Friday, 17 November 2023

Let's go round Álora again. Maybe we'll turn back the Hands of Time. Whatever happened to the tapa?

 

 Let's go round again. Maybe we'll turn back the hands of time. Whose round is it?

 


                   Calle Benito Suarez November 9th. 2023.

Here's a picture of our street. It doesn't usually look like this. There is not a single car parked there. This marks the start of another of  Álora's favourite sponsored pastimes.... the 'Concurso Enigmático de la Circulación' (Magical Mystery Tour Game). It's one of the many events whch the Ayuntamiento puts on for visitors. Even local residents can join in and have fun too!

In my copy of 'The Rough Guide to Andalucia',  published in 2006, Álora is described as 'A rather sleepy market town with a severe traffic problem and many narrow streets that are tricky to negotiate' That was written before we had the creative and much-loved 'internal circulatory system' which takes motorists on a picturesque tour of some of those attractive, and difficult to negotiate, narrow streets. 

Our Calle Benito Suarez is a popular stretch of it. These days we have a lot more visitors to the town because of the Caminito del Rey just 24km.(13 miles) up the road, so that means more people to enjoy playing the game. Many 'visitors' are to be seen going round and round La Plaza Baja,in the 'historical center' hoping to stumble on a way out of the town. It's a waste of time asking for directions because even well-meaning residents have no idea. It's all 'trial and error, I´m afraid.

Our deserted street is a new addition to the game.. It's only deserted at night and between 2pm. and 5pm. when most people are at home eating and snoozing.

There is only one set of traffic lights in the whole of Álora, and it's been included in the traffic circulatory system so that pedestrians can participate in the game, too. It gives them the opportunity to try and guess the direction the traffic might be coming from when the lights change. It's only a choice of three, but there's lots of scope for blind speculation and reckless dashes which raise the blood pressure levels of drivers, pedestrians and on-lookers no end. 

The best day to watch the fun is on Monday, which is 'market day' and brings a lot more 'variables' into play. Not many strangers to Álora realise that it's perfectly legal to park anywhere you like, as long as you put your hazards on. This includes at and between traffic lights. It's also worth knowing, in case you find youself accidentally taking part, that people over the age of 55 are allowed to walk slowly and unpredictably up the middle of the road, stopping to chat or admire a baby. 

Get there  between 11.00am. and 12.00pm. when everybody is rushing aimlessly about and there is the possibility of an ambulance within 40 km. (24 miles) if needed.

The Consurso this year has been given a twist. When these tasteful parking signs appeared on our street a week ago, the vecinos (locals) knew immediately that there was trouble ahead.

 

 


No parking on Calle Benito Suárez for the forseeable future because they will be shutting Calle Atrás for at least four and a half months to make it look more beautiful. (It's looking better already).

                                         Calle Atrás

 
and, to add insult to injury, two-way traffic on Benito Suárez!

Calle Atrás is closed and our street has become a battlefield. This sat-nav defying move has confounded everyone and caused no end of noisy horn-blasting which is very upsetting for the local community of stray cats and dogs that are used to a predictable one-way system and parked cars to defecate between at their leisure.

 

  'Please don't let your dog poo in my doorway.'

But the 'game' continues. It is now almost impossible to navigate our 'sleepy' streets. It's not so bad having to park in a different place every night, but trying to remember where I've left the car is becoming a problem.

Mrs. Sánchez and I returned to Álora  in September after a 4 month 'Brexit exile' in Birmingham. Summer temperatures in Spain had been extremely high from June and it was still scorching here in September. On one day Álora was the hottest town in Spain.

Heatwave hits province hard as Álora and MÁlaga record highest temperature in Spain

It also left an all-time record for the highest minimum night temperature, which at 7am this Thursday morning still stood at 34.1C at the airport, something not seen since records began in 1942

SUR

Malaga

Thursday, 20 July 2023, 16:14

The town of Álora in the Guadalhorce valley and Malaga Airport recorded the highest maximum temperature in Spain this Wednesday during the latest extreme heatwave to hit the region and much of the rest of the country.

People across the area, if they dared to go outside, felt the full force of the hot ‘terral’ wind, which blows from inland on some days at this time of year, adding several degrees to normal temperatures. 

