What in the Smurf is going on here!?

I have no smurfing time to write smurfy blog entries, nor the desire after the long smurfing days we have been having since June. Yes, now that the weather has changed the traffic has noticeably slowed down, which is not unappreciated, but the weekends have still be quite robust in terms of traffic and the village still has its rented local police enforcing traffic regs and parking norms.

Meanwhile, the valley's chestnut trees have begun to change color and provide that lovely autumnal feeling along with a chill in the air! Soon if not already, it will be time to light the stove or the fire and cuddle up with a lovely book and glass of wine.

Our American painting group came through in October as planned and they all left happy and content. That said, sadly they will not return to the Smurf village in 2012 as it was not quite the same experience in 2011 as in 2010 B.S. ("before Smurfs"...?) when one felt that the village was all for the group only and now it was hard to feel at home in the hotel itself with all the noise generated by the passing trade of the Smurf spectators. Oh Smurf!!

The village has it annual wild mushroom conference planned for a launch on 11 November, 3 days of examining mushrooms, searching for mushrooms, reading about mushrooms, eating mushroom, everything mushroom!! What could be more Smurfy?

I think I will revolt a bit and paint my chimneys in color as before before there is an election which makes it illegal to paint your house or facade anything but Smurf blue!!!

I am going on my break now, more Smurf tales later, have a Smurfy weekend!!

Wow, it has been a while since my last post here in the blog world. We have been very busy as you may have seen from my posts on the HB Facebook page. The amount of people coming to see the blue village is pretty incredible. Who knew that Smurfs would be so popular. We now have four waiters working on the weekends and one during the week which may go up to two for the month of August as we expect the traffic to increase in this very busy month of holidays plus one helper in the kitchen.

As we are in a Saturday almost at lunch so I have little time to create the post I would like to to describe the things that have been happening here since April so I will write again in a couple of days when I might have the time to write all I want to say.

In the meantime, I am happy to say we have been having the best summer ever here in Juzcar, both the hotel and the restaurant. No time for rest for Ivan and I as we are flat-out all week.

And tomorrow Sunday, I have been asked again to participate in the Sacramento morning TV program via a Skype call. So I may be on TV in California, my home state, tomorrow!! They tried to have me on the program on 19 June but we were so busy at the time of the interview, I had to hang up. So let's see if I can make it tomorrow.

Ciao for now from Smurfland (a.k.a. Pitufolandia) !

Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, a week full of tradition here in Spain. In the village of Juzcar, today the locals (including all the children) will be tramping around the countryside cutting branches from trees such as laurel, pine, oak, chestnut, following the village tradition. Once they have collected all the branches, they return quite merrily and loudly to the village and put what they have collected near the village hall. Later in the week, they will use all these branches to decorate the village, adorning houses, railings, the village hall, the church, etc., it actually looks quite nice. Of course the older participants in today's activity will end up having a piss up.

February 2011 was the best February we have ever had, strange given that we are still feeling the effect of this recession. We were full for both St Valentine's weekend and the for the Andalucia Day which falls on 28 February. Then we had March which was very slow for us, in fact, March 2011 was the slowest March we have ever had, the least bookings and barely anyone for the restaurant. Of course it did not help that were closed for one week due to my birthday celebrations. My sisters came over from New York as well as a couple of friends, one from Florida and the other from Virginia. It was a big birthday for me so a celebration was in order and that included closing the business for a few days.

We all went to Gibraltar one day and really enjoyed ourselves. We all had the typical tourist fare of fish and chips in the main square which was surprisingly quite good and large. We later took a tour in a taxi of the main tourists points which included the Pillars of Hercules, St Michael's cave and the tunnels dug out in the 18 century, all quite interesting. There are some photos available on the Hotel Bandolero Facebook page of this day, if you're interested

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hotel-Bandolero/113234190020 .

And for my birthday, we all headed to Sevilla for two nights of fun and good eats where we were joined by two more friends from Madrid and Sevillano cousin Jesus and his girlfriend Sylvia. All in all, quite a good birthday.

