Today we note the passing Diego Piña Carrasco who passed away yesterday afternoon, 10 May. Diego was the old man many of our clients asked about having seen him day in and day out in the bar. Diego "came with the hotel, like a piece of furniture" is how I described him. An unusual arrangement but that's how it was.

Diego's family home was on the spot where the main part of the hotel is currently standing. He made a deal with the previous owner and builder of the hotel to sell the land in exchange for some money, a place to live and food for the remainder of his life. He was given his own little house at the entrance to the village, a bit further away from where he originally thought it would be but, nevertheless his own dwelling. He was to be feed three meals a day and that is how we wound up with him "coming with the hotel". There was this legal right he had, to be feed three times a day and this was a man who never had a need to leave the village so he was to be fed three times a day, 365 days a year.

On many days, however, he would not turn up for his evening meal as he might be found in some corner somewhere drunk, having passed the afternoon drinking sweet wine in one of the village drinking holes. It was one night last year, in early summer if I recall correctly, I was going over to our house as we had not yet moved into the hotel when I came across a body just outside the gate of the bar terrace, sprawled out across the road, face down, I thought he was dead. I ran inside to Ivan and said, "Diego is passed out & lying in the street!!" Ivan and the waiter came out and picked him up and dragged him up to his house. He revived a bit at this point and asked where was he and Ivan said, "you're home" and he crawled into his house.

His days were so easy. He would normally get up early (if he hadn't been stinking drunk the day before) and would be the first thing Ivan and I would see, hanging around the end of our street when we were living in the house and then by the mirador waiting for us to open the bar to give him his breakfast. He would come in and have his "cafe con leche y tostada con aceite y ajo" (coffee with milk and toast with olive oil and garlic), a combination that I thought would keep him going for a lot longer. He would wonder off, always without a word of thanks, salutation or good-bye, and go back to his house or one of his three or so fincas, and eventually turn up again for lunch at about 13.20 hrs. He normally had his lunch time at 13.3o and, like clock work, he would turn up on time for that (he did not wear a watch so how he always knew the correct hour was by location of the sun, I guess). In the last year or so, we had gotten him to come into the kitchen to take his tray of food into the bar and when finished, he returned it into the kitchen.

He would do a favour every now and then for Ivan, going to the bar to get a packet of tobacco or pick up something missing from the kitchen like tomatoes from the village shop. Occasionally he brought us chestnuts or other vegetables/fruit from his fincas. Every year except this last one, he dined with us on New Year's Eve, participating in the huge dinner Ivan made, a table on his own, enjoying Ivan's fantastic cooking. He would also help out Francisco, our maintenance man who has a construction business, from time to time. I think it was more on Francisco's part to give Diego something to do than his needing assistance.

Diego was a simple man who lived his whole life, except for 13 years, in the village of Juzcar. He never married so he had no children; he had no other direct family living in Juzcar or nearby so life was fairly simple for him. With no worries of food or shelter, he could do what he wanted, when he wanted. He did not participate in the big occasions of the village but was more of a sideline type of guy. He always did attract the attention of our clients who stayed for more than a couple of nights as they would see him every morning for sure and wonder, "who is this man having his breakfast here in the hotel bar?". My dad had been quite friendly with him when he visited as did Ivan's parents.

Diego's house now becomes our house as it was sold to us as part of the hotel with him in it of course. We have yet to see the inside of this little house but it could be a nice little place to let out for walkers or other holiday makers. It could be a quick few thousand euros in our pockets if someone would step up to the plate and make an offer. But whatever it winds up being, it will definitely be a bit of work first to clean and clear it.

And so the day of Diego's passing was something we always wondered about given his age. He was not particularly old but not so young either at 73. He apparently had a massive heart attack and died on the spot in a street of the village without really knowing much of what was happening to him, or so we are informed. He was not feeling very well yesterday from the morning but we did not see him as usual as we had spent Sunday night away from Juzcar; Ivan last fed him asparagus rice with cheese for lunch on Sunday. I last saw him Sunday morning bringing cigarettes to Ivan. And so Diego, we bid you farewell. No more breakfasts at the Bandolero nor anything else.

Adios Diego.

A celebrity comes to Juzcar.

Our first celebrity, Cayetano, came for lunch on Sunday last with a group of friends and family. For those of you who do not know, Cayetano is a famous bullfighter and an Armani fashion model, quite well known in Spain for the family he comes from as well. Very nice to have a celebrity in our place who enjoyed everything from the food to the views.

Here are some recent photos of things that have been happening at the hotel.

New Puppy, called Run Run

Ivan demonstrating how to prepare paella for a group of Irish students on 28 April 2010 in one of our dining rooms.

