28 February, today is Andalucia Day, a bank holiday here in Andalucia.

What beautiful weather we've been enjoying these last couple of days. Seems that spring has sprung, not surprisingly as this year is predicted to be the hottest on record for Andalucia and probably Spain and greater Europe. That is not great news but, we have flowers already. Our lavender plants that we cut back in January are already growing nicely. The almonds trees have already lost their blooms and are covered in young new leaves. Our hibiscus plant has flowers on it as well as a few other flowers for which I do not know the names.

We collected three large containers of lemons from our lemon tree yesterday and today... well Ivan did. I helped packed them into bags to sell them, 4 kilos for 2.50 Euros. They are quite nice lemons too, strong scent, firm, and large as well. Ivan is planning to make lemon tarts (which my mom loves!), lemon curd, lemon marmalade, and other things lemon!!

Ivan met with the Juzcar ladies association the other day and we are now waiting for word back from them on how many would like to attend Ivan's cooking course.

Our weekend business was slow as usual. We had a couple of singles which I mentioned in my last entry... they set off early Sunday morning before we arrived in the hotel. And the "drop-in" that was here for one nightset off fairly early as well. We did a few tables for lunch and most sat outside as the weather was so comfortable.

Yesterday afternoon, we went Pujerra to collect pine cones which we were out of. That nice stretch of road on the other side of the mountain from where the village is is convered with pine trees that have lots of pine cones. We prefer the pine cones for starting fires to those fire starters soaked in kerosene and stick of it as well. I'm not too sure how many more fires we will need to be starting with this weather but it's good to have a provision of them around in any case.

I had a call yesterday from Phil and Nicky over in Alpandeire about an upcoming meeting next week. Turns out that the Junta de Andalucia has hired a marketing consultant from London to help promote cultural and tourist related businesses. An American living in the lower valley has apparently arranged for this meeting with business operators such as us and this consultant to hopefully get some (any, PLEASE!!) publicity for the Genal Valley. And it appears that many of the valley businesses are suffering the same as us.... i.e. low business flows which equals low cash flows which equals late bill payments .... oops have I said too much!!? Well that is one of the ugly realities of running your own business, the accounting side of things... never pretty unless of course you are racking them up!! Anyway, the meeting will happen next Tuesday, 06 March.

We also need to now follow up on that possible grant. They told us they hoped to have things sorted by the end of this month and.... that's today. So tomorrow we will ring them to get an update, hopefully!

Other news, the work on the new pool next door has commenced. They have started digging out the side of the hill to make way for the pool. I'll be very happy to see that work completed. We are going to have to buy nice sized bath towels for our guests to take to the pool with them.

Another thing that happens all the time (I receive emails that is) and is kind of annoying as the recipient... that is these fraudulent e-mails that come from "somebody@yahoo.fr" or from someone from Manchester, UK or Edinburgh. Basically they are almost always worded the same, "I am so and so from the Christian organisation so and so and we are planning a religious summit in your country for 8 delegates who will stay at your hotel for 2 weeks (or longer in some cases if you can believe that)." I always wonder why these fraudsters don't look at a map to at least know what town to which they are writing. Anyway, they go on to say that they want to know the total price of the rooms and URGENTLY await this information in order to send their credit card for payment. Always the same wording but always from a different email address and sender. Surprisingly, I recently got one of these from someone who said he was based in Miami, FL. Normally they arrive from the Ivory Coast, the UK, another country in Africa or India. Sometimes they are requesting information related to the wedding reception of their son who wants to have his reception in my hotel.... oh REALLY?? Oh but can we order 10 Nokia mobile phones for them first and do we accept credit cards? I could go on about this subject but won't.

I updated my website in the last couple of days as well. The guest comment page now has photos of the guests making the comment (when I have a good photo of a guest to put onto that page, of course). And I have revised the theme holiday pages to include new paintings by Maggie Price.

We received a request for a proposal for a wedding/baptism in June. Someone from Ronda that found our catering website,

Friday, 23 February - another week gone. This week has gone by fairly quickly.

We had Becky and Mark, a very nice English couple, here for eight nights up to Wednesday. They arrived Tuesday, last week, after getting lost on their way. They had found us last year passing one day and promised themselves to come back and that they did indeed. They brought their bikes; Mark is training for an event back in the UK. They had a very nice week with us and are looking forward to coming back next year for perhaps a bit longer.

Today we had two guests arrive who are looking for a finca. Well, one is looking and the other is a friend along for the ride, so to speak. They told me that their wives are dedicated readers of this blog!! How flattering that was to hear. They discuss our problems and are quite interested in what happens here. So a big HELLO to Shirley and Hillary. Hope you are enjoying your holiday in South Africa, Hillary!!

