Hotel Bandolero was once again featured along side the village of Juzcar in a nature program broadcast here in Andalucia on 08 and 09 January 2011. This is a link to where one can view the program on-line:

http://www.radiotelevisionandalucia.es/tvcarta/impe/web/contenido?id=7223

The program normally features stories on sustainable tourism and other related topics about nature and the environment.

Meanwhile, we have been enjoying some beautiful weather, well this area has as I was away for a week up to Tuesday. I went to London for a short break to catch up with friends as I had not been to London since 2005, a long time ago. Ivan stayed here and manned the business as we had a few bookings for the weekend.

As one can imagine, this time of year is normally a slow time in the hotel sector, especially here in the mountains. So we put on a what I think is a pretty attractive offer and we are getting some nice results; many phone queries and some firm bookings. The offer is any room in the hotel for January and February at 53€ per night including continental breakfast and tax. We also reduced the room prices a wee bit given the economy especially here in Spain and so we have been getting booking requests for later in the year as well.

All the almond trees are in flower with their lovely small white and pink blooms dotting the landscape all over the Serrania at the moment. There are many puffy bright colored trees around, so lovely to see almost everywhere one looks on our route from Juzcar to Ronda.

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.

Some of you may have noticed that our website has been revised yet again. The problem with the new format was that it was not being indexed by Google. Furthermore, since I revised the website, not one booking had come in so I figured go back to tried and true, simple format, easy text and photos. I will be adding a photo album soon to make it easier to view the photos of events in the hotel. The ESP version of the website will be revised back to the old version shortly. It's lots of work to maintain a website so there you have it.

If anyone has any comments or criticism, please do let me know. Comments appreciated.

Thanks.

A photo journal of the adventure described in my last post.

At the entrance of the Rio Guadalevin, below the Moorish built bridge.

Trekking through the Tajo Gorge with the Roman built bridge in the background.

Under water plant life, a lot of algea.

Ivan preparing to descend, the first cascade, the first one to do it.

All reposed after the last descent, gorgeous.

Devon descending alone on the first cascade of 30M or 100 ft high, to the pool below.

Maria setting down the cliff face, boldly going where she has not gone before.

Group photo below the famous Ronda bridge, Puente Nuevo.

Walking through the Tajo Gorge, Ronda.

Group shot, a success!! All now descended to the bottom of the first 30 M high cascade.

More photos to follow.

On Wednesday, Ivan and I, along with my sister Maria and her two kids, Devon and Daniel, we undertook an adventure in Ronda.

The Guadalevin River passes through Ronda and has also cut the famous Tajo gorge. The river was cleaned up within the last couple of years including a new waste treatment plant so the water is actually clean. We all donned wet suits with boots, harnesses and helmets. We followed our monitor & guide, David Aguilar, who undertakes this adventure with clients for 65€ per person, all equipment included, who lead us into the entrance to this river. Eventually we arrived at the first cascade with height of 30 meters that we were to descend. The height was a bit higher than I realized having done this sort of activity only once before in La Sima del Diable in Juzcar.

Walking along the Tajo gorge and looking up one could see tourists looking down, a funny reverse situation. We passed the cave that leads up into the Sultan's old mansion and passed under the three Ronda bridges (not in the order of construction) that cross the gorge; the first was built by the Moors, the second by the Romans and the last was the famous "Puente Nuevo" built in the 18th century. Very interesting terrain, mainly clean refreshing water running through the river bed with these very impressive cascades.

There were a couple of good sized pools along the way where one could jump from the top of a rock high above the water's surface for a good splash which my 14 year nephew enjoyed very much. It was a bit scary at first, turning your back to the edge of what was basically a cliff with running water. Clipping into the rope with the harnesses we were wearing and then feeding rope through the clips as we walked backwards down the cliff face with the rope holding us from dropping like stones. The first cascade with the height of 30 meters or 100 feet, was quite high actually. My sister and niece were taken aback as they had never done something like this before but were willing to give it a go, Daniel was excited and Ivan later said he was also a bit frightened but managed as he was the first to go so he could hold the rope on the bottom as the rest of us descended. I too was surprised at the height when seeing it from above but managed to basically throw myself off the edge, backwards, to descend the rope attached to the harness of course. As said, Ivan went first, then Daniel followed who managed to get down quite quickly for an inexperienced 14 year old; Devon followed, then Maria and myself.

