Tomorrow is Friday and it is the beginning of the fourth wild mushroom conference here in Juzcar. There are 250 people signed up for this weekend and so we are wondering how the infrastructure here in the village will hold up. The weather has been quite nice these last few days and there was rain during last weekend so I expect that there should be quite a few mushrooms about to find on Saturday when the participants break up into groups and go off into the countryside in search of the various types of mushrooms out there. All very exciting.
Ivan is preparing another seasonal weekend menu that will feature mushrooms and chestnuts; this has proven quite popular with our clients in the last couple of weekends. While we expect lots of people, I think there will be fewer coming for lunch on Saturday as there will be free food available from the conference organisers. I think we will have more people looking for dinner than lunch which means lots of tapas.
The chestnuts are changing the color of their leaves now which is on time first the first time in three years. Last year and the year before, the leaves were full green until late November due to the temperatures we were enjoying and the lack of rain. This year we have already had a couple of seasonal rain storms and there is more rain in the forecast for Sunday coming. Meanwhile, the chestnuts changing colors are dramatically improving the look of the valley, it is simply put, gorgeous right now. With the brilliant low sun, the shadows from the smoke of the burning which has now started again, the autumnal feeling is strong, sort of reminds me of a New England feel.
The plumes of smoke started rising again not long ago, perhaps less than a week. The chestnuts have all been collected and so the process of trimming the trees of small and new growth for next season has begun. The plumes of smoke from the controlled burns will last well into February. Of course the leaves will be burnt in time as well, once they have fallen from the trees and that should not be long now.
Since the beginning of October, things have really improved here in the Alto Genal. We here at the Bandolero have been quite busy with the hotel full for the long holiday weekend just past plus passing trade, something we have not really seen for the whole of this year. It is quite good to see this traffic returning to the Genal Valley as we were feeling a bit lost for a few months there.
We are also getting a bit of attention from the local provincial government. Since the December 2009, there have been some improvements to this area which are encouraging. New signs for the Serrania de Ronda have popped up on the edges of the region. New signs about the bird life in the Serrania have been installed as well and it is also nice to see that they have been well made. By that I mean the signs are actually different in each location as the bird life is also different in the various locations. So it is nice to see that a real effort has been made in these informational signs; there are also regional information signs that have been installed and they are also, like the bird life signs, bi-lingual, Castilian and English. Good to see the signs are tourist friendly for those who do not speak the local tongue.
We have also been informed by the mayor, David, that a project to improve the roads has begun. This means that our access road to the valley from the main road (Ronda-San Pedro) should be widened and re-surfaced which it really needs. When I was taken by ambulance on this road with what turned out to be three broken ribs on 01 July 2008, I felt every bump in the road until we arrived at the main road and there were lots of bumps .... so much so that the accompanying nurse gave me a small shot of morphine on the way. So!, a road improvement programme should bring many more people into this area, along with the improved road signs.
We also had a bit of a Halloween party here in the village on Sunday evening last. Ivan and I decided we should make an appearance and so we went in the company of our temporary waiter and friend, Diana (she has been thankfully coming to help out since the group of American painters were here in early October). When we arrived down at Juzcar's Pub "Punto y Aparte", we were really surprised when we saw all the young men of the village dressed as female witches ...... in high heels no less. They had on lots of make-up, wigs, short red dressed with black tights; some were in cute little flats while others were in high heeled booties with fur around the ankles.... that struck me as quite hilarious. I was impressed with their sense of humor as three or four of them came up to Ivan and I and greeted us with hugs!! Very amusing1 And then they proceeded to dance the evening away with each other, with their some real female witches and others in the Pub. There was also a chestnut roast going on just outside the entrance so we had a couple of sweet chestnuts as well to accompany our cocktails.
Last weekend, we had a full hotel for three nights during the Feast of All Saints national holiday. We had three families with children who spent their days in the countryside looking for mushrooms and exploring the area, they told us they had a wonderful time and really enjoyed this gorgeous area.
So another busy weekend coming with lots of food to prepare. Diana arrives tomorrow evening to help out again. Her mother is an artist and we have some of her work on display in the art gallery, hopefully we may even sell some of it this weekend. Here's hoping.