Last Saturday, we had seven couples from Marbella come and spend the night with us. They had dinner and a grand old time. Ivan put on some Sevillana music and before you knew it, they were on the stage in the restaurant dancing and singing. One of them is a chef an so he spent some time chatting with Ivan in the kitchen. Another was an art instructor and he took some time on Sunday morning to give some instruction to Ivan who enjoys painting as well. They said that they all had a great time and really enjoyed our place, food and service. I, unfortunately, misunderstood when they were leaving and thought that they had put an entry into my guest comment book which they did not but oh well.

I was down on the coast yesterday to go to the US consulate's office in Fuengirola. My passport expires in July so now is a good time to get that done. I gave the American women in the office a brochure and invited her to come up and visit us sometime (nothing like a bit of self-promotion). I also stopped off at the Asian goods shop we know there to buy a few things for ourselves. Ivan and I like to prepare Asian food for ourselves but it is hard to find the ingredients in this area. This shop in Fuengirola is the only one we have found so far.... and it is not cheap either but so be it.

The weather has been wet and dreary the last few days. Lots of fog as well... driving down to the coast yesterday was not so much fun with fog so heavy in both directions. The weather on the coast was considerably more dry and comfortable.

I had to take Lolita in for removal of her stitches today... she was neutered last week. Pasky, our German shepherd, was done a couple of weeks ago. I have not mentioned our dogs much in this blog but most people that spend time here come to love our dogs. They are all (all three of them) well behaved, only in search of food or attention, like most dogs I guess. Here are photos of them.

I keep meaning to get an owner's meal going... I mentioned this idea a while ago to other hotel & restaurant owners in the valley. A social gathering of sorts to get to know one another better and to perhaps talk about common issues. I wrote the email in Spanish with Ivan's assistance but have yet to send it out. I just don't know all that I would like to invite. I intend it to be a pot luck sort of deal so no one person has to bare the costs for feeding a group. And I would like the meeting to rotate from business to business... this way we all get to see one another's business. I'm thinking that perhaps this can lead to a business association of some kind.

Francisco was here today. He made some changes in the kitchen that Ivan requested to improve his work space. Very good actually... makes one wonder, "why didn't we do that sooner?" Ivan has also started working on the cooking course the Juzcar women's club asked for; he has put together a synopsis and a list of things to make. These ladies are mainly interested in a pastry course. So Ivan is devising something for that. Later, I'm planning on offering these courses on our website for potential guests to come and learn something while enjoying a stay here at the Bandolero.

I also had an email from Maggie this week, my American artist/instructor. She has confirmed the painting workshop in October, it is full already. This good news leads to the next one. Maggie wants to see if she can get enough participants for another workshop shortly after the first one in October! That would be good news for us. And I finally had contact from another recommendation by Maggie, a friend of hers in California who is now interested in doing a workshop in April 2008. i am waiting to here more back from him but I will be adding that workshop onto the website as well to help promote it.


So, it is now 21.30 and there are people in the bar so I have to move. I just took one more booking for a suite for tomorrow so we will have 3 rooms tomorrow evening. Hopefully we will have some good lunch traffic as we could use the income!!

Buen fin de semana y hast luego folks!

Friday, 16 February

So this week was St Valentine's Day. We had an offer for a Valentine's Dinner for two including a bottle of house wine for only 34 Euros and we had no one take us up on it. What a shame. I think 34 Euros for a 3 course meal and a bottle of wine is a fantastic price.

Let's see, what else has happened in the last week? Well, we had a couple who live in Ireland come and stay with us for one night last weekend. They arrived on Friday night last week but had some road trouble along the way which was two flat tires. Apparently the driver went slightly off the road onto the shoulder along our winding mountain road. That road is just that, a mountain road, because it shows that if two flats come of it in no time as well, it could put someone in a predicament. I went and collected them from their car for which they were very grateful. They had a very nice evening with us and then I took them into Ronda in the morning to repair one of the tires and all was well.

We had a booking that came in for one night via one of the hotel search engines... something that does not happen all that often (last time being April 2006). A Spanish couple from Velez Malaga that spent the evening down at Juzcar's own Teleclub, the club next to the church! And a last booking which was unexpected as well. They called from Ronda to ask for a room; they were an American couple living & working in Seville.

We currently have an English couple staying with us for 8 nights. They are into biking and have been going all over with their bikes which they brought with them from the UK. Next time, however, they think they may just rent as that would be much easier.