With that heigh, the descent would not be for the light hearted; Devon had a problem with the second cascade having had the courage to descend from the first one. The problem was one could not see where you were supposed to descend making it that much scarier than the first where one could see where one was going, that even with a lot of water showering down on your head. In the end, she had to come down with David's assistance as she was too frightened to do it herself. The rest of us managed but I too was a bit frightened at the start. Once one got going, it was fun, jumping into the pools as well and swimming in this verify fresh water in a unique setting in Ronda. From the bottom, looking back up, the cascades did not look as scary as when looking down from above. So an adventure I would recommend to anyone wanting something different to do in the Serrania de Ronda. Photos to follow when available from David!

The weather changes these days so unpredictably. Here we are almost at the summer solstice and the weather feels cooler than in early May. Apparently up in Avila where Ivan's family live, it has been winter like and they are ll fed up with the cold weather already. That is better than the rain that came down in eastern Andalusia last week causing flooding in some areas. The rain in Spain this year has been really bad, that is a concept that a cousin of mine called Kate, just could not get her head around, "all that because of a little rain?" she asked. When you see house with water up to the roof, that is not quantified as "a little rain" and everyone who has experienced this will agree with me.

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.

Well here we are in June and it is hot.

We had a very successful week with painters that came from the USA in May. They stayed with us for 9 nights and saw a lot of the area including a visit to the Alhambra Palace in Granada where we organised painter´s passes for them which allowed them go enter wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. We had lovely weather while they were here as well.

We will soon be offering another painting workshop as we have recently been in touch with another American artist interested in offering workshop here in the Genal Valley.

Meanwhile, we have been trying to get some artists interested to bring and exhibit their art work in our gallery but this is turning out to be a lot harder than we thought. I can´t blame an artist who wants to know that if they hang in a gallery they will be able to sell something. We have yet to reach that threshold but we hope it will happen. But it will certainly never happen if we do not have items on exhibition in the gallery space. Sounds to me like an egg and chicken sort of situation. The two previous artists were happy to ahve their work on display here and were not so concerned about selling things which was helpful to us. I recently went to Gaucin in the lower Genal Valley and basically was made very discouraged to think the artists of Gaucin would be intersted in hanging here in Juzcar. They seem to be under the impression that we are in overly remote area and bascially clouldn´t be bothered the the ¨hassle¨to package and bring their work here. So this will be another uphill struggle to get our gallery off the ground. So much for helping the local artist community. We will carry on but seeking out artists from another location in the Serrania de Ronda may be more fruitful for us.

Ivan prepared a couple of fabulous cakes this last weekend. A strawberry mousse cake, three tiered, and a large sheet of chocolate mousse cake, both for a large communion celebration here in the village. Photos to follow but as my Mac crashed on Friday and is in the shop a the minute, I am using my trusty laptop and do not wish to load a lot of photos here so the cake photos will be loaded up when I have my desktop back.

And that charming little house that was la casita de Diego has stirred up some interest from a couple of parties, I am happy to report. We are now awaiting word for a couple of items to be cleared in order to procced with its sale! On that happy, I say hasta la proxima.

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.

Prospero Año Nuevo.

Happy New Year.

We hope you are having

a

merry holiday season.

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.

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.

We went to Las Navas del Marques last weekend to participate in the first day of the annual fiesta there. Las Navas is a village in Avila province in Castilla y Leon and is Ivan's home town. We drove through the night on 2 July to arrive at 7.30 AM in Las Navas. Slept until about 12PM and then off to have some tapas and see friends, fmaily and acquaintances there.

The big night was Saturday. Our friends who currently live in Madrid came up to pass the evening with us. The children had a good time as there were a few kiddy rides as well as those big blown up balloon play areas for kids without shoes.

After dinner we all got ready and went out starting with the dancing in the plaza. We passed the whole night more or less around the plaza with a couple of paseos up and down the Avenida Principal . Music started at midnight with the first band playing mainly pasa dobles (a popular Spanish dance) and then around 1.30 changed to second group who played more contemporary type music. It was a good night in terms of weather as well so all had a good time. By 6.15 AM I decided it was time to turn in and so retired to bed at 6.30 while those still remaining of the our group straggled one by one off to bed as well, except for Ivan and Antonio who did not see their beds until later that Sunday.

