Prickly Pears and Mexican Airs
Two weeks ago Mrs.Sanchez shoulder charged a parked car and broke her collar bone. The car was undamaged but Mrs.S. suffered 'life changing injuries' With her left arm in a sling my life has changed considerably. I never knew how much crockery we had.
For this reason and the beautifully warm and sunny weather, the Man in Alora blog has failed to appear for a couple of weeks. Sorry.
Last Sunday the 20th. annual Festival of Verdiales took place high above Álora at La Ermita de las Tres Cruces (the Hermitage of the Three Crosses). The festival dates back to 1722. We drove up the tortuous and vertiginous (I've looked it up, Paddy) track from the Antequera road to the hermitage and joined the fun.
Verdiales is a form of music and dance which is said to predate flamenco.(1722 definitely predates flamenco). Wikipedia reckons it was invented in Almogía, just over the hill from here, but I suspect the entry was written by an Almogían; with help.
The instruments used are usually two or three guitars, a violin, a big tambourine, castanets and small cymbals. Someone sings, someone does some elaborate flag waving and the capitán (leader) waves a colourful bendy stick with streamers to tell the panda (group) when to play, sing and stop. The stop command is needed because none of the tunes appears to have an ending. You can get a flavour from this link.
It does go on a bit, though and I recommend starting about 23 minutes in when you will see the chap pictured below. I do not know how to get rid of the annoying
little fellow in the bottom right hand corner though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wAVk0Gg_I8
Alonzo 'El Chumbo'
Alonzo (El Chumbo) plays guitar and sings in one of Álora's champion Verdiales pandas, 'Raices de Álora' (Roots of Álora).
He also has a small band which performs folksy music around Andalucía. He is very popular and he talks to me because I am a fan. On Sunday he met me with a 3 litre container of sweet wine and I was obliged to have a swig. It was quite good so I was obliged to have another. The bottle was empty before Raices de Álora were called to march up to the performance marquee.
El Chumbo and the panda
When he is not performing, Alonzo is painting walls white and I have seen him sweeping roads too. He is supposed to be painting the walls of J and S who are friends of ours but work has been interrupted by a colony of aggressive bees which live 10 metres up inside the wall of their patio. Alonzo objects to being repeatedly stung as he paints. Nobody has been able to do anything about the bees for several years as they are protected in Spain and the Guardia Civil are likely to lock anyone up who meddles with them. J and S and their dogs get stung if they open their back door or sit on their terrace two floors up. The Ayuntamiento (town council) will do nothing and the wall stays unpainted.
Speaking of walls, regular readers of Man in Alora will remember the story of the disappearing balcony. (4/4/2013). I am happy to announce that work has now been completed.
Before the collapse
After
Now!
Believe me this has caused quite a stir. Antonio is very proud of his new balconies which as you can see are a bit thicker. There are doubts about the colour.
Last night we went to 'Sabor a Mexico' (A Taste of Mexico) at Álora's principal theatre, El Teatro Cervantes. All theatres in Spain are called El Teatro Cervantes, but we have a special claim to the title because Mr.Cervantes actually lived here, just a few houses down from us.
Why do people applaud all the way through a song? Why don't they wait till the end so we can hear it. Can I blame 'Operación Triunfo' for this? And do we all have to stand up at the end to applaud? It wasn't THAT good.
Ay ay ay ay
Canta no llores.
Cop an earful of this Mexican magic
Today's tip for tourists.
Be careful if you order 'tea with milk'
Off to Mallorca on Wednesday. ¡Hasta luego!
April 11th. 2013
