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?Village tourism? in Orehovo

The Middle Rhodope Mountains offer great tourism opportunities.  The various landscape ? high peaks surrounded by picturesque valleys and centuries-old coniferous and deciduous forests, long ridges cut by tourist routes, rivers and streams with water crystal-clean and cold, sky-blue lakes, magnificent rock figure-resembling formations everywhere around that part of Bulgaria. Tourists, visiting the Rhodope Mountains for the very first time, remain astounded and charmed by the lush meadows full of multi-colored flowers, imposing spruce woods studded with wild strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. The Middle Rhodope Mountains reach to the Vucha River to the east, and to the lower course of the Arda River, the biggest one in the Rhodope Mountains. This part of the Rhodope Mountains features the most attractive to the tourist mountain ranges and ridges. The main administrative centre of the region is the town of Smolyan. Therefore, the Middle Rhodope Mountains are very often referred to as the Smolyan Area.

The Rhodope village of Orehovo is situated south 10 km south of the village of Hvoyna, in the river valley of the Oreshitsa River. The village is surrounded by high mountain hills ? the Belo-Cherkovski Hill to the west and the St.Elija and the Bryastovets Hills to the south. Most of the houses in the village are very old and they are arranged amphitheatrically, which makes it truly unique as vision. There are lots of holes and caves in the rocks surrounding the village, the most interesting of which are the caves called Choveshkata Dupka (i.e. The Human Rocky Hole) and  Prilepskata Peshtera (i.e. The Cave of the Bats). In the summer that same village of Orehovo is full of foreigners and one can listen to various languages spoken around ? German, English, Hungarian, and many others? A multi-colored horse cart full of foreign tourists is moving around the village centre.

 A group of fifteen people from the local communion centre called Rodopsko Budeshte (i.e. Rhodope Future) dance Bulgarian folk dances for the foreign audience, dressed in typically Rhodopean folklore outfits. The tourists themselves are active participants in many attractive local household activities, such as milking the cows, making home-made cheese and feta cheese or manual grinding of local herbs and seasonings. And they pay to do that. They are seem to be extremely happy while tasting the famous Rhodopean ?patatnik? (potato cake), or ?tsiganska banitsa? (a warm slice of bread covered with some vegetable oil and sprinkled with sweet red pepper and some other dry seasonings ? it sounds as a ?cholesterol bomb? but, trust me, it?s truly delicious!).  Foreign tourists are not interested in central heating ? they would love to have an old-fashioned coal-burning stove? And they pay for that as well. They are not afraid of walking up and down the typically Revival-period-style steep winding staircases, covering at night with tufted woven bed coverings made goat wool, or walking on hand-woven woolen floor-covering. And they willingly pay to have that entire authentic atmosphere and to get in touch with a truly preserved place of our history?

There is a tourist information centre in the centre of the village (you will not miss it ? there are numerous indicative signs). A regular position for a ?village tourism coordinator? was opened at the local mayor?s office. Nine houses were officially defined as having a private-lodging one star category. Which means the village offers a 50-bed capacity, and that turns ?village tourism? into a regular occupation and a way of living for the local people. On the one hand, they would not have too many alternatives, but it is definitely worth it due to the wonderful nature of the Rhodope Mountains?

(based on an article in the Maritsa newspaper)