella, which leads to many debates.

During my visit to La Albufera I had the opportunity to see what is the recipe for Valencian paella, according to him Mateu restaurant from El Palmar, one of the icons of this small district of the capital located in the heart of Albufera.

In this restaurant they organize show cookings for groups, and the preparation of Valencian paella is the main protagonist of them.

This is how a traditional Valencian paella is made

In order not to get into any debate, I am going to detail how to make Valencian paella in the aforementioned Mateu restaurant.

Here it is made according to the traditional recipe starting from the basic paella ingredients: rice, chicken, rabbit, green beans, jugs, paprika, food coloring and saffron, as well as water, oil and salt.

The first key of the preparation of Valencian paella, as he tells us Vincent, is to get a good stir-fry, giving enough time to fry the chicken and, subsequently, the rabbit.

This sofrito is completed with the green beans and finished by adding the paprika.

Once the sofrito is ready, which takes about 15 minutes, add the water from the paella… and add it cold. While it begins to boil, add the jug of water and, finally, it is time for the rice.

For this they use a local variety of rice, JSendra, grown in the Albufera, which is said to have even better properties than the famous Bomba rice, preventing it from spoiling.

The rice is put into the paella in a pile in a row, and with an advisable proportion of one cup of rice for three cups of water, although this can be 1/5 if you have a strong fire, as is the case in the kitchen of Mateu restaurant.

Finally, the latest paella ingredients, the coloring, the saffron and the salt. And from when it starts to boil, the rice is cooked for 15 minutes, lowering the intensity of the heat as the water is consumed.

After these 15 minutes, Vincent He removes the paella from the heat, and after only five minutes of rest, declares it ready to eat.

The result, I attest, is a delicious paella, with the rice loose, slightly and cook until pasta is, and in which the rich are not missing socarrat (rice stuck to the bottom).

Now the next step is to make your own paella following this simple recipe. That's how I will do it too.

Apart from the chicken and rabbit paella, in this restaurant you have other rice dishes, among which there is no lack of seafood paella, or rice dishes abanda and black.

Or if you prefer, you have specialties such as Allipebre (eel stew from the Albufera) or the Llisa with salt.