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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 corazón
Spanish songs in Granada, oh mi corazón
Oh mi corazón, oh mi corazón
Oh 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.

a

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

 

Álora gets a mud bath. It´s good to be back. Man in Álora hits the roof.

 

If only it would rain!

 Buenos dias from Álora in the Valle del Sol (The Valley of the Sun) where it is raining heavily.

 

 The washing-up bowl at the bottom of our stairs is dry again, which means that the plastic table cloth on the roof is doing a good job. I can't wait for the weather to clear up so that I can climb up on the slippery tiled roof to try and plug the leak and, if possible, not make matters worse by breaking a tile or two or even 'doing a Rod Hull'.

 

 Our roof

 

 A not leaky roof

 

 

 Rod Hull's roof.

 

After 25 special masses, synchronised praying, and weekly 'Danzas de la Sequía' (rain dances) put on by the Paquita Velázquez School of Drama and Stamping, the long-awaited-for rain  finally arrived.

 

"Ya está lloviendo, bab?"

!Que coño Paquita! Basta ya! No puedo más!"

 

 

 In February the reservoirs that supply Málaga and the Costa del Sol were at their lowest for 80 years, despite having been built in 1974. Only 14% of the average annual rainfall (488mm..19.2 inches) had fallen (68mm). The golf course owners were starting to sweat and there was talk of a hosepipe ban.

Well, it's all come at once ....and more! It's been chucking it down for three weeks, the reservoirs are full and now all the Perotes (Álora people) are praying for it to stop. The long awaited Semana Santa (Easter Week), the first for three years, kicks off on Sunday, which is only four days away.

Reservoir empty

 Reservoir full.

 Apart from all the leaky roofs, the other downside to this rainy spell is that the rain has come in a series of 'calimas' (Saharan dust storms) full of 'mud from Africa'.

                                         La Calima

Álora is one of the many Andalusian 'white villages'. A lot of them have now turned brown. The word on everyone's lips is 'barro' which means 'mud', and it's not easy to remove when it dries. I shifted most of it from our garden walls with my pressure hose, but the paint came off too. Another job for me when the sun comes back.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, there have been 'levante' storms along the coast. The high winds have blown the sand right off some of the Costa del Sol beaches, Pedregalejo has been flooded by record 10 metre high waves and there are calls for a 'state of catastrophy' by the people who depend on Easter holidaymakers for their 'pan de cada día' (daily bread). 

 

Where did all the sand go?

Be careful what you wish for...all that praying and dancing was bound to end in tears.

It's good to be back in Álora, despite the higher prices for everything, the shortages caused by a national lorry strike and the poor weather. Thanks to our Highland Heroes, Celia and Stewart, the garden has survived well. We've pruned the grape vine and it's now in leaf  and we've been able to put in a few new plants and do some repotting between the showers.

 

It's a right old palaver getting back into Spain, though, what with the Covid passport the dog passport, the UK passport (which has to have at least 6 months on it counting from when the passport was issued instead of when it expires),  making sure I drive to the right port this time, not taking in any meat or dairy products and, last but the biggest pain in the arse - the Spanish Health Certificate and locator form (SpTH) which you can only fill in online and no more 48 hours before you arrive in Spain, 29 hours of which will be spent on board the MS Galicia which only lets you have 45 minutes free internet access.

 

Well, the good news is that you don't have to do it any more.

 Spain has just announced that as long as you have a Covid vaccination certificate (The UK one is recognised as 'EU Equivalent') or a certificate of recovery after having Covid.

We drove up to El Chorro on Saturday to have a look at the 'The Lakes' and give Monty a walk. We were with some friends who live just down the road from us in Birmingham and who have a  place in Benamocarra, near Vélez Málaga. Naturally we wanted to show off Álora and the area around El Chorro is always impressive. Even though it takes about half an hour to drive to El Chorro, it is still part of Álora's 'municipality' and it includes part of the Caminito del Rey, who now attracts lots of tourists.

             El Caminito del Rey (The King's Little Pathway)

The original path was built in 1905 as a shortcut for the men working on the new hydroelectric installations which are still in full swing today. The 'King' referred to is King Alfonso XIII who came to inaugurate the new installation in 1921 and, allegedly, walked a couple steps along the path -  much shorter steps than he took in 1931 when did a runner to Italy with 85 million pesetas in used banknotes.

         Here he is getting off the train at El Chorro Station.

Before the Caminito was rebuilt a few years ago it had become a dangerous ruin, very popular with scorned lovers, bankrupts, olympic divers and dare-devils of all description. Anyone planning to do the walk should first watch this film of the Camino in 2008. 

The scenery up there is spectacular and, in addition to the lakes created by the original Presa (dam) del Conde de Guadalhorce, the reservoirs (embalses) which supply most of the water used by the Costa Del Sol are up there too.

 

Most people round here think that all this lovely water comes down to Álora, but we don't get a drop of it. It's a bit of a mystery where Álora's water does come from. I asked a funcionario at the  town hall water department once and he said 'del grifo' (from the tap) and another chap added 'del depósito' (water tank). It turns out that most of the town's water comes from wells, a spring up at El Chorro and the river.

Doesn't seem fair, really.

Bar News

The bad news for us is that our favourite restaurant in Álora has closed. La Lonja de Mamely, which most of the ex-pats called 'The fish place'. It did specialise in delicious fresh fish and shellfish, especially tuna, and a meal there was our regular Friday night treat.

Bar Marín on Calle Alegrias is also very good for seafood, but a bit of a hike from the centre of town and up a steep hill. We'll give it another visit soon.

La Galería, that has opened recently is very popular at the moment. It used to be Cafetería Azahar and run by the lovely Candelaria before she hung up her apron. It's run by Blanca Vila now and she seems very simpática too

It's by the traffic lights and opens in the evenings. We've only been a couple of times for a coffee or tapas.

It´s stopped raining now and sunny, warm weather is forecast for the next few days. Time to get the paint brush out.

Happy Easter.

Juanito Sánchez

7th. April  2022