And now we are here at the start of Holy Week and we have a group arriving from Scotland this evening for the annual Scottish Gaelic Language and Song Workshop. In fact, one participant has arrived just now on his own. This will be the third such workshop held here in Juzcar at the hotel and it kicks off in full tomorrow. The group will also spend an evening in Ronda viewing one of the Easter processions and then an evening of flamenco. And on Holy Thursday (21-04-2011), we will be holding a ceidihl (pronounced "kay-lee") which is a Scottish fiesta comprising of music, song, dance, kilts of course and some whisky if you like. There will also be shortbread about and all are welcome; it kicks-off from 8:30 P.M here in Juzcar at the hotel. Check out our webpage with information about the workshop here: http://www.hotelbandolero.com/themes/gaelic.html .

We are going to continue to be busy with a group of American artists arriving in the first weekend of May. This is a new artist and group for us introduced by our other American artist who holds workshops here in the autumn. They will be here for a full 10 nights with a packed agenda including a day trip to La Alhambra in Granada amongst other day trips for painting.

The other news we have which is something we hope will heavily promote the village of Juzcar is a up-coming film release. "How so?" one may ask. Well, it turns out that Sony Pictures is promoting a new Smurf film to be released in August 2011 and their publicity campaign for Spain includes painting a village where Smurfs might live completely the Smurf blue. Yes folks, you got it, Juzcar is that village and Juzcar is going to be painted Smurf blue for the promotion. Blue, that is correct. (FYI, the Smurfs are called "Los Pitufos" in Castilian.) This planned event was announced about 10 days ago at a village residents meeting with the Juzcar mayor and apparently all the village residents have given their approvals to have their houses painted blue for this publicity event which will be a big press event which will include Smurfs as well in mid-June 2011. Sony Pictures will also donate and plant one tree for every resident in the village with their names on the trees ( as this is an environmentally friendly promotional event in keeping with how the Smurfs live in their enchanted forest!! ). The village will remain blue until end of summer when it will be painted again to the original white. All in all, could be quite interesting, lots of visitors to see the blue village, a unique things for this year only.

For those of you who know nothing about Smurfs, check them out in YouTube and on Wikipedia where there is a history of the story of the Smurfs, their comic strip and cartoons.

Until next time, todavia el Bandolero le espera en el parte mas verde de Andalucia.

Well the end of February is upon us during this three day weekend here in Andalusia. And why do we have three days this weekend? Because Monday is 28 February which is Andalusia Day. In Spain, each autonomous region has public holidays for their own region and here it is Andalusia Day.

The weather could not be more perfect for a holiday weekend. Today, it is like summer out there, warm breeze, cloudless sky, bright sun, one could not ask for a better day. We have the hotel full this evening and expect many to be out walking today and exploring.

Looks like we are going to have a early spring as this weather looks posed to stay and no one is complaining about that.

We have a Scottish Gaelic Language workshop booked for mid-April, well during Holy Week actually. There are still places available and we will be having the Scottish fiesta on 21 April which is a Thursday so mark your calendar if you are in the area. It is a fun evening with Scottish folks dances and song as well as door prizes of Scotch Whisky, shortbread and other prizes. Bring your kilt!!

This is Valentine's Day weekend as Monday is the day. We have put on a special menu for dinner for today, tomorrow and Monday. The weather is gorgeous, perfect for a day of walking and then a lovely candle lit dinner for two, romance in the Genal Valley of the Serrania de Ronda. The hotel is full this evening but we have rooms available for tomorrow and Monday.

Here are a couple of photos I took earlier this week and one that has been around for a while.

It shows how beautiful the weather has been this week and hopefully for the rest of the month.

February 2011,

The Chimney Pots and Almond Flowers

Hotel view from the rooms terrace

Plenty of Almond Trees in bloom

February 2011

Chimney Pots and the Yuca

February 2011

Hotel Bandolero, Juzcar

In the Genal Valley

Serrania de Ronda, Malaga

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.

Today is my nephew 's birthday so Happy birthday James.

Here in Juzcar, we had a pretty big thunder and lightening storm last night which for me, coming form New York where it is cold at this time of year, is strange. In NY, there are thunderstorms in the warmer months as I recall. That said, a client in Scotland told me in November that they were experiencing thunder and lightening while it was snowing and that was being called "thunder snow". Strange weather. And the weather today is slightly sunny but with lots of clouds about and it is wet.