Fiona Mackenzie and group for the Scottish Gaellic Workshop held 28 April to 02 May.

Dancing at the Scottish Ceilidh on 01 May in the Hotel Bandolero restaurant.

Another activity at the Scottish Ceilidh on 01 May 2010.

A photo journal entry for this blog spot today. Ciao.

Today is the pen-ultimate day of the Scottish Gaelic Language Workshop which started on Wednesday. It is a small group but we do have one participant who came all the way from Virginia, USA to join the fun. They have been having a good time so far and the weather has been absolutely spectacular, in fact, it is summer like already which is good news for everyone.

Ivan gave a paella making demonstration on Wednesday morning to a group of students and their three instructors who called in from west Ireland, near Kerry. This was a first for Ivan but it was plenty of fun. We even had one of the students give a short performance of an Irish dance. Fiona, who is leading the Gaelic Workshop also participated by singing a short Gaelic song for the group.

I have a video of Ivan's demo and will be editing and then loading it onto YouTube where I can then embed it into my website so that is an up and coming event.

We are having our second ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee") this evening. We have a group of UK walkers coming in for the evening to participate as well as our little group here in the Hotel Bandolero; the mayor has even said he would show up this time around and he is bringing his guitar so this evening promises to be a lot of fun. Ivan is now in the kitchen preparing short bread and scones, I have a couple of very nice bottles of single malt Scottish whisky on offer and of course there will be Scottish folk dances, singing and good fun for everyone. All are invited of course and admission is gratis.

We finished, more or less, painting and cleaning after the terribly wet winter we had. We have now painted the letters of the hotel in red as well changing the look a wee but and it does look a lot nicer; a wee change to the hotel image after almost six years. Ivan has built a small pond at the back of the hotel behind the pool terrace which looks lovely and I have planted some new flowers and flowering plants there as well and it is looking better all the time.

The village has put together a new video about Juzcar and I have already loaded into my website in a couple of places and plan to add more videos in the future. Here is the video of Juzcar:

Hasta luego.

This is the new name card we are having printed now with the new Bandolero look; it is also a similar new look to the banner on the website.

We had a good busy Holy Week and Easter and in fact still have some rooms occupied. We had a fantastic week in terms of weather, every day was sun and clear skies. And then yesterday, sever wind and cloud, a big change but rather fortunate that mother nature waited for the holy week activities to be finished before raising a wind storm that was quite annoying. In northern Spain, we were informed of terrible cold, snowy weather so lucky indeed. This morning started off with a damp cloudy coolness from a "levante" coming from up from the coast. This afternoon it has warmed a bit and the sun has broken through the cloud.

We had the usual processions through the village from Wednesday through to Sunday. Saturday afternoon was when the villagers came through with boughs of pine and other trees to decorate houses and fencing in the village, one of Juzcar's more charming traditions even though it is not, strictly speaking, environmentally friendly (cutting down trees branches and whole trees for a few hours of fun ).

We had a few tables for lunch each day and funnily enough, we were not over run as we have been in the past but had just enough diners to keep us quite busy but able to manage all so all departed, stomach content and happy.

The next big event in the calendar at Hotel Bandolero is the Jornadas de Historia organised by the village hall for the weekend of 16 - 18 April; the theme is the history of the Serrania de Ronda. That will then be followed by the Scottish Ceilidl on evening of Saturday 01 May which promises to be a evening of fun, singing, dancing and raffles of whiskey, short bread and other prizes.

We have also extended the exhibition of the paintings of artist Joaquin Gonzalez Flores to 02 May 2010.

Before and after shots of the terrace

Before - algae and dirt on the terrace and walls

After - lots of scrubbing that is....

Same area, different angle shot.

The other side of the same terrace area, just as dirty before

And now the After shot, bright and clean in the sunshine.

Here we are on 25 March already and I have not bothered to write another entry in this blog since early February. Why you ask? Well, the weather had been quite depressing for a few weeks actually and I just did not feel up to writing anything.

There was so much rain from mid-December through to early March. In fact, it is raining again today but not like in January and February. Mother nature was just un-relenting with pounding rain, day in and day out. Of course there were a few dry days but it did not leave a lasting impression because the rain came back in full force again. We even had a hurricane pass though here in mid-February which did some damage in northern Spain and killed some people in France. I went out to see the clouds passing from the hurricane and it was obvious that they were indeed hurricane clouds, one could see the pattern that a hurricane has in the could structure. Plus it was noticeably warmer that afternoon, very comfortable actually.

