Pitufo Town

*In keeping with our New Year's resolutions (we went to the gym 3 days in a row!), we are trying to blog more often.  We left a lot of 2011 out, and want to catch up before moving on with the nuevo year.

Do you remember our roadtrip to Ronda?  Well, after we left Ronda, we drove a little farther to Juzcar, normally a traditional pueblo blanco.  But this summer it was painted blue.  Why blue?  Sony paid to have the town painted with over 1000 gallons of blue paint for the movie premiere of "Los Pitufos".  Who are the Pitufos?  They're these guys:

Our route from Puerto to Ronda to Juzcar.

In between Ronda and Juzcar we passed several typical (non-blue) pueblo blancos.

We got the feeling that Juzcar doesn't normally get much traffic, judging from the narrow road that was full of blind turns, pedestrians, and other cars.  Despite all of that, Graham still enjoyed the drive.

Our first glimpse of Smurf Town!

Not a single building in the town was left blanco.

Even the pueblo's oldest buildings were painted.

One of the residents touching up the paint.

Some people went the extra mile kilometer and painted characters on their casas.

Smurf Hotel!

Those little guys were everywhere - even the bar!

Fun fact:  When she was dos, Meghann demanded to be called "Papa Smurf".  Why Papa Smurf and not Smurfette?  Because he was in charge, of course!  Child of the 80s.

Although this was supposed to be a temporary publicity stunt, in December the majority of the town's 221 residents voted to keep their town blue.  The new hue has increased their annual tourist visits from 300 to over 80,000.