 The hot 'Terrál' wind was blowing during April, too, Our olive trees were in full blossom and we were hoping for a good crop of olives this year. The hot wind dried out the blossom and no pollination took place, so no olives for us this year and no olive oil. Most of the growers round here have had the same problem. 

Prices for olive oil have shot up. Here, a 5 litre bottle of good olive oil is about 48 euros. It's only £8 a litre in Waitrose - that's cheaper than here, direct from the producer. Expect a big price rise in the UK when this year's oil hits the shops!

Our olive grove, near Casarabonela, can look after itself in extreme temperatures. The trees are able to cope with drought but they could do with a few weeks of rain at the moment

Our garden, in Álora, though, dries out very quickly in the summer and  many of our plants are in macetas (pots). Without water, the garden would dry up in no time, leaving only a few deep-rooted trees and shrubs.

Thanks entirely to our friends, Celia and Stewart, our garden was still here when we got back. we can't thank them enough.



                    Thanks, so much, Celia and Stewart.

 


This is what Álora looked like this morning when I took Monty for his morning walk. It's a beautiful place. The castle up on the left is one of the best in Andalucía. Virtually in the dead centre of this picture is our back wall which looks out to the Monte Hacho range. On the left stands Monte (pronounced 'monty') Hacho, where we took Monty for a walk yesterday.  He's very pround to have a big hill named after him.

                           El Hacho overlooking Álora
 

 We can see 'El Hacho' from our garden but we have only just started taking Monty there for a run. It's ideal. He can run free and it's good exercise for Mrs, Sanchez and me. The views from up there are breathtaking. We don't walk all the way up, obviously, but we can drive half-way up, and there's a good 5,000 steps-worth of sendero (track).







 
































At 7.17 am. on the 9th. of October 1680 the was a massive terremoto (earthquake) with its epicentre between Álora and Carratraca. There was no Richter Scale in those days so no-one knows how bad it was. I must have been  between really bad and really, really bad or even worse.
In Málaga only the Cathedral was left standing. 
Damage was caused in Sevilla, Córdoba and Madrid. 70 people were killed in Málaga, Álora had a population of about 650 at the time There are no official reports of deaths here, but there must have been extensive damage, The convent on the Ardales road was destroyed and the Parish Church up in the castle collapsed four years later. The little chapel, on the right as you go in, is all that's left of it. It's now used to store 'thrones'. (which people living in grass houses should never do). I suppose there were very few tall buildings in those days to fall on top of people, no gas pipes to explode and no drinking water to be cut off - no emergency services either.
 

          What remains of Álora´s first Parish Church

The earthquake followed one of the biggest droughts in living memory. Our house insurance doesn't cover 'earthquake damage.' It's built on the edge of the 'tajo' (cliff), so if Álora gets the shakes, we'll end up down in Arroyo Hondo along with all our 'aguas residuales'. Hey Ho.

On a lighter note...

It's good to see that the Los Caballitos, formerly Los Caballos Dos has opened as a proper bar. I hope it does well. I think they do traditional tapas and open more than two days a week.
They've got 'Callos' on the chalkboard, so that's a good sign.
Carillada would be nice, too!
 
 
El Rinconcillo
It's good to see a bar offering a 'Menu del Día'. They seem to have died out in Álora town.They also do tapas, rather than 'media media raciones' - (English 'tapas' bar style). El Rinconcillo currently holds the record for the bar  having the most changes of name in Álora.
Man in Álora Inc. is offering a prize for naming more than six previous monikers. Answers on a postcard as usual.
 ´

Tapeando' was a popular pastime, not so long ago, in Álora. You could go from bar to bar of an afternoon, sampling a tapa with a caña, perhaps two, in each, as you made your way up through the town. We called it 'La Vuelta' (Going round). Wednesday was the day we used to do it, led by Antonio Martos who used to run La Taberna de Antonio, with Ana. Wednesday was his day off and he was generous enough to spend part of it showing us the ropes of tapeando round Álora...although he rarely ventured further than Vera Cruz church.
 We usually took in seven or eight bars. What a great way to sample the local tapas and practise our Spanish too!
We had another go at it a couple of weeks ago, but it was slow going with our female companions, who didn't get into the spirit of it - talking instead of drinking, sitting down - that sort of thing. Most of the bars in town did tapas - a couple of prawns, one concha fina, a saucer of calamares -no menus, no lists of tapas; often no obvious signs that food was available. You just asked, 'Qué tapas tienes?' and picked out one dish that you recognised from the list of about ten tapas recited at twenty words per second.
Before you were halfway through your caña, Antonio would have paid by some secret sign, left half his drink on the bar and be pacing out towards the door, on the way to Bar Chismo, Bar Alegría, Café Central, Madrugón, Bar Azahar, Lo D' Antonio, Los Caballos Dos or ....
 