The rain has left quite a lot of damage around the provinces of Andalusia. Collapsed roads, mud and rock slides, water logged houses and stores, damp rising in most houses, leaks as well. The hotel did not escape intact either. One room was full of mold where the damp was creeping along the rafters of the ceiling and the wall. We found a fantastic product to clean it up without having to paint which worked wonderfully well. A lot of the spray and the black of the damp mould disappeared in minutes.

I have been on hand and knees scrubbing the tiles of the bar terrace which have turned black and green from the algae and dirt accumulating there; the dirt tends to become pasty and stick to the tile and scrubbing it off is the only way to bring it back to looking clean and welcoming. I did half the terrace main entrance to the hotel yesterday but with the wet weather today, I will have to wait until tomorrow to get the remainder completed.

Ivan was painting in the bar yesterday to bring that area back to a comforting warm room. The bar had lots of water damage on the outer wall where there are a couple of leaks. With the amount of rain that came down, we had a puddle in the bar at one point or another and pots of agua. But it looks quite nice once again with a roaring fire in the stove today.

Business also suffered from the weather; it was actually quite a bad combination of things in January and February which would be discouraging to anyone. Jan and Feb are a slow time of the year in any case but add on top of that bad weather and bad economic times and you basically should just close the doors for the month, it would have been cheaper and I could have had a holiday on an island somewhere, had I the extra cash to spend. But I stayed here and weathered the bad times; Ivan was a way for a couple of weeks. I was here with the new puppy who is quite cute actually.

Yes, Bandit had another litter of mixed pups in mid February but only one survived and he has turned into quite the little cute puppy indeed. Not sure what we will do with him but Ivan wants to keep him... that remains to be seen.

The cherry trees had their blooms out recently but their red leaves are now sprouting and the flowers waining. The almonds had a late bloom this year as well but went quite quickly with all the rain we had. I am expecting quite a few wild flowers this years as they certainly had a nice amount of water to get them on their way this year.

The hotel is just about full for Holy Week and Easter weekend. I think a lot of people are anxious to get out and about this year after spending weeks in home waiting for the bad weather to pass. so that's it for now.

We are having a Scottish Ceilidh on Saturday evening, 01 May so if you are in the area or if you know someone in the area, please tell them to drop in, it should be a lot of fun.

The almond blossoms are out in full now looking gorgeous; pink and white flowers dotting the landscape. Yesterday was a brilliant clear day and warm as well. We had some takers for lunch and I even wound up with three rooms instead of only the one that was booked in advance... so that was a pleasant surprise.

More rain in the forecast for the coming week which is a bummer. Still no bookings for Valentines Day but waiting for them to arrive.

Today, it is warmish out there but there does not seem to be much movement on the road and certainly there are no walkers about even though this is a perfect day for walking.

So I have three rooms to clean; I am cleaning the rooms myself to save on paying the cleaning lady. There are times in the year when we do our own washing as there is little traffic and with that hot Andaluz sun, we can wash and dry sheets & towels very quickly. That is also done as a cost saving measure.

Well, here we are in February 2010 already and I have not yet posted one blog entry, so here it is.

The weather here has been pretty wet since 24 December 2009. On that day, apparently more water came from the clouds than had fallen for six months or longer. There was lots of flooding in much of Malaga province, especially from the Guadalhorce river which overflowed its banks into the many hotels along its path. I'm reliably informed that one hotel in Ronda had a full house and had to evacuate all staying guests as their ground floor was completely flooded and destroyed all food products and much equipment in the kitchen; of course the owners were quite distressed when the insurance companies said that this was an act of god and would not be covering the damage. Fortunately, someone in the provincial or regional government is as harsh and are planning to provide some relief later this year to all businesses that suffered. This was the first time in 40 years that the river overflowed its banks to that extreme. And then there were more torrential downpours again starting 4 January and lasting for a week and days and days..... or so it seemed.

Hotel Bandolero has suffered from water damage as well in one of the guest rooms where mold is now growing and long black stains mark the walls. We have been leaving the window and terrace doors open on dry days to try and let the room air out fully but once again it has been raining all night and into this morning. We had someone from our insurance company come by on Sunday to have a look at the damage as we are hoping to get some assistance from them to repair the roof. With the number of locations where water is obviously coming in, one cannot pin point exactly where the water is coming from and so we have advised to replace the entire portion of the roof which will cost a bomb.... maintenance, boy, it can really get you down in the pocket. And this is not to mention our annual problem in the bar where we actually have a cascade of water on one of the walls and major leaks... so I ask, watchagonnado?

