15 September 2007
Well it's been almost three months since my last entry. I was in New York from 19 June until 6 August as my mom was quite ill from cancer; she eventually succumbed to it on 22 July. When I returned to Juzcar, there was a lot to catch up on. Ivan had been virtually running the place on his own.... he had very little help from our "waiter". Fortunately (or unfortunately as it were), June & July are fairly quiet months for us so Ivan was just able to manage on his own. That said, I continued to manage any email booking requests and all the accounting got backed up as that is one of my responsibilities. So I have been quite busy since my return, not only trying to catch up but dealing with on-going things like guests in the hotel, serving food, organising the construction of a new swimming pool, preparing for the art groups which have now started arriving, installing a new on-line booking system on our website and updating the website amongst other things
Upon my return, I found Maria and Inocencio already here. They are our clients from Barcelona who have now spent quite a bit of time with us. As was the case last year, they were here for the month of August; very nice couple. We also had the upcoming fiestas in the valley; August in general the best month of summer for us.
While I was away, one day when Ivan was returning from Ronda, he saw a snake eagle flying over the valley between Cartajima and Juzcar. It was holding a large snake in its talons; as it was hanging over the valley but quite close to the road, Ivan stopped the car to have a closer look. He keeps telling me how fantastic this view was as the eagle was quite close to where he stood. Then the eagle dropped the snake into the valley below, no doubt preparing to consume it. This is just one of the quite exciting sites one can see here in the Genal Valley. I myself have seen eagles soaring above, screeching while searching for prey. Groups of Griffin vultures swirling around obviously preparing to have some kind of meal. And many other smaller birds such as bee eaters and rock buntings swooping around the road between here and the A397, the Ronda San Pedro road.
There is quite a lot for bird watchers to see here but I don't think the bird watchers have any real idea of the quantity and quality of the birds they can see in the Genal Valley as we have had very few bird watchers come and stay with us. for those of you interested in the types of birds you can see here, a major north/south corridor for bird during the migration season, please go to the bird page on my website at Bandolero Birds.
I have also been pushing to get our Wine Weekends moving ahead. This was something I was working on before I left in June and as I was away and then busy for the whole summer, we only recently went to meet the owners of three local wineries here in the Ronda area. We also had a wine tasting "dry run" as it were, only yesterday. Our local wine expert, Paula, was here to undertake this exercise so we could see how it would go and we were all pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is get some pricing in order, create a new web page about the wine tasting offerings and away we go!
Any takers out there.... for wine or birds???
Well, this is it for now.... more later, but not so much as this last time. Now that I am back in the saddle, I'd like to have at least one entry as week for this blog so we'll see how successful I am at achieving that
Well it's been almost three months since my last entry. I was in New York from 19 June until 6 August as my mom was quite ill from cancer; she eventually succumbed to it on 22 July. When I returned to Juzcar, there was a lot to catch up on. Ivan had been virtually running the place on his own.... he had very little help from our "waiter". Fortunately (or unfortunately as it were), June & July are fairly quiet months for us so Ivan was just able to manage on his own. That said, I continued to manage any email booking requests and all the accounting got backed up as that is one of my responsibilities. So I have been quite busy since my return, not only trying to catch up but dealing with on-going things like guests in the hotel, serving food, organising the construction of a new swimming pool, preparing for the art groups which have now started arriving, installing a new on-line booking system on our website and updating the website amongst other things
Upon my return, I found Maria and Inocencio already here. They are our clients from Barcelona who have now spent quite a bit of time with us. As was the case last year, they were here for the month of August; very nice couple. We also had the upcoming fiestas in the valley; August in general the best month of summer for us.
While I was away, one day when Ivan was returning from Ronda, he saw a snake eagle flying over the valley between Cartajima and Juzcar. It was holding a large snake in its talons; as it was hanging over the valley but quite close to the road, Ivan stopped the car to have a closer look. He keeps telling me how fantastic this view was as the eagle was quite close to where he stood. Then the eagle dropped the snake into the valley below, no doubt preparing to consume it. This is just one of the quite exciting sites one can see here in the Genal Valley. I myself have seen eagles soaring above, screeching while searching for prey. Groups of Griffin vultures swirling around obviously preparing to have some kind of meal. And many other smaller birds such as bee eaters and rock buntings swooping around the road between here and the A397, the Ronda San Pedro road.
There is quite a lot for bird watchers to see here but I don't think the bird watchers have any real idea of the quantity and quality of the birds they can see in the Genal Valley as we have had very few bird watchers come and stay with us. for those of you interested in the types of birds you can see here, a major north/south corridor for bird during the migration season, please go to the bird page on my website at Bandolero Birds.
I have also been pushing to get our Wine Weekends moving ahead. This was something I was working on before I left in June and as I was away and then busy for the whole summer, we only recently went to meet the owners of three local wineries here in the Ronda area. We also had a wine tasting "dry run" as it were, only yesterday. Our local wine expert, Paula, was here to undertake this exercise so we could see how it would go and we were all pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is get some pricing in order, create a new web page about the wine tasting offerings and away we go!
Any takers out there.... for wine or birds???
Well, this is it for now.... more later, but not so much as this last time. Now that I am back in the saddle, I'd like to have at least one entry as week for this blog so we'll see how successful I am at achieving that