Tomorrow we have a group of 7 couples from Malaga capital for one night.

Other news... well, we went into the CEDER tourist office in Ronda this week to follow up on some funds that were granted to the hotel under the previous owner but not disbursed to him before he sold the hotel to us. As the funds are granted to the hotel not the owner, we are pursuing getting these funds. There may be enough for us to build the pool we have a project for. That would be fantastic and it does finally sound positive. We pursued this about a year ago but the previous owner still had his fingers in it trying to get the money even though he was not entitled to it. Now the funds are just sitting in a bank account somewhere and the agency seems open to giving us the money. They told us they hoped to have it sorted by the end of this month... fingers crossed!

Paul was here this passed week as well. Paul is the English owner of the rural apartments next door. He came to sort a few things related to his pool project. He is having our maintenance man build his pool (his maintenance man as well). So we (Ivan, me, Francisco and Paul) were all over there at his place checking out where the pool will go, which will be the deep end, how much hill needs to be removed long with a couple of trees, etc. Paul has very generously offered to let us use his pool for our guests so that will be good news when it is all completed and in place. I really look forward to using the pool myself on those very hot July days when there is no one around.

I've also been busy emailing more artists about workshops and tour operators for group bookings or holiday packages. I have not had much luck with the artists, I must say, very disappointing as they have yet to respond even in the negative. I'm not sure I will have any luck with tour operators but I have to give it a go as I have nothing to loose and everything to gain. I've also taken a few more bookings... we have a few for Semana Santa (Easter week) now including a couple of ladies from Long Island, N.Y. And this morning we received a request to cater a small wedding and baptism, simultaneously, here in the countryside so we are working on getting something sorted for this couple from Ronda.

At the moment, our weather is a bit blustery but clear and fresh. More of the almond trees are in bloom and they ares absolutely beautiful!! Here are a couple of snaps I took of trees near the hotel on a rainy day during the week.

Juzcar Almond Flowers

09 February, Friday - my how time does fly by.... as we all know too well.

IVAN and I were on holiday for a couple of weeks and since we've been back, there was just no time to get a blog entry done. So what have we been up to since we started our holiday? OK a quick run down of events.

WE spent eight nights with friends in Amsterdam. We arrived just after a heavy wind and rain storm which had some fatalities across northern Europe including The Netherlands. Trees falling on cars, into canals and the like... not pretty. There were two trees blown over in front of the house we were staying at... one in the canal and one crushing a car. Dutch efficiency had the trees cut up and removed by Saturday evening having landed there on Thursday (I couldn't say that would happen as quickly here ion Andalucia).

SEVEN wonderful days in Amsterdam even though the weather was wet and cold at times, to be expected in January in northern Europe. Lots to eat and drink and we shopped, visited with friends, cooked, slept, baby-sat one entire night (even) and went to the Hague to see the Girl with the Pearl Earring as we had never seen that while we lived there, lovely painting.

WE came back to Malaga very early on the Saturday and went to a large Saturday flea market in Fuengirola for the first time. Then we spent a couple of days in the second week traveling a bit in this area, Cadiz really. We went to Arcos de la Frontera (see photo) ....

View of Arcos de la Frontera, Cadiz from below

View from Arcos

.... to see it as we have had clients from there on a few occasions. And as Jerez was not much further down the road, we took ourselves there as well. Unfortunately (wouldn't you know it), all the bodegas that produce many liquors, wines and sherries, of course, were already closed for the day. Tastings and tours are only in the mornings and by appointment so we now know for the next road trip to Jerez. Jerez's old center is beautiful what little we did see of it. Many old, old, old buildings with fancy facades from the 16th and 17th centuries I would venture to say.

WE also spent a day driving down to the Cadiz along the Atlantic coast passing through Gaucin in the lower Genal Valley (see photo)...

Near Gaucin

.... along the way to the seaside town of Conil. We were hoping to have a nice fish lunch in a nice restaurant with a view of the ocean... not to be, of course, as everything was closed due to it being January (drats!!). So we must go back another time when it is not off season.

Near Conil in Cadiz, how green it is!!

I must say the ride there was very nice, after one passes Algeciras down a narrow winding highway with a wind farm of wind mills. See photo...

Wind farm near Algeciras, Cadiz along the road to Tarifa

THE hills are a lush green, covered with grass or growing produce of one sort or another.

WELL, this blog entry is well over due to be posted. I got distracted while writing this last week and am now only ready to post it, a week later. And in the meantime, things have been happening here in the hotel that I could be making other entries for, so here it is.

HASTA la proxima.