Cañada del Hoyo: Seven Lagoons, Seven Colours

The lagoons of Cañada del Hoyo are seven karst lakes — five lagoons and two smaller lagunillos — in the Palancares hills 40 kilometres from Cuenca, fed from underground and by rain, and a Natural Monument since 2007. Each looks a different colour because of microorganisms, submerged plants, the light and the season, though a glass of water from any of them is clear: the Tejo is dark blue, the little Tejo black, Cardenillas sky blue, the Parra blue. The Gitana was blue too, and has been green since the 1980s from the number of people bathing in it. Their levels drop a little every year as the aquifer is pumped. Eight kilometres away the Torcas de los Palancares are the same sinkholes without the water.