Well, the Great Recession of 2007-2010 is in Juzcar for sure. Our client flow has drop down to, oh, just about nothing. Last weekend I had two walkers come in on Sunday for tapas only. They spent a whopping 23 Euros and that was all the lunch business we did for two days. I am hopeful for more passing business this coming weekend as one has to keep ones hopes up or one can end up in a very dark and ugly place and one does not really want to go there. As for hotel bookings, they keep coming in but not for this month nor last month. I have a put a couple of good offers on our webpage but have not had a nibble really especially for the summer offer. Our business flow last year at this time was not bad for a February but all our business was Spanish clientele and so now it is very obvious that our Spanish clientele are not spending much money these days; everyone tells me the same thing, things are very bad all over but that, my friends, is no consolation.

There are many things that need done now, with this rain having made the paint literally fall off the building. I have big swaths of walls to paint and I plan to re-do the hotel name painted on the wall of the bar terrace, looking rather long in the tooth at the moment in my view.

January is the month in the year when the Junta de Andalucia accepts applications for grants for the tourist industry so of course, I have have made my applications; this year I have applied for three grants, same as last year (all of which were denied, why, is a good question). This year, I have requested assistance to buy all new digital ready, flat screen televisions for our guests rooms as the analog signal is going to be shut off in Spain very soon and the TVs we have will serve no purpose. The government made this decision to follow the rest of the world in converting to digital TV but has offered no assistance to anyone to convert their TVs to digital so I am asking for a grant to buy those needed TVs and hopefully that request will be accepted. I am also requesting a grant to repair the roof and to buy heater/air conditioners for the rooms and the hotel's restaurant. The heater/AC machines are individual units that can be operated independently of each other making them more efficient than the central heating system we now have in place. If we have one or two rooms occupied, we need not turn on the heating system for the whole hotel if these units are in place. Furthermore, they are more efficient in consumption of electricity (not expensive butane gas) so they are environmentally friendly and provide AC as well, something that is lacking in our rooms.

Last year, we were denied our application for these units because it was not, in the view of the Junta, an improvement in quality for our guests. I was a bit bewildered by their negative response as I thought surely this is a quality improvement, how could it not be? But at the end of the day, like many things in this country that I have come to be resigned to, is that the money in the coffers of the Junta that they announce to all the world that they have available for the industry as a whole, will actually only be distributed to the very few who are actually friends and family of people that have the right connections. You see, I have come to be a realist in this regard and Spain is actually a very corrupt country, if you are not connected, then you are not going to get anything. This phenomenon has been demonstrated as every single time we have applied for a grant, that would 4 out of 5 years now, we have actually received a negative response, only once. Yes, only once, the other times we were not even given a response, things just went very quiet and we never heard from them again.

I realise how negative this entry is reading, but this is not being negative, it is being realistic. Spain has showed itself to be a place very difficult country for small enterprise and many a Spanish sole proprietor that I have met, confirmed this to me. So, me being a foreigner here, really has no bearing on my situation, it's just that the Spanish government sees no reason to assist in the development and growth of small businesses in any way shape or form, something that really boggles my mind, Spanish or not. Well, maybe there is something.... but it really is only for the friends and family of those connected. Enough on this subject; I am still going to await the response to my applications which we are told will happen by end of April 2010.

Just to give a bit of depth to the Spanish bureaucratic process which may or may not be unique, let me tell you a short tale; I applied for residency and a work permit on 25 January 2005. I met with a advisor on how to go about the process of applying and indeed got advice directly from the ESP Labour Ministry as well. I had a letter with a time stamp on it with the date 25 Enero 2005 as the date received of my application. Then I waited, and waited and waited. I checked their webpage where you can find out if the application has been processed and the static response was, "In process". Finally, 19 months later, sometime in September 2006, I saw they had finally posted a response to my application on their website and the answer was "Denied". To find out the reason, I would have to await a letter that was required to be sent from them explaining their response. After waiting yet another five months, a letter finally arrived, so the whole waiting time was 25 months, over two years!! And in the end, they told me that my investment in Spain was irrelevant to the Spanish economy. How I could ever make an investment that was relevant to the Spanish economy, 12th largest economy (by GDP) in the world (one step behind Mexico, surprisingly! and one ahead of So. Korea, impressively), is beyond me.

So, a country so big, the second largest tourist industry in the world by receipts (US$61.6 billion), and no help for small businesses, there you go. I need to go and make up two rooms from last week now.

Prospero Año Nuevo.

Happy New Year.

We hope you are having

a

merry holiday season.

Happy Holidays.

Happy New Year.

rospero Año Nuevo 2009!! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The leaves of the chestnuts were at their peak about 10 days ago. They are looking very autumnal now as they lay on the ground, accumulating in piles along the road and in the countryside.

We had a bit of rain the other day but not enough to bring in the mushrooms that are sourly lacking this year due to the poor weather. IT has turned colder now though which is about time as it felt like Indian summer for weeks here and it was getting to be a bit too much.

