Extremadura, wedged between the most tourist Castile and Andalusia and missed by many tourists just passing through, is a journey into the heart of the old Spain, with intact medieval cities often included in UNESCO World Heritage. This harsh environment was the cradle of the Conquistadores who opened up a new world for the Spanish empire and it was said that the Extremadura created about twenty nations of the Latin America. Remote before and forgotten since, Extremadura enjoyed a brief golden age when its heroes returned with their gold to live in splendour, but the harshness of life, architecture, food and traditions of Extremadura have left in Latin America traces more lasting and profound than any other European influence. Trujillo, the birthplace of Pizarro the conqueror of Peru, is the most attractive town in Extremadura and can feel truly magical, a classic conquistador stage set of escutcheoned mansions and castle walls virtually untouched since the sixteenth century. The small town of Guadalupe, perched up in the sierra to the west of Trujillo, is dominated by the great Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, which for five centuries has brought fame and pilgrims to the area. The famous sanctuary of the same name in Mexico City owes the same name because many conquistadoes were faithful of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the Southern Extremadura Jerez de los Caballeros, a total white city with the seductive look of an Andalucian town, is related to the knights Templar who here fighted the Muslim. In Jerez de los Caballeros were born Balboa, the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean, and Hernando de Soto, the first European to travel through Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and also the first European to cross the Mississippi River. In the old town of Plasencia was born Inez Suarez, one of the few women leading the conquistadores, who participated in the Conquest of Chile with Pedro de Valdivia.