Ivan and I drove north to spend the holidays with his family in Avila. We headed north on 21 December and it was pouring with rain all through Andalucia until we reached Castilla La Mancha. The rain was torrential at times and one could see all the rivers overflowing with brown water as well as all the fields of olive trees, filled with water. Andalucia has been having a similar experience to last year with large amounts of rain coming down in short periods of time. One town in Sevilla province had been flooded five times in two or three weeks with news reports showing boats going where cars would normally be as well as houses and shops filled with mud up to 1.5 meters deep.

Our holiday passed quickly as one would imagine a holiday does. I ate too much, of course, spent some time with friends in Madrid. In fact, we got to see the Madrid Christmas lights which I did not know existed; it was quite pretty all around central Madrid, colorful lights by various designers with an open air tour bus taking spectators around to see them at night. It was very cold on that bus up top so we rode inside and did not have as good a view but we were warmer. For New Year's Eve, we had a big family dinner followed by the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes with the strokes of midnight. After that, we all stayed in all evening playing table games and talking, a rather subdued evening in good company and a nice change from working all day and half way through the night on the date.

Now back here in Juzcar, we will have our spring clean up work cut out for us yet again as the algae forms on the terrace tiles from being constantly wet for days on end. When we returned from Avila, I spent quite some time sweeping up leaves, dirt and muck around the terraces and cleaning all the drains, fun dirty work...not! We are also working toward getting more group business this year. We've had plenty of free publicity of late. On 02 January and last night as well (08 January), the village and the hotel were featured in another television program about sustainable rural tourism. Hopefully that will bring business our way. Her is a link to the program from 02 January... it is in Spanish of course but nevertheless interesting to see. Our bit starts at about 8.30 minutes into the program :

http://www.radiotelevisionandalucia.es/tvcarta/impe/web/contenido?id=5309

When the program from yesterday's broadcast is available on-line, I will add the link here as well for all to view.

El Hotel Bandolero esta en el Canal Sur esta noche (22.30 hr) en la programa "75 Minutos" con la tema de Domingueros.

This evening, 23 November, Hotel Bandolero and the village of Juzcar will be featured this evening at 22.30 hrs on the program called "75 Minutos; it is a news documentary type program and the theme for tonights program is weekend activities in Andalucia.

For those of you outside Spain who do not receive this channel, you can watch it in a few days on the internet. Search for "TV a la carta, Canal Sur" and look for the program "75 Minutos", it is televised weekly on Tuesday evening.

Hotel Bandolero will also be featured in another of Canal Sur's programing which will be televised at a later date, January 2011 we are informed. I will write an entry here to let you all know when it will be available both on television and on the internet.

Meanwhile, business has slowed a bit after a very good October and early November. The rain has started but it is coming down in "normal" quantities as opposed to what we all experienced last year. And the mushrooms have been excellent this year as we bought some more last week and apparently there are lots of mushrooms waiting for us up north with Ivan's family (cleaned and wrapped.... nice one!!).

We have decided to be closed for Christmas and New Year's Eve this year having worked the last six years. This time around, we will be spending the entire holiday period with family and friends in the Avila/Madrid area. We will also be closed for the first two weeks of January as we will be away for a holiday visiting some friends outside of Juzcar.

We have availability for the upcoming big holiday weekend in early December for any interested.

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.

These are amanitas cesareas (also locally called "yemas de huevo"), a type of mushroom that grows beneath chestnut trees. This year we are already seeing quite a bit of these mushroom on offer for sale. The people that bring do not tell us where they found them to preserve their mushroom hunting grounds.

Ivan has been preparing dishes with these mushrooms. They are very pretty for a mushroom.

We are now full swing into wild mushrooms season thanks to the rain of late and the continued sunshine. We have been buying these wild mushrooms from various suppliers of late as well, nice and fresh.

So this weekend, we will have a special menu which Ivan has been diligently working on the past couple of days. This is what is in the line up for the weekend if you like mushrooms...

**Potaje de Castañas y Garbanzos - Chic pea and chestnut stew.

**Ensalada con amanitas y granada - Salad with yema mushroom and pomegranate.

**Aluvias rojas con conejo y castañas - Red beans stew with rabbit and chestnuts.

**Aluvias blancas con codorniz y amanitas - White bean stew with quail and yema mushrooms.

**Carrillada ibérica estofada con boletos - Pork cheek stew with boletus mushrooms.

**Lenguado a la plancha con setas confitadas - Grilled dover sole with confit mushrooms.

**Arroz con boletos y espárragos trigueros - Risotto of asparagus & boletus mushrooms

**Revuelto de setas y espárragos trigueros - Scrambled egg with mushrooms & asparagus .

And of course we will have the usual line up of desserts on offer. Looking good for a food fest this weekend.