                                Antonio Martos

Álora revives the tapeando tradition with its annual Ruta de laTapa.

No te lo pierdas! (Don't miss it!).
 
If you're reading this in Spain, enjoy the rest of this Verano de mebrillo (Indian summer)
 
Juanito Sánchez 
November 17th. 2023
 
 
 
 
 



Saturday, 26 November 2022

November 11th...A Day to remember...unless you´re a pig. Season of Mists, Mellow Fruitfulness and Murder.

It's November again in Álora and that means the mandarinas are ripe, the oranges are nearly ripe and the olives are ready to pick for olive oil.

 

Mmmmm. It's beginning to smell a bit like Christmas.

 

Mrs. Sánchez and I took Monty for a walk on the Canca yesterday morning and came across a couple of muchachos hard  at it with nets, branch shaking machine and vara (a long stick for bashing olive branches).


 

"Qué tal la cosecha?" (How's the harvest going?)

"Regular"  (Not very well)

 

And that's how it is all over Andalucía. A very poor harvest everywhere after two dry winters. Jaén, in the north of Andalucía is the biggest olive oil producing area in the world - it's the biggest 'man-made forest' in Europe! Production there will be down by 50% this year -so expect olive oil prices to soar.



   Olivars in Jaén Province

 

There was hardly any blossom on our trees this Spring, so we knew we wouldn't have many olives to pick´, and certainly not enough to meet the 600Kg. minimum for the olive mill to tool up for a 'private pressing'. We had decided to call it off this year, even though our regular volunteer picker and olive grove  gauleiter, Colin, was raring to go...'I'm like a  coiled spring' he quipped, whilst waiting at John Lennon Airport for his first flight to Málaga for two years.



                                           Colin

 

Thanks to a good friend, Mike, and his little huerta (orchard) in Bermejo, a barriada of Álora, we were able to add to our meagre harvest by about 550 Kg. and we've now got a very respectable 100 litres of delicious olive oil... 

 


                                    160Kg. of olives

....although Mike warned us, before we started picking, that some branches were very high up, and to be careful not to disturb the cages of his lad's fighting cockerels, which he breeds and trains there. They could 'do us a bit of damage ' if they got out. We pick all our olives by hand or with a small plastic rake. All that bashing with sticks looks a bit agressive to me and it can't do the trees any good. The belligerent birds didn't take kindly to branches laden with jucy olives rattling on their tin roofs.



Two of the 'grumpy' fighting cocks.

 

Cockfighting, as you might expect, is illegal in Spain, ...apart from in Andalucia and The Canary Islands, that is. Who'd have thought?




Come and have a go, if you think you're hard enough!

 So if you fancy a bet on a bird battle... nip down to Álora before this charming traditional practice is banned.


November 11th. is an important date in the Sánchez calendar because it's Mrs. Sanchez's birthday. We usually have a day off from olive picking and head off to Málaga for a 'slap up meal' as people used to say. This year it coincided with a national rail strike, so we didn't go. Instead I marked the day by driving our car into a (dangerously sited) builder's skip on Calle Algorrobo.

Ouch! (police photgraphs).

 

Just my bad luck that two bright sparks had put an immovable object in the narrow street, which also happens to be a key section of Álora's creative circulatory road system. The local Policía took a dim view of my decommissioning of Calle Algarrobo for two hours and took lots of photos to show to their mates back in the comisaría.

 


"Some shortsighted guiri just hit that skip on Algarrobo"

"Can we fine him? Ja ja ja ja!"

 

That little bump cost me 1,465 euros (£1,274) to fix.