Ivan's cousin Danny is a bullfighter and he was doing a bull fight Sunday afternoon and it was the first time he was doing that in the Las Navas Annual fiesta so all the family went to see (and support) him including Ivan. The tickets were quite expensive for a small village bull fight (more than Madrid so I heard say) so I did not go, I had a nap instead and then a wonder down tha main street, eating sun flower seeds as is a big custom here and waiting for Gabriel and Natalia to turn up (they also missed the bull fight). Sunday evening was a big family gathering on a terrace on the main street which was quite entertaining.

We drove home on Monday afternoon; the drove from Madrid to Juzcar is more or less seven hours. I was pleased to see some roadworks in progress as that Autopista was in dire need of a resurfacing and that's exactly what it was getting.

We were able to head north for the weekend as bookings so far this month are pretty sad; in other words we closed the hotel for the weekend. We have a couple of more bookings this month but nothing to write home about, even with the fantastic offers we have put on.

We have been spending some time organising our new apartment and getting more things moved over from the house.

It is very hot in the sun here. The air temperature is comfortable and there is even a cool breeze at times but the sun... is hot. Hot dry sun, great weather for sitting by the pool and reading a book and sipping a tall cool refreshing drink. Hey, I think I am going to head over the pool right now and finish that book I've been reading.

We went for a drive through the hills the other, something we have not done enough of since we have been here. Exploring the mountains is fun... driving along these narrow dirt tracks trying to find your way somewhere you're not sure of. Here is a photo I took of the view from one of the points we arrived at.

You can see Juzcar to the right of the photo and the village of Farajan to the left. We were in amongst a gorgeous pine forest with summer forest fragrance, pine and orange blossoms. It was quite warm as well as you might see from the photo... to me, it looks hot.

Here is another photo of the chestnut trees now in full flower, a bit later than normal but they are pretty stunning to see. This photo only shows the canopy of the trees in flower but that is what I think looks so impressive.

The weather has gone hot now although there is a bit of cloud today, the temps are still quite warm. Yesterday in Ronda, after we delivered the wedding cake Ivan made, the temperature there in the car registered at 45C!! Not the real temp but close... a hot day yesterday.

Ivan made a three tiered wedding cake for an English wedding which took place a the Hotel Molino del Puente in Ronda. That hotel is run by an English couple and they get a lot of wedding business. Elaine, one half of the couple, is recommending us to her clients for the wedding cakes as she was not impressed with the cakes she has seen in Ronda. We are now waiting the feedback after the event but here is a photo of the cake:

Ivan is now finishing off a couple of communion cakes to be delivered for 1.00-ish today for a couple of families in the village of Farajan. We seem to do a lot of cakes for the people of Farajan and almost nothing for the people of Juzcar! Funny that... the village we live in does not give us much custom at all while the other villages are better patrons to us!

We have a couple from Madrid with us for a few nights as well as a family from Copenhagen. The hotel is almost full tonight which is very good because June is the second worst month of the year... July being the worst (slowest). That said, we have some offers on.... all rooms available in the hotel for only 55 Euros per night including continental breakfast and tax for two!! What an offer, eh?

Then next week, I am taking a few days to go to New York and catch up with a few friends and family. I've not been home since my Mom died a couple of years back (already)! I think I will be busy as I want to see quite a few people and I've only got 10 days. Plus I will be cycling with my nephew down that bike trail along the west side of Manhattan, something I am really looking forward to. Ivan's parents arrive tomorrow to be here to keep him company and help out while I am away... isn't that so very nice of them to come and be here so I could go to NY for a few days. Paz, Ivan's mom, is not a fan of the heat at all but she'll be here for a couple of weeks anyway.

Then in July, as it is the slowest month of the year, we are closing for a long weekend and going to Ivan's town up in Avila for the first couple of nights of the town's annual fiesta! That will be a nice break from here as well and it won't be as hot up there as it is here so another break from the heat for a couple of days. I really enjoy the heat as long as it is dry heat.

Please tell a friend about our offers for June and July as the pool is just perfect now.

I helped Ivan make marmalade yesterday. He's been making strawberry marmalade for the last couple of weeks. He made black cherry marmalade as well and it is very delicious... I had some on toast this morning. Yesterday morning, I was standing there in the kitchen for some 2.5 hours pitting the black cherries while Ivan and Antonio were cleaning up from the painting upstairs on the terraces.