Business has been slow in the week but we have a few rooms tonight including a couple of walkers coming from Ireland for a week. We did have a big lunch on Monday for a German lady who was celebrating birthday 67 with all her friends from their community down there on the Costa del Sol. They were 18 and all had a very nice time. The weather was perfect for what she wanted, a luncheon outside on the pool terrace with all her friends. Ivan made a big Chocolate Volcano Cake which Ingrid said was just perfect. They left happy and all promising to recommend us to their neighbours.

Last weekend was also the big mushroom weekend. While the hotel has an O.K. amount of business, it could have been better. The organised weekend include a cooking demonstration which was organised for here in the hotel restaurant at 13,00 hrs, not good timing for us, I'm sorry to say. We had not thought it through, but with a mushroom cooking demonstration happening from 13.00 hrs, it did not finish until almost 15.00 hrs and so there were people that wanted to eat but did not want to wait around and so we lost that business, at least three table worth. You love and learn and so next time, it will have to be earlier so as not to disrupt our lunch service.

In any event, we were told that 94 types of mushrooms were found that day in the Juzcar countryside including one type that may be a first find in all of Spain, so quite an impressive take of mushrooms, despite the lack of rain. I imagine people want home quite pleased after a weekend find like that.

Of course there had to be one client problem but the problem was the client. She was awfully quick to threaten an official complaint because she could not lock her bedroom door properly. The funny thing was that this was a returning client who was staying here as a guest of the village hall as one of the organisers of the event. But she was just a difficult person, the type that probably goes around most places and gives them a hard for minor things, like she did to us. She even made fun of the way I speak Castilian which is why I thought she was bad mannered and was actually the real problem not what she complained about. Well, I suppose that is the nature of the business we are running and one does not like to disappoint client, lo que sea.

Next weekend is a big one in Spain as there are two national holiday one right after the other. The first one is on 6 December which is the National Constitution Day followed by 8 December which is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. As a result, we have the hotel full for three nights. Ivan's parents are coming to lend a hand as is his brother and perhaps his sister. It will be nice to have them around for a couple of days.

I've started a new activity, writing Ronda restaurant reviews for Andy, the chap has a relatively new website for Ronda tourists and expats living in the Serrania de Ronda. My first review is now on the Ronda Today website|blog at the following page:

http://www.rondatoday.com/808/bar-maestro-calle-espinel-la-bola

More will follow with time; please do have a read.

The hotel has been busy during the weekends of late with a full house again last night; we had a family from Malaga come up for a birthday party last night. It turns out that they have a restaurant in Malaga city and invited Ivan and I to go there to check it out at some point.

We are closing from this afternoon for a couple of nights to go to Madrid to meet our new nephew born last month. Next weekend is the 3rd Annual Juzcar Wild Mushroom Seminar, of course the hotel is fully booked for that already and has been for several weeks. The big question is: will there be any mushrooms?

With the weather we have been having here in the Serrania, and you will note that I have mentioned the weather on several occasions here and in my Tweet account, it has continued to be warm and dry during the day. The temps at night are about where they should be for this time of year having cooled off about two weeks ago. One can smell wood fires going in the late afternoon, early evenings now. But during the day, the temps are still comfortable and there has been no rain to speak of so there are few if any mushrooms growing in the countryside. That will leave many disappointed in the week to come. In fact, we had a booking for a couple to come and stay this weekend for the mushroom package we have on offer and they postponed their stay due to the lack of rain.

We will be closed for Christmas this year. I put a deadline date on for Christmas bookings if any were to be taken and that date was today. We have not received more than one query and so we will be closed for Christmas for the period 15 - 28 December. The hotel is almost fully booked for New Year's Eve, we have two rooms to go and hopefully we will get two more couples to come along and stay for the event.

I had an American friend from Hong Kong come and stay last weekend for the first time since we have been here. Michael lives in San Francisco now and is quite the traveller. In fact he organizes holidays, one of which I would like to go on with him as they always sound so fabulous and fun. He was here in Malaga to take a cruise from Malaga to Miami, a re-positioning cruise, something I previously knew nothing about. These repositioning cruises mean the ship is going to its next home port for the season; as it has to go anyway and it is not a regular cruise, there is a fantastic discount offered for the cruise. I hope to take this cruise next year actually as it is 12 days and very inexpensive; Michael got a great room for USD1,300 which includes room and all food with most beverages... sounds like quite the deal to me! The ship has 14 restaurants on board as well as a spa and many other activities. He said you have to go with your own group but it is lots of fun... sounds like a great idea to me.