I put the whole incident down to a stroke of bad luck. We've had to postpone our plans for returning to Blighty by over a week, lost the only pet-friendly cabin left this year on Brittany Ferries' 'MV Galicia,' and now have to drive up through France. Pretty annoying.

 

Álora's leading mystic and numerologist , Liz, just happens to be our neighbour and, for no charge at all, pointed out that November 11th is St. Martin's Day and if think I was unlucky it's the day that pigs are traditionally slaughtered all over Spain.

         St. Martin of Tours giving half his cloak to a beggar
 (El Greco)


A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín 

(Every pig gets his San Martín) 

This means that everyone will get their 'come-uppance' one day. I hope that's my San Martin´s Day over and done with.

 

Warning! The following section may upset anyone eating a bacon sarnie.

 

The San Martín saying dates back to the days when pigs were kept by most village families and slaughtered at home in the  annual 'matanza' - a fun day for the family, where the unfortunate porker has its throat cut and bleeds to death. The blood is collected to make morcilla (black pudding, mmmmm.), and the carcass is cut up to make jamon, embutidos, solomillo, manitas, carillada and callos, to name but a few porky products.



 

The geography of a pig.

They say that the only part of the pig not used is the squeal - a familiar rural sound even today on November 11th in rural Spain, including Álora

                washing the entrails cerca 1994, Ardales

 

The vast majority of the 32 million pigs slaughtered in Spain every year meet their end in official mataderos. (Spain has the biggest pig population in Europe ...until after November 11th. that is.)

 

The number of pigs killed annually in Spain often exceeds the total population of Spain, currently at 47 million.

Private slaughtering was banned in 1995, but a 'special EU edict' give the backyard matanzas the green light providing that nobody complained about the noise, and the pig was knocked out first. Nobody has officially complained so far, and there were no takers for the stun-guns given out free of charge by the Junta de Andalucía.

Vegetarianism and veganism are on the increase in Spain.

In Andaluca, ham is does not count as meat ,(and tinned tuna is not really fish.)


Ardales, a village just up the road from here has an annual Fiesta de la Matanza every March, where they give away hundreds of kilos of pork products. They don´t actually kill any pigs, as far as I know. I've never been to the Ardales pork day.


I haven't noticed any 'vegetarian butchers' around here.

I can only say 'Sorry' to anyone who has been offended by any or all of the above - and for anything that follows.


I was surprised to find out that St. Martin (of Tours) is not the patron saint of pigs, but of 'recovering alcoholics' and 

'geese'  - which have a particularly bad time of it in France.

                      St. Anthony, writing a pork recipe. 

 

The patron saint of pigs, swineherds and bacon is St. Anthony the Abbot. His special day is January 17th. and is marked in Spain by the consumption of lots of chacina (pork products).


 

The other night, Mrs. Sánchez fell asleep reading and when she woke up she had completely squashed her glasses - an expensive pair, and she has no spare pair here in Spain. This disaster also took place the night of November 11th.!!! -the eve of our birthday trip to Málaga

 

Being a Saturday, Álora Optica was shut, so off we scampered to General Optica in Málaga, where a super-hero in a blue suit cobbled together a new pair from the twisted wreckage  and an old pair of mine. Good as new. No charge! A perfect birthday present for Mrs. Sánchez, who was hoping for a new handbag.

 

Bar News

                                         El Taller

Bad news! El Taller, our latest favourite bar/restaurant is going to close!!! and Paco was doing so well, too.


                                    Antonio Gil

Also, it looks as though Antonio Gil has retired from the hospitality business -  he of the Jamonería in the 'callejon' and before that the the Bar Lo D'Antonio on La Rampa opposite the Teatro Cervantes (which became El Taller).

 

                                       Changuay 

The only good bar news is that the bar two doors up from El Taller which was La Taberna de Antonio, and later Lobo Lopez has re-opened as Changuay......every cloud....

 

Juanito Sánchez November 26th. 2022





 

 

 



 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 



 

 

 


 

Monday, 24 October 2022

Never mind the Casbah! - Rock the Alhambra! Man in Álora is back.


  

They think it's all over....