Ivan and Antonio, our waiter, painted the exterior of the hotel in the last couple of weeks , a job that needed to be done and a big one at that. We had the idea of painting the chimney pots different colours matching the rooms that they corresponded to and did... they are now violet, blue, green, yellow and orange and BOY, what a difference it makes. The hotel looks almost like a different place. So here are a couple of photos and a photo of our bougainvillea that has sprung into colour in the last few days and appears to be quite healthy.

The weather has been up and down these last couple of weeks in terms of temps... April and early May were beautiful but these last couple of weeks could have been better; but today it seems like summer has arrived as it is quite warm out there today.

Bookings have slowed right down now; we were quite busy for a few weeks with the hotel continuously having guests. But from 18 May, the reservation booked has a lot of blank pages. We have an English guest at the moment who is a client of our friends from Butterfly Adventures. She is here for walking and relaxation on 5 day relaxing break having booked a couple of massage treatments as well.

Tomorrow the hotel will be full with a group of tour operators looking at promoting the Genal Valley but we don't have much to do with that thanks to the president of our association; I think he forgets that there are members of our association that he should be involving in these kinds of events but he is quite busy promoting the village, he forgets that others might have an interest as well. Not to worry though as the hotel will be full for a night with dinner provided as well.

We recently had a returning group of clients from Malton England; four gentlemen (well 3 from the previous time) who were here a couple of years back; they were here for a week and had a very enjoyable week of walking especially in the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park Reserve. I think they were a pleasantly surprised at the fantastic walks they had there in the park but they were not surprised at all by the wonderful meals Ivan prepared for them.

We had to replace a hot water heater and deposit a couple of months back unexpectedly. Last night one of the motors on the walk-in frig decided to stop working so now we have another unexpected expense of that to sort out. Francisco got it working provisionally this morning but we need to get a new motor. There is always something that comes up unexpectedly/ un-planned for in running a business like this... there is never a time to just sit back and enjoy and let it roll with no problems arising for some time.

Ivan will be starting flamenco dancing lesson tomorrow in Ronda while I continue with my driving test preparations.... a story for another day. Ciao for now.

Scottish Flags flying at the
Hotel Bandolero, 01 May 2009

Things have been moving along here at the Hotel Bandolero. We've been fairly busy since Easter with few days free to rest and do the work around here to keep the place up. So far we have been having a much better spring than we did last year.

For example, this last weekend was a long holiday weekend in Spain as it was in many other European countries for May Day. We had a special offer on because of one of our clients, Fiona Mackenzie of Scotland. As you may know from my website, Fiona is an accomplished Gaelic singer with a few CDs out there in the market; she has performed in concerts in a few countries as well as her own and is a major promoter of the Scottish Gaelic language. We met Fiona last year when she came to Juzcar on holiday with her family and that how the idea evolved for a singing/language workshop her in the Hotel Bandolero.

The workshop started last Wednesday when the sign-ups arrived; Fiona and her colleague, Gillebride MacMillan, arrived on Tuesday. While there were only three sign-ups, Fiona and Gillebride enthusiastically approached this course. Wednesday morning, while awaiting the arrival of the small group, Fiona and Gillebride put up small cards with Gaelic words & English equivalents words all around the hotel, words such as (in English of course) Bar, Restaurant, Kitchen, Men's/Ladies' Toilet, Pay Here, Staff Only, No Smoking, manager, reception, Lounge, Welcome, Good-Bye, Some Gaelic Spoken Here, chair, table, wall, stove, frame, picture, lamp, cabinet, etc. The course included singing so there was Gaelic singing softly wafting about the hotel for 4 days, a beautiful sounds to open your door to in the morning. Singing on the terrace in the afternoon so villagers could hear.