We had our inauguration of the art gallery yesterday afternoon. We had a few artists show up from Ronda, Benalauria, Gaucin and Olvera. We had people from Ronda come for a look as well, something unusual and rare for them as we do not get many Rondeños coming here normally. We had lots of cava on flow with tapas and a delicious carrot cake that Ivan prepared for our 5th anniversary here in the hotel.

There are interested parties who would like to come to put their work on exhibit here but the real valid question is, how many people will we get to come here and actually look at the work on display? All good to have an art gallery and a load of artists who are interested in showing their work but if were cannot get the traffic flow of people to come and see the gallery, then it is a waste of time. We will have to see how it goes; artists should direct traffic to us as well. I think we need to develop a list of artist whom we work with and rotate their works, leading to perhaps developing a following of our own. When people realise it is a legitimate space to display interesting art work with reliable viewing times (well, as reliable as that can get in Andalusia), then perhaps we will have a regular traffic flow of viewers.

I found out that we have a reputation in Ronda with non-Spanish people living there, something we found a bit surprising as we don't have a large clientele from Ronda, especially of non-Spaniards. So how they know anything about us must just be from second hand news; it is nevertheless quite interesting to hear that we are worth talking about. Why those people don't come and see HB for themselves is another question but we are not particularly bothered by that.

Juzcar has a new children's playground, just in front of the hotel actually. It is just about finished and I expect that the village hall will be organising some kind of inauguration as well. It is quite colorful with a swing set, a jungle-jim sort of thing for children to climb on and even some exercise equipment for adults which I look forward to trying out. The ground has some thick rubber surface which has been applied to make it safer than hard ground and it is in very bright colors of orange, blue, green, yellow. They have also planted a few trees around the area with some flowers as well as having planted a few trees at the entrance of the village so it is looking better all the time.

It is chestnut harvesting season here in the valley. We sold all the bags of chestnuts we had yesterday and more people are coming through now asking for more. The chestnut trees themselves have not turned color which normally brings people through the valley. As it has been so unseasonably warm here in the last few weeks, the leaves have not really started the autumnal process. It is yet another bright sunny clear day here in Juzcar and the lunch crowd is gathering steam so I need to get out there and do my duty.

I have today revised my layout of this blog, it now includes a music player with a few tracks to enjoy while reading... or not, one can turn it off as well.

We had a few days without bookings last week so we took ourselves for a couple of nights to Seville and stayed at a nice hotel in the old Jewish barrio called Santa Cruz. The hotel was comprised of 18 former private residences connected with many passages and tunnels, very interesting. The hotel also had a lovely spa which I fully enjoyed.

We are now getting quite busy once again as this is a holiday weekend starting this afternoon, I suppose. We have a two couples who are clients of Butterfly Adventures; they have been enjoying the many walks with their guide, Sandrine, in the upper Valley and the Sierra de las Nieves. With this unseasonably warm weather, they have been having very enjoyable days out. We also have another couple here from our Dutch friends at Hannibal Reisen. They are from Amsterdam and I had to take them to the village of Igualeja yesterday morning where they would start their walk from there back to Juzcar.

On the way to Igualeja, we were chatting about Amsterdam which reminded me of a story about something that happened to me while I first stated living there way back in May 1998. I had arrived to work in Amsterdam in early April 1998 and was staying at the Hotel Grand Krasnapolsky initially. I then took a business trip and upon returning to Amsterdam, found I was moved to what is today called the Renaissance Hotel near the Singel canal in the center. I had gone for a drink with a new friend not far from the hotel and when we returned, we stood not far from the hotel entrance continuing to chat. Meanwhile, two cars pulled up in front of the hotel and out stepped a group of rather large men, all appeared to be possible football player and 1998 was the year of the World Cup. I commented on the men to Dan, the guy I was chatting with. He responded that he thought they appeared to be more of the criminal class. They went into the hotel and shortly thereafter exited again and gathered very near to where we were standing in a circle, so close in fact, that one of them bumped into me from behind.

As I had my back to them, I did not notice what was happening but Dan did. At one point, he said, "Let's go! Move!" and we took off running as gun shots rang out from the group. Because Dan was a bit suspicious, he had been watching the group and he saw what was about to happen. Dan had his bike with him and starting running with it into me, knocking me over with it. As I fell, I tried to hold myself up with my right hand which wound up scrapping severally against the bricks on the street, providing a very nice open skin wound. As I ran along the front of the hotel toward the restaurant which had an entrance to the street, shots were ringing around me. I tried to enter the restaurant but they had already locked the door and would not let anyone in (they did not know me so they would not let me in... nice, eh?). So there I am on the street with these gangsters. I ran for cover behind a cement column in front of the hotel covering my head with my arms and hands.

