Otos, the Town of Clocks
Otos was our primary destination on this sunny Thursday afternoon but after our inadvertent mountain climbing escapade we felt we had much less time to explore this tiny town famous for its clocks. How can clocks be a town thing, you ask? Easy! They’re mostly sundial clocks drawn or attached to various buildings, both public and private.
Because we were so strapped for time, we decided to make this a sped up version of a visit: I was the clock spotter and official picture taker of all clocks on the passenger side of the car, and Sagrario was the driver and photo taker of all clocks on her side. We took to our tasks with aplomb, darting this way and that as the clocks presented themselves. Some were quite beautiful, some odd, and some just didn’t make sense, especially the ones where sun did not touch them, at least not at the time of day and season we were looking at them. I guess those were temporarily broken. The other question that kept popping into my head was how did the people tell time in Otos at night, but I just let it go. After the thin air of the mountain I was clearly in no shape to ponder such weighty thoughts.
We did manage to get out of the car for a few minutes and take a few pictures around the main church plaza, but other than that the town is a bit of a blur. Many of the houses here have amazing views of the vineyards in the valley below, the streets are quite steep, and there was even an interesting property for sale. If this town weren’t so damn far from everything, I’d seriously consider it, because I just know the prices in places like this are very reasonable and this house has not only great potential but also fantastic views. It is, however, in the middle of the proverbial “nowhere”, at least as “nowhere” as is possible in Spain where the next town is 5km or 10 minutes away. The problem is, the next big-enough town is a good half hour away (in this case, Gandía), but that isn’t even a truly big town, and, according to Sagrario, who wants to live in a town where nothing ever happens. I know she wouldn’t like to be this isolated; for me, the jury is still out, though I can definitely see her point.
This was definitely the shortest visit to any town so far and yet I feel I’m OK with that. After all, we couldn’t eat anything (restaurants still closed) and there were no people out and about (another siesta time?), and since we got photos of pretty much all the clocks, what else were we to do there? What we did have is more time to visit Carrícola next door so that’s where we headed to next. The gallery shows some of the clocks that were on my side of the car; for some reason I haven’t got Sagrario’s yet but once I do, I shall add them here. For now, enjoy a bit of Otos and its clocks!