Saturday Evening Ceilihd -
José, Christine, Gillebride & Fiona singing

Then on Saturday evening, there was a Ceilidh, pronounced Kay-Lee. This is an evening of singing and dancing and it was lots of fun. Ivan got his genuine kilt out for the first time along with all the rest of the accessories and appeared very Brave Heart Scottish for the evening. While we did not have as big a turn out as we'd hoped for, there were a few folks in attendance. Fiona and Gillebride sang Gaelic songs, some sad and beautiful, others more up lifting and chirpie! Antonio, our waiter, joined in with a couple of flamenco guitar songs while Ivan danced a couple of Sevillanas with Antonio's fiancée, Maria Angeles. Our friend Daica, visiting for the weekend from Madrid, sang a song with her daughter Audrey, a Scottish friend from the area, Kate, surprised one and all and got up to sing a couple of songs in Gaelic and did a couple of traditional Scottish dances. Everyone got to dance and sing and eat good food prepared by Ivan as well (including home-made genuine Scottish shortbread). It was a great evening and a very different as well from the normal Andaluz night. Here are a couple of photos of the event.

Iván dancing a Sevillana with Maria Angeles, Antonio on the guitar


Group participating in a wawking

So, all in all, a very good weekend of music and dancing. Ivan's brother Carlos and his family came for the weekend in addition to our friends Steven and Daica with their 3 children... lots of fun with all the little ones running around and having a good old time at the Bandolero!!

These are the types of Saturday night events we would like to host more of... we only need the musicians and singers to come along and then the people will come to enjoy and have a great night!!

What else has been happening here, well... we are almost finished with that art gallery. I feel like we are at this last stage and getting through it is proving to be quite difficult. We have installed a hanging system and we have even been provided with some art work to sell by an English artist who lives in the valley. But there is a lot of stuff left from the work of the renovation and we just have not had the time to clean things up and do the final organisation... so it feels like it is dragging on and on. Like our apartment! It is just about done but we are waiting for the big windows to be installed before we can move in otherwise it is not weather proofed. The electrics are just about done but Ivan has decided he is not so happy with its appearance and would like it done over again....! I'm not so fussy about it as I think it will disappear when all our furnishings have been installed and there are things hanging on the walls.

We bought a cloths closet at Ikea in Malaga last week and they delivered it within an incredible 48 hours. Then Steve, who apparently has lots of experience putting Ikea things together, put together our closet which I'm sure will be saving me lots of frustration!! So small steps down that road of moving.. we will be moving the things over slowly but surely as well. In fact, Daica helped to move quite a few things over this weekend as did Steve.

The weather is warming. We had quite a wind blowing through here on Friday and Saturday but today it is sunny and dry, quite clear, a perfect day for cycling. Speaking of cycling, we had a four Canadian cyclists arrive yesterday for the night, staying only one night here on their self-guided a circuit, heading next into Ronda. When chatting upon their arrival, it turns out that two of them live in Hong Kong and have done so for the last 17 years. They arrived in HK, coincidentally, one month before I did way back in 1992. Martin is a pilot and works for Cathy Pacific Airlines and knows someone (named Greg) that I know who lives in Sydney and works for the same company. All of this proves just how small this little old world is.

And on that note, I will say hasta otra dia.

We had another death in the village this week. This time a younger person who did not take care of himself. In fact, it was discovered that the house he and his brother were living in needed to be torn down as it was falling in on itself. Amazing conditions some people are willing to live in; the people from the village were even surprised at the mess in this house, filled to the ceiling with trash apparently.

The weather has been good and spring like. The temps have warmed and the flowers are sprouting. The forecast for Ronda is not good for today and tomorrow, rain, no sun. But here in Juzcar it is quite nice, sunny, clear, warm. Better to be in Juzcar than Ronda.

Our art gallery is almost there. The new closet is just about finished; now I have to move everything into it and organise it well. Then the place needs to be cleaned as there is a lot of dust around. We have had plenty of time to work on things upstairs these last couple of weeks as this has been the worst March for bookings, sadly.

And now people are arriving in the bar so I must dash... more later.

Today is Father´s Day in Spain. It is also San Jose Day who is the patron saint of carpenters. Things like that, I never knew growing up in New York. Here in Spain, one learns about patron saints. The calendar issued at each year end by Unicaja Bank, the largest in this area, has the names of the saints on each day of the year, so helpful, no?