When it was quiet, I looked up toward the hotel main entrance thinking I could get inside the hotel for cover but there was a gun man there holding a pistol aimed across the street. I ducked down and waited a moment or two before deciding to run out of the area completely in the opposite direction from the hotel entrance. I took off toward the corner away from the gunman, around the corner and then toward the Sheraton Hotel in the Nieuwezijds Kolk (now a Goldenb Tulip property) to get off the street. In running away, I passed one of the gunmen who was himself escaping the gunfire but was covered with blood from the waist down. I entered the hotel and went straight to the front desk holding my injured hand and quite distressed. I told them there was a shooting and they thought I had been shot, of course.

After they called for medical assistance and the police, I was accompanied into a meeting room near the reception area where they kindly offered me some coffee while I waited for the paramedics to come. After the paramedics attended me (leaving my wound open was their advice, a raw skin wound treated only with some antiseptic leaving it to become infected later requiring more medical attention at a hospital!!), I was accompanied by a rather handsome Amsterdam detective to the nearby police station where he wanted to take my statement. By this time, it must have been after 1.30AM as the shooting occurred around midnight. I was kept at the station for at least an hour and then was accompanied, on foot, back to the hotel. There, I saw the street was still closed to traffic and there were plenty of little triangles with numbers covering spent bullet shells. The detective told me that over 25 shots had been fired and they thought it was pretty miraculous that only those involved were shot with no injuries (aside from my hand) to innocent by-standers.

One of the gang members was killed on the spot, I was told. He had been shot several times from the waist down and died there on the street in front of the hotel. It seems this group that arrived while Dan and I were there in front of the hotel was a second coming. They had stopped by earlier for a meeting but the other party had not shown up. This was known by watching the CCTV video tape of the hotel entrance. They returned to find the other party; during their discussions, one of the group got nervous and tried to pull out his gun and all hell broke loose as they all started to shoot each other. They were all well known to the police of course and the problem they had involved marijuana sales and prostitution, of course.

So, that is the story of my first weeks in Amsterdam. Me, a New Yorker, who lived in New York City for 26 years including the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan, and had never witnessed a shooting or even had seen a gun on the street except in holsters of street police. I arrive in "quiet, little" Amsterdam and witness a murder. Wow, was that a surprise. Anyway, needless to say that I did not go to work the following day. I checked out of the hotel a 2 days later as I was nervous that I would be a targeted witness; I was later assured by police that I was safe and not to worry; there were more than a couple of dozen witnesses to the shooting so I did not need to worry.

A few weeks later, I was requested to come to the police station on the Marnixstraat to watch a video line-up; fortunately I recognized no one. Even later, I was requested to be a witness at a trial.... for the defense. At this point in time, more than 10 years later, I do not recall specifically what happened when I appeared in court except that I was informed that I would be compensated by the city for my testimony, provided my bank details and the funds, a mere 30 Guilders at that time, never did appear in my bank account, ever.

After court, I ran into Dan, the first time I had seen him since the shooting. He told me he ran down an alley and was dead-ended there for a few minutes. Hidden for a short time, when things went quiet, he managed to get out and bike himself home without any injuries. As for my injury, I had escaped to Brussels the following weekend to get out of town for a couple of days to forget the experience. There, I realised I required further medical attention and went to a local clinic where they dressed and bandaged my wound and told me to keep it covered until it healed a bit more as it was quite raw and should have been dressed and bandaged from the start to prevent infection.

Despite this experience, I would recommend Amsterdam to anyone. It is a lovely city, small and manageable yet international with lots on offer.

Other news, big mushroom weekends coming up here in Juzcar in November as well as a yoga weekend on offer at the end of October. The weather is quite good and the chestnuts are all starting to fall, ripe for the picking. I understand up in Holland, the leaves have changed color already, something we are still waiting to happen in the Genal Valley.

And finally, as for those very adorable puppies, all but one have new homes. The last one is in a shop in Ronda waiting.

Another gorgeous day in Juzcar, warmer than the previous week, good day for a swim after a long walk in the hills.

Two of the pups have now gone with the owner of the daddy so we have a bit of relief as these puppies are a lot of work and require a lot of attention.

We are also quite busy at the moment in the hotel and the restaurant; business has certainly picked up from a low in June/July. We've had a steady flow of customers for lunch on the weekends and the hotel is full at the moment for a week; we've also had a very good flow of clients in the hotel since 12 August. In fact, next week we will have our first days free since then. At the moment, we have a group in from Scotland who are walking and painting; they arrived on Saturday and depart on Saturday.