                              The NHS Covid 'passport'

From October 21st. Spain is removing all Covid- related entry requirements. Good news indeed, especially if you've not been vaccinated. If anyone wants to check if it's true, we shall be picking our olives next week and we could do with a few volunteers. Free board and lodging and all the olives you can eat.

Be careful, though, if you arrive in Spain and want to get to your accommodation by public transport, as mascarillas (masks) are still compulsory in trains, buses and taxis. The guard was going to throw Mrs.S. off the Metro a few weeks ago for not having a mask on. As luck would have it, a kind student gave her a spare one. Good job too! I would have been sad to lose her.

I expect that many of the faithful and cultured people who regularly read this venereal organ I call 'Man in Álora' have been wondering what has happened to Mrs. Sánchez and me. 

¡Mucho tiempo sin verte! (Long time no see!).

Well, we've survived the pandemic, and so far we've not had the dreaded Covid; but with all the shenanigans in Ukraine, nuclear threats by Russia, raging inflation and economic chaos in Britain and with half-wits like Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Truss, Kwarteng and the possibility of Johnson redux, in charge of the shop, and with one thing and another, life has barely been worth living - and it's all been happening so fast, too.

'It's only being so cheerful that has kept me going'. (Mona Lott, ITMA, 1947).

Mrs. S. is not up for a suicide pact just now, so we packed up our troubles, and the dog, and headed for España.

My last post was in April when Andalucía was being brutally battered by the brown rain. 

 

Most of the walls of Álora have been painted white again and there hasn't been a drop of water since then, to speak of. The reservoirs up in El Chorro/Ardales are very low again and there are severe water restrictions around Vélez -Málaga.

21 ex-pats have been fined over 300 euros each for using too much water.

Lake Viñuela, which supplies Vélez-Málaga and much of the Axarquía region (pronounced 'Asharkeea' region) has virtually dried up and there's no rain forecast. 

We've had over a week of hot, dry weather with  weak sunlight ( they call it 'resol') because the sky is still full of 'calima' (the Saharan dust clouds that gave us the brown rain)

                                       'ex-Lake' Viñuela

Our olives are a bit shrivelled, but we'll be picking them next week. Olive harvests are down by 40% here in the Málaga region and by 60% in Jaén , which is the biggest olive growing area in the world. 


Olive trees can easily survive the hot, dry summers in Andalucía, but for two years there have been no winter rains or snow on the mountains to allow the trees to produce fruit. The giant olive plantations irrigate their trees but small olivars, like ours, depend entirely on the weather. 

Who knows? what with climate change and full control of its borders, the UK may become a major olive producer, while Spain could switch to exporting solar energy.

 



                                Spanish Solar Farm.

There are already plans to build a massive photovoltaic plant here in the Guadalhorce Valley. It will cover 7 million square metres of land in the municpality of Álora alone, where three plants like the one above are planned on land between Álora town and El Chorro, which has beautiful landscapes, and the now world famous Caminito del Rey.


                           El Caminito del Rey

No surprise, then, that the local people of the Guadalhorce valley, in towns like, Álora, Coín, Ardales and Casarabonela, where we have our olive trees, are more than a little cross about the plans.


           Barry, Stella and Mrs. Sánchez sitting on a wall in Plaza San Nícolas.

 
Our Day Out.

Here's a picture of Mrs. Sánchez with two friends who stayed with us last week, Stella and Barry. Shrewd and eagle-eyed observers will spot Granada's great treasure - La Alhambra. (The Alhambra) in the background. It only takes 90 minutes to drive to Granada from Álora ( 2 hours if you stop for breakfast), so we went there for the day.

The Alhambra is the 7th.most visited monument in the world (not far ahead of The Mosque at Córdoba which comes in at number 10), so you would expect it to be a bit busy, which it was. 8500 people visit the place every day You have to book a 'time slot' in advance to visit the best bits. It is estimated,(by me), that every day nearly half a million photographs are taken in and around the Alhambra, so you've all probably seen one. Just in case you haven't, here's one I took earlier .

                              The Court of the Myrtles


Looking round the Alhambra is a bit tiring and, in my view, it's a bit 'samey' - especially when you've visited it several times. Lots of tiles and plaster filligree decoration everywhere, and you get told off if you touch anything.