We had a death in the village last Friday, a neighbour of ours as well. She was called Maria, what a surprise. She lived two houses down the calle from the hotel. She had a small dog that followed her, slowly, every where she went in the village. She was sometimes friendly enough to say ¨buenas dias¨ or ¨buenas tardes¨ to me or Ivan but she never failed to give a salutation to Lolita, one of our French Bulldogs; ¨Oh Lolita, Lolita, ¿que tal?¨ she would say. We would see her pretty much daily, going to take her trash to the bins or going down to the fountain to fill a bottle of water. Stopping at the mirador with another one of the villagers to chat and look at the view, speculate about the weather. On mornings when we were here early enough, we would see her waiting for the baker to arrive (the baker comes from Ronda daily about 9AM with fresh bread and sweets in his van). And once, we were clearing out some of the quantity of boxes full of vinegar and so we put a couple out in front of the hotel for anyone to help themselves to and help herself she did. She came along moments after the boxes were put out and said, ¨Oh, oh!! What´s this? For me? Ah, have you got some string for me to wrap it up to take home?¨ And off she went with all the vinegar, no word of thanks, no good-bye, just off she went, waddling down to her house, vinegar in hand, dog following behind her.

Her son, Javier, came into the bar on Friday a couple of times, also a new experience. Although they lived practically in front of the hotel and he even helped to build our pool, he never came to our bar before and he certainly never spoke. But on Friday, he was not himself as he had discovered his mother that morning. Now he would be all alone here in the village. He spoke to Ivan and explained a couple of things to him and had a couple of drinks. He came back to the bar later in the afternoon with some family relations and men from the village for coffee and copas of pacharan with ice. He came back in the evening with an aunt or someone that looked like that and wanted lots more pacharan for which I was admonished by this aunt as he was getting drunk.

On Saturday morning when I came to the hotel, the area in front of the hotel was full with cars. Just as I arrived at the hotel, the procession was coming up from Maria´s house with the hearse in front followed by Javier and Mª Carmen on his arm, a moody, somewhat deranged widow from the next street over. They were taking her to the village cemetary for internment. When our waiter arrived at 11.00, he saw all these cars and thought the hotel must be packed but no one was here except us as usual and one drunk called Paco from the next village (a whole other blog entry that is).

Friday was a glorious day as was Saturday, warm, sunny, clear. We had a table of four for lunch on the terrace of people from Ronda, called Rondeños, which does not happen nearly often enough. We had a lovely American couple staying with us for the weekend as well. They live in Cadiz where they have a business. We also had an English couple stay Saturday evening who publish a local English language monthly magazine called ¨Andalucia Life¨. They are doing a story about Bandoleros and this area and so planned to feature the hotel in the article.

We have a new waiter who started the weekend before; his name is Antonio like our previous waiter but that is where the similarities end. He is a very nice regular guy who also has a business which is struggling at the moment given the economics of the times. He and his fiancé, Mª Angeles, run a butcher business in Ronda but as business is down he is supplementing his income by coming to us on the weekends. They are both quite nice people, Sevillanos living in this area. We are now getting some of our meat supplies from him to help him out. In fact, I´m off to Ronda now to go and collect some suckling pig from them.

So I must be off. Another beautiful day here in Juzcar and warm as well. It had cooled a bit earlier in the week but it´s fantastic now. Ciao for now.

Today is the last day of the best February I think we have had, in terms of our business. We had a group booking in the first weekend of the month for two nights which filled the hotel. Then we were full for Valentine's day, for the first time. Last weekend was the only one (this month) where we had no clients staying in the hotel and little to no passing trade for lunch. But this weekend, there were 3 rooms last night (2 were Finnish couples) and 6 rooms today; we had a group of Danes that booked in for lunch today and we have another group booking for lunch tomorrow, technically, a different month. So all in all, we are happy with our flow of business and it continues to improve, despite this economic climate.

We were written up in a Costa del Sol based Finnish newspaper this month and so we have started receiving queries and reservations from Finnish people. We have previously had many Swedes and Danes and been included in a couple of issues of coastal Danish magazines as well. This is the photo of us published in the article in which we are told there is a good review of Ivan's cooking and the hotel.

Espanjan Sanomat - Febrero 2009 - Nº107

We had the windows finished in our new apartment last week. One of the new doors was installed as well, without the large piece of glass which will be installed when the second door is in place. We started painting the flat as well so it is really starting to take good shape. I'm hoping to be sleeping in there by the end of March!! The complete move of all our belonging may take longer than that as we will not have the benefit of a moving company to assist with that so "poco a poco" as they say here.