Speaking painting, our Art Gallery is just about ready for a launch party. Ivan is working with this artist from Ronda named Jose Cabeza. He came by this passed weekend and hung a whole gallery of paintings and set up sculptures on stands around the room. I meant to have some snaps to load here but have not had the time to take any yet. Anyway, it is looking very good. With the new lights we installed last week which highlight the painting in a much better light, we are working towards having the gallery opening with a wine and cheese or cookies sort of thing; we will be inviting the people of the village as well.

The gallery now has a name, the Sheila T. McCabe Galeria de Arte, named in memory of my mother who was an artist and who passed away a couple of years ago. We have several of her work hanging here in the hotel already none of which will be hanging in the gallery. I prefer to have them hung where they are on display permanently to all of guests in one of our dining rooms.

Anyway, this art gallery idea is making me a bit nervous as I'm not sure how this will work out but it is rather exciting to have oiur own art gallery. There is nothing quite like this space anywhere in the whole Ronda area. The room is rather large with plenty of natural light. There is a view of the mountains which Jose said he would love to have for himself out of his studio. With the new lights, it is like a different place, funny to think of this place within the hotel.

This is like the idea of our apartment in the hotel, it is like being in a different place altogether.

Well, it's kind of late and I need some rest so I'm off.

New photos of our French bulldog puppies.
11-09-2009
Am I adorable or what?

Wow, what's this big thing... is it for peeing?

Just ate, can you tell.

Very cute.

And still cute.

All are doing very well, are healthy with good appetites and are ready to be taken to a new friendly loving home... any takers?

The news here is that we unfortunately appeared to have acquired a cat. This kitten appeared abandoned near the hotel a few weeks ago and so Ivan, who takes in strays apparently, started providing food to it. So the cat started to feel more confident about coming to hotel to beg for food. Next thing you know I am finding the cat asleep on my bed in the flat upstairs. Something that did not make me happy, I must say. Yesterday, it was in the ktichen and so I told Ivan the cat has to go!! Not sure what we are going to do about it but I just do not want to have a cat, period - full stop, no changing my mind. More on this next time.


Weather - it has changed a bit in the last couple of days. It is a bit cloudy but no rain... a bit cooler but still quite warm when the sun peaks out from behind the cloud cover. Temperatures are in the upper 20s, centigrade of course. So the weather is actually ideal for walking. the hotel has been fairly busy of late as well and the bookings are just coming in. We had lots of French here last weekend, the most at one time ever actually. And last night, we had four Dutch couples, two English and a German while tonight that has changed to two Dutch couples, three English couples, and two solos - one German and one English, so pretty busy. We are shy one room from full tonight, tomorrow we are full and Sunday we are shy one room from full so all in all, pretty good. Many, well actually most of these people are here for walking, the remainder are friends visiting from London so keeping us busy.


I must now show our new art gallery to one of the Dutch who is an artist and is interested in seeing our small gallery. We have hung the few paintings we have and we have found a local artist from Ronda who is interested in hanging some of his work here including a sculpture or two so all in all good. I will post some photos here of the gallery shortly.

The Fiesta de Ronda starts today. That means that the hotel is full for 3 nights, good business for us. The weather has been quite hot so perfect for a fiesta. This is the fiesta de Pedro Romero and this is when the La Corrida Goyesca happens. There will be three days of bull fighting in the Ronda arena, the only time when there is bull fighting in Ronda during the whole year. Tickets can be quite dear to experience this occasion.

The main part of the Ronda fiesta is held at the Ronda fair grounds which were opened only 3 years ago and is located along the Ronda by-pass road. One could have seen much activity there in recent days as the preparations were under way for the fiesta. Big rides going up, casitas being built, lots of lights being installed, buses and trucks parked along the fair grounds, animal trailers about as well.

Last night was a parade which would have started next to the Ronda bull ring and snaked its way through Ronda eventually ending up at the fair grounds.

The centre of Ronda was abuzz with preparations earlier this week as well. There, too, were tents going up for casitas, as they are called. In the Plaza Socorro, a big structure was being put together and I am curious to see what is the finished structure as it was quite large. There are lots of street parties in Ronda during this time, speakers out in the streets blaring music, lots of people standing around chatting and drinking/eating tapas, all very festive actually. And the principal shopping street, Calle Espinel, was already decked out with colourful balls hanging over the street, people selling balloons and other blown up things for children and other memorabilia.

We are hoping to go into Ronda to check out the fiesta for a couple of hours at least ourselves later today.

Another gorgeous day in Juzcar, oh to be sitting by the Bandolero pool with a cool drink to hand and a wonderful book.

New Puppy Photos from this morning.

2009 Fiesta de Juzcar
2009 Annual Juzcar Festival celebrating the Virgin of Moclon.

The Fiesta de Juzcar began on Thursday. Last night we had Brazilian dancers come though the village and they stopped a the hotel bar for a short dance.

Enjoy the video.