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!

Ivan and I were in Las Navas del Marques last weekend for the annual fiesta kick-off. Las Navas is Ivan's home town.

The fiesta lasts a whole week and started on 10 July. It kicks off with a big procession of the Christ on a Crucifix from one church in one of town, down the main street of the village into a another church and then a big fireworks displays. Then there are the bands; one started playing at midnight and played until 4AM and then the second band came on and played until 7AM. Well, that's a party!!

The week of fiesta activities includes some bull fights, appointment of the Queen & Miss Queen of the Fiesta as well as the "Mister" of the Fiesta, not a king per say but something for the chicos as well. There are lots of rides for the children, the main street is closed for the week and filled with vendors stalls of various goods from clothing to jewelry to sunglasses, purses, accessories, and of course food. This year was the first time I have seen them offering Doner Kebabs, a fixture on north London streets.

Ivan and I were invited to participate as judges in the 3rd Annual Tapas competition. There were 12 bars and restaurants competing. We agreed of course and had quite a nice selection of tapas and were even on the local provisional television program covering the fiestas. We tried mini-quiches filled with leeks, tostadas with black pudding, caramelized onions and a wee bit of melted goat cheese, tostada with confit cod fish toped with caramelized onions & piquillo peppers, beef cheek stew, puff pastry filled with Spanish black ham, and other tasty bits. We really enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing that again.

Now we are back here in Juzcar where it is very hot. Fortunately it cool right down when the sun disappears over the top of the mountain at about 21.30 hrs now. . Excellent weather for enjoying the pool and getting some summer color. Or a run down to the Genal river for a quick dip in the very fresh river water swimming hole.

Our bookings are fairly low at the minute which was fairly standard for this time of year. Even so, we are quite bored with it. I am about to relaunch my website as well with a whole new look and feel to it. Please keep your eyes out for that as I think it will be launched anytime now in the next few days, depends on when my website designer has the time to do what needs to be done.

Stay cool!!

Hotel Bandolero in red, June 2010

June 2010

May 2009

The chestnut flowers are starting to peak now with their yellow flowers adorning most of the chestnut trees in Juzcar and the surrounding villages. They are blooming a bit late late this year as they are normally blooming in May and here we are at 24 June!! I wonder what this will mean for the chestnuts themselves, will this be a good harvest year or no? I'm sure we will be hearing all the grumblings from this in mid-to-late September when they are normally harvested.

The annual Juzcar Romeria will be happening this coming Saturday down by the river as per usual. There will be a big paella on offer as well which is normally free to participants.

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.

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.