The weather has been bright and warm of late although today it is cloudy and raining. We're hoping that the cold weather has relatively little time left to run as we are ready for the milder temps of spring and the blossoms of wild flowers bursting with colour everywhere. Already the cherry blossoms are out in spectacular pink as usual and there are several other small flowers appearing in the countryside, yellows, purples, blues, whites, it is very lovely and should be gearing up very shortly as we move into the month of March.

We have a new bird cage that Ivan built, it is rather large and red and has 3 birds in it. Fred and Ginger have been relocated to this cage and a new male canary which Ivan would like to breed. He bought a new female canary but she was not very well from the start and died a couple of days later so we are now waiting for a new one.

We are expecting Ivan's parents to come for a visit for Semana Santa. Semana Santa starts this year on 3 April. We already have several booking for this week but still have plenty of availability so if you're interested in booking, now is the time to do so as the queries will increase in the coming days as people have a eye to arranging a break from all the bad news about these days.

I'm working on revising the website a wee bit. I have finally decided on the new format of the website making a wider which is more suitable to the contemporary sizes of computer screen. It will be more or less the same, the content will remain the same but the format will change. I still have not figured out how to incorporate PHP into my website as I am not sure how it functions and I am not a professional webmaster so I do not have lots of literature at my finger tips to do some research, even with the internet available. I know PHP would help me in reducing the amount of time I have to change some things on my website. When I've finished revising it, it will look nicer and be a bit easier to navigate. This will definitely take some time to do as I have so many pages in my site now and want to add one or two more.

I'm also trying to get a brochure for the rooms completed but I have been working on that for more than a year now and it is still not finished. I'm not a big procrastinator like my friend Andy in Los Angeles (sorry Andy) but it is just a slow process, deciding on the content, the form, and then putting it together.

I can say that I have procrastinated like my friend Andy in LA in terms of getting a disk of photos of my wedding to my sisters. The wedding was in May and here we are in March and still no disk. I have at least finished compiling the photos which I want to include and they are in the proper order but yet to be burned to a disk. This week I hope as I am not being held down to doing any accounting this week!!! I finished that last week.

Well more later. Ta ta amigos.

We had a very bad and extremely sad experience on Sunday evening. Ivan and I went for walk in the countryside to collect pine cones; we like using pine cones to start the fires in the wood-burning stoves instead of fire starters which tend to smell too much of gas for guest rooms. There is a particular location we found which is full of conifers that have lots of cones. We took the three dogs with us as usual.

While searching for cones, the dogs run up and down the road following us. Well they came across a piece of raw meat that some evil dark hearted person left with poison in it. Ivan caught the dogs sniffing it but unbeknownst to him, Pasky, our German Shepherd had consumed something of it for a few minutes after we got in the car to return to the hotel, there was some odour coming from the back of the car where the dogs were. We stopped to check what was happening and Ivan knew immediately that Pasky was reacting to the poison he was afraid the meat had; Pasky was vomiting, frothing at the mouth, having convulsions, muscle spasms and diarrhoea. We called the vet on call right away and then rushed to the hotel and then on Ronda but the poison was very strong and fast acting. Poor Pasky was dead on arrival at the vet. He attempted to revive him but without success, he was gone, just like that. This all happened in the space of an hour.

The vet said he had not seen a poison kill that fast before and he has seen several dog poisonings of late in Ronda. Some horrible person leaves poisoned meat in the street for dogs to find and kill themselves with, nice eh? He urged us to report this event to the police as there is an on-going investigation into these occurrences. We reported it to the Forest Services as we found out that the land where we were is actually owned by the Junta de Andalusia, the regional Andalusian government and that the area is open to hunters. They think that it is just mean spirited people that leave meat around to kill the hunters dogs; it could also be local shepherds attempting to kill off any predators of sheep and goats. Whoever it is, they are breaking the law as the Spanish central government realised that poison should not be just left lying around for anyone to consume because some beings become unintended victims like our Pasky!! We heard that the Guardia Civil are out questioning people in that area now and the rangers are searching for more poisoned meat with trained dogs.

Noble Pasky

We miss our Pasky very, very much; we only had him for four years, since he was 7 weeks old. He was a beautiful, loving, affectionate dog who was never aggressive, always gentle, sometimes (well, a lot of the times) seeking attention and jumping up on his owners and anyone else around which was too much. But it was all in search of love and attention, which I think he got a lot of. He now lies not far from where we will be living inside the hotel.