What I find really impressive is the way that water is channelled along asequías to supply all the various palaces in the Alhambra with water for all the pools and fountains, to irrigate the flower and vegetable gardens and fill the underground aljibes (water cisterns) that held water supplies for what was, after all, a fortified town expecting attack and siege from the conquering Christian forces at any time. 


  The Fountain of the Lions

How does the water get to the mouth of the lions?

Those Nasrids really knew a fair bit about plumbing. All the water flows continuously from the Sierra Nevada via the Rio Darro, along  the 'Sultan's Canal' and a by series of aqueducts to the Generalife gardens and on to the Alhambra below.


                                The Sultan's Canal

The Alhambra was built between 1200 AD, and 1450 AD, towards the end of Muslim rule in Andalucía (711 AD. to1492 AD.) and has been knocked about quite a bit since. It's a wonder there's so much left of it after the French tried to blow it up  in 1814 during what we call 'The Peninsular War' and the Spanish call La Guerra de la Independencia' )´The War of Independence'). They say  that a crippled soldier managed to cut the fuse to the explosives just in time.

We had a lovely meal down in the town at 'Oliver', near Plaza de La Trinidád, which was just the ticket after 3 hours of 'rubbernecking'.


But who's this character dancing on the same wall in Plaza San Nícolas, Granada?


Yes, Punk Rockers and fans of The Clash it's Joe Strummer who has a plaza in Granada named after him.


 
The Clash ( Boris Johnson's favourite band)
 
 

Yes it's true. Lead singer and guitarist of The Clash Joe Strummer, who died suddenly in 2002, was a frequent visitor to Granada and was big fan of Federico García Lorca, the grenadine poet and playwright. Joe went there in 1984 to escape the problems he was having with the band in London. He met and recorded with '091', a local band. 

 

'Spanish songs in Andalucía, Mandolina, oh mi corazónSpanish songs in Granada, oh mi corazónOh mi corazón, oh mi corazónOh mi corazón'.

Spanish Bombs. The Clash.

Joe Strummer described himself as a 'socialist' and took an interest in Spain's recent history, particularly 'La Repressión Franquista'  (The Franco Dictatorship). Lorca was murdered by falangists in 1936.


                            Federico García Lorca

The Placeta Joe Strummer was inaugurated in 2013 following a local campaign.

 It suffered from neglect during the following years and was eventually closed to the public. Now it has been renovated and reopened.



                            Placeta Joe Strummer.

Back in Álora, life has now returned to normal. All the many annual fiestas and events have taken place this year, including the 'Romería de La Virgen de las Flores', which we missed. There seems to be something going on every weekend now. 

 


 

Last weekend we had the 'Foodtruck Show'. Mobile food vehicles filled the top square selling exotic delicacies and there was live music late into the night which pleased the local residents no end.




 Yum yum!

If you walk up (or down) Calle Atrás, you may notice a new white wall with a sign that says 'Mirador de los Aljibes'.

                          Mirador de los Aljibes

 
 A 'mirador' is a place from where the public have panoramic views. In Álora they tend to keep them locked up to prevent vandalism, this and that, and one thing and another. This new one was open for  a day on The Day of the Sopas Perotas (October 1st) so Mrs.S. and I managed to have a look. It's been locked up since then.There's a lovely view of the castle, which you can still see even though the gate is locked, by looking through a metal tube sticking out of the wall.

 The 'mirilla' is named after Pepe Rosas who lived in the house that stood here. Pepe was a a much-loved Álora celebrity who knew everything there was to know about the local folk dances called Verdiales.

Here's what you see:


 


The light at the end of the tunnel. You can just about make out the castillo. (it's better when seen with the naked eye)

Watch out for the old 'black eye telescope' trick, though.


Bar News 

Getting an an evening meal in Álora is getting tricky these days, especially on Fridays. All the restaurants are so busy that most of the tables are reserved by about 8.00pm. so it's best to book in advance. Even if you do reserve a table you may have a long wait, especially in La Taberna de Álora and Casa Romero.

El Taller  and La Casa de Abillo are still the two best places to eat, and the food in El Gusto on Calle Cervantes is excellent and the service is great. ¡Que aproveche!

 

Juanito Sanchez :October 24th.2020