From the beach to the museum of chocolate across the old town joining a PMR adapted Guided Visit.

Villajoyosa, La Vila , as it's usually called by the locals, has had a determining relationship with the sea throughout its history and culture. One can still enjoy every afternoon the crowded fish auction where the freshest of the daily catch is sold at the port. It's told that sailors from the town who traded in dried tuna and other local products brought chocolate back from one of their trading trips to Cadiz . Chocolate came to Europe from the " Indies ". The Mayan Indians used to refer to cocoa as the "food of the gods", and the Aztecs called "chocolatl" the prized drink they made from cocoa beans and was served in special ceremonies. It was Christopher Columbus who presented cocoa beans to Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1502 but it remained for Hernan Cortes, the Spanish explorer, to create a new version of chocolate flavour by adding sugar cane and vanilla, and to spread among the Spanish aristocracy that drink as the fashionable beverage. Cadiz was at that time the port where ships carrying precious goods arrived from the New World.

This town in Costa Blanca stretches alongside a beautiful, palm-lined sandy beach which culminates in the little port. Don't miss the colourful façades designed that way to ensure that sailors could spot their houses from afar. The old walled village centre is a good place to stop and wander about. The Municipal Service of Guided Cultural Tours was established in 1998 aiming to introduce visitors as well as local people to the cultural heritage of the town and its municipal area. These visits (available in English , too) are carried out by specialised personnel under the responsibility of the Museum. Both the Old Town and the Chocolate Museum Tour are wheelchair accessible : touring the old village can be adapted to wheelchair users and will take you to many interesting places like the Iglesia de la Asunción (fully accessible). The Service carries out these tours for organized groups and for pre-arranged private individuals : the Museum of Villajoyosa should be contacted in advance and meeting point to start the tour is usually set at your convenience. These guided visits take place each morning, Monday to Friday and on the first Sunday of the month: price per person is 3.01 €, and there's a reduced rate of 1.20 € per person (groups of students or pensioners).

Valor's Museum of Chocolate.

Chocolates Valor is a firm that started manufacturing chocolate around 1881. The factory is next to the Chocolate Museum and visitors can first walk through it, where a short audiovisual film is showed to explain the production process. The premises at the factory are wheelchair accessible , but as the museum is housed in a typical 19 th century two storey rural house (the ancient factory), only the ground floor is accessible (main entrance is ramped) . Rooms are filled with utensils, objects and documents relating to the factory's history, and a collection of machinery is displayed in the gardens ( accessible pathways ). Persons with reduced mobility or any other impairments are allowed to park in the factory's car park, just by letting the guardian at the entrance know. Unfortunately the shop is on the second floor and not accessible, therefore you'll be offered chocolate tasting and free samples downstairs.

The longest and most central beach in Villajoyosa is the Playa Centro , a sandy beach bordered with palm trees, also known as Ciudad beach, running parallel to the promenade and wheelchair accessible . Playa Centro is the scene of the famous Moorish landing where, every year towards the end of July, the Berber invasion of the 16 th century is re-enacted. On that night the beach becomes the setting for a great battle between the Moors and the Christians that attracts crowds of visitors.

Accessible areas in beaches along the Valencian Coast are provided with a wide variety of equipments and services in order to allow people with reduced mobility to use and enjoy the beaches: signs, ramps, special walkways to the seashore, floating beach chairs (assisted by Red Cross Staff), rest areas with sunshades and special furnishings, adapted WC and showers have been installed.
www.comunitatvalenciana.com/playas/playas1.htm is the Official Tourist Site of Beaches in the Land of Valencia and provides information about accessible beaches; first select one of the four areas ( Costa Blanca , Benidorm , Valencia or Castellón ) and then the town. You may as well click on "Accessible Beaches" and they will be displayed alphabetically (by name of village).

Municipal Service of Guided Cultural Tours
Museum of Villajoyosa
Tel. - Fax: 34 965 89 01 50
e-mail: museo@villajoyosa.com

Chocolates Valor. Museum and Factory.
Pianista Gonzalo Soriano, 13
Villajoyosa- Alicante
Tel: 34 965 89 09 50 Fax:34 965 89 46 97
e-mail: chovalor@valor.es
www.valor.es

Rebecca Arce

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