I fixed the channel of water we have behind the hotel on Thursday which was a lot more work than I thought it would be. This started off as only a run off of the water that accumulates in this well structure behind the hotel. It is a cave really with water deposit area, the water is simply there, accumulating with lots of frogs living in it. In February, there was so much water run off, as there is also a run off from the hillside behind the hotel and the water should drain into a large drain pipe beneath the pool terrace. Because there was so much rain this winter, the water was running off in all directions as it was not channeled, thus causing damp to develop along the back wall of the hotel where the restaurant is located, ugly black damp causing the paint to peel as well.
I went out there one day when there was not much rain, and scrapped a channel for the water to follow and it worked quite nicely. A bit later, Ivan built a pond to be filled with this water, a very nice idea. He dug a hole and lined it with cement and then built a small wall around the edges with left over bricks from when we built the flat in the hotel. Then he had the idea that the water channel could be something more interesting than just a dirt channel. He thought a Moorish idea would work here; that is a channel made of old roof tiles with the water flowing through to the pond. He work diligently to make it work but he made one mistake, he used sand to hold the tiles in place. Sand is porous so it does not hold water well and thus the water starting leaking in various directions including back against the wall of the hotel.
This all happened in mid-April and then we had the group for the Scottish weekend, then the weather changed and it was not nice to be working outside, and then we had other clients and we were too tired to fix it. So I finally got myself organised and went out there on Thursday and it looks like it is fixed, no mud puddles near the channel, no water seeping against the back wall of the hotel. Actually, it looks lovely now, the water now goes from the spring to the pond to the run off which is perfect. And I lined it with a small fence and some rocks as well giving it a manicured appearance. Now all I have to do is get myself together to plant those last few flowers before the wilt in their tiny plastic store pots. Funny how they don't last so long once they've left the nursery if they are not planted fairly soon. I also moved a couple of the potted bougainvillea and put them into the ground behind the hotel and they are all doing well and even starting to flower which is nice to see the color there.
In fact the whole appearance of the hotel is quite smart at the minute. With the change to the color red, the name of the hotel really pops out when one arrives in Juzcar, even with the white jasmine, wisteria and grape plant climbing wildly higher and higher on that corner of the hotel. It is looking very sharp.
Ivan had to get rid of one of the barrels with fish in it from the bar terrace, not dispose of it but change its usage. Unfortunately, due to the age of the barrel, it developed a leak that slowly got worse and worse and was no longer worthwhile refilling it when it reached a certain level. So that barrel now holds some interesting cacti with soil and the fish have been transplanted to the pond.
We are trying to keep ourselves busy as the bookings are a bit thin these days, even worse in June and July which is normally a slow time in the Serrania de Ronda. In fact, the hotel two villages over from here in Alpandeire has closed for six weeks from mid-June as has a popular restaurant in Benalauria, one of the lower valley villages. Strange how one village can be bustling and the next one over, a few kilometres away is almost dead. Juzcar feels that way at the minute, dead. We have not had much in the way of passing trade for lunch in a few weeks now and it is a bit, well, very actually, frustrating. In the past, we have had groups of bikers calling in for lunch or at least two or three tables on a Sunday for lunch at this time of year however this year, it is even slower than previous years or at least it feels that way. This economic situation is really getting old now. We have heard stories of the offers hotels are making on the Costa del Sol because they, the hotels, are all mostly empty. Offers such as "full board" for 20 Euros a night, crazy offers but when you have 500 rooms to fill you can make crazy offers like that.
We on the other hand, with only eight rooms to fill, cannot follow that lead. I did have summer offers for these two slow months on our website but had only one taker, reliable, loyal and returning clients, a couple who love this area very much for walking and think there is plenty yet to do here, this after being here at least four times already. And this time, they introduced us to a couple of their friends who now live in Almeria. We had a very nice visit with them last week, in fact, Bill took Ivan's cooking class the last time they were here last autumn. Now, I guess we still have offers as people still don't have that much disposable income and/or are more discerning in their expenditures but this is getting to be very boring when there are little to no people about at all. So much for a better 2010 than 2009!! It seems to us it is worse this year than last.
On that note I shall close this little entry... until next time. Hasta pronto.