Ciao for now.

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.

We had the American group of painters here earlier this month for a 9 night visit. They had a very nice time painting the Serrania de Ronda yet again. This group was the most diverse yet in terms of origins, having come from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Maryland, California, New Mexico, Washington, DC, Illinois, Florida, Oregon and Texas... very interesting for us. One evening we all went into Ronda for a flamenco performance and the main dancer was someone who had taught Ivan some flamenco last year. During the performance, she surprised Ivan and invited him onto the stage with them. This is the video of that taken by Bruce S. of Wisconsin.

Here we are in September and it has been almost two months since my last entry. I have been remiss in not posting more of late but then we did get busy after a very boring July in terms of business. My sister MAria and her two teenage children came for a couple of weeks which was their (the kids) first visit to Spain and to my hotel. We had a nice visit which included a trip up to Madrid and vicinity for a few days to visit with Ivan's family broadening their exposure to Spain and being in Avila for the final of the World Cup which Spain won, of course!! Lots of fun and excitement!! We also took advantage of the lack of summer bookings to go to the beach a few times down in Marbella.

In July this year, our first bookings came almost three weeks into the month. But, however, things have carried on since then and have improved. The July weather was quite pleasant with no unbearably hot days. That did not happen until August arrived, right about 10 August. How can I be so sure, you ask. Well, our usual summer clients, Maria and Inocencio from Barcelona, arrived on 9 August; since our first summer here in Juzcar in 2005, Maria and Inocencio (also known as "the Catalans") have been coming to spend their August summer holiday with us and normally stay for 21 nights or longer. So this year, they arrived on 9 August and the day after, their friends Miguel and Luisa from Malaga, came up for lunch and it was very, very hot that day. The first day it was like that all summer, hot with hot air blowing making it feel like one was sitting in a sauna when one was actually sitting on the terrace. And we had a few more of those days toward the end of August as well, unbearably hot and into the night as well.

While we were getting busier, it was not as busy as last year and we attribute that to the state of the current economy. When the Juzcar fiesta began, the hotel was still not quite full and those that stayed in the hotel, aside from the Catalans, did not eat in the hotel as there was plenty of free food on offer from the village hall during the fiesta. But, one cannot complain as we had more business than we had been having.

Ivan's parents came down from Avila for a couple of weeks as usual during the Juzcar fiesta time which has become an annual visit. Paz, my mother in law, is a very good cook and helps Ivan quite a bit in the kitchen when we are busy. The irony this year is that we would have been fine without any assistance this year during the Juzcar fiesta but could have used a hand during the Ronda fiesta as we were very busy then. The Ronda fiesta began on 30 August this year and carried on until last Sunday, 5 September. This is the Pedro Romero Fiesta when the Goyesca corrida occurs once a year in Ronda; it is quite famous across Spain as it occurs in the the second oldest bull ring in Spain (the oldest being in Leon).

The hotel was full for the whole weekend of the the Ronda fiesta. We also had some friends that came for a short visit from Avila which was quite a nice distraction for a couple of days even though we were busy with work. We had return clients for the third year who love the corrida and enjoy staying here instead of in busy Ronda. And everyone was dining here in the hotel so we actually almost ran out of of food which does not happen very often so were were content.

And this has still carried on as we have had people in the hotel continuously now since 9 August. While that is quite nice to be busy and popular, it is also quite tiring as we have to be "on" all the time and our days are quite long. We are planning to have a few days rest before the end of the month at which time our American painters will arrive and be with us for nine nights.

We made some more minor improvements to the hotel recently as well. Spain introduced TDT television this year which means " Terrestrial Digital Television" so all channels have been converted to digital and there are many more channels to select from. When this happen in April and the analogue channels were discontinued, we wound up not having any TVs in the hotel that functioned as we had not bought the boxes for converting the signal. The reason for that was we had applied for a grant from the Junta de Andalucia as per usual in January requesting assistance in the form of some cash to buy new plasma TVs which are TDT ready. I believe I wrote about this when there were developments.... meaning I applied in January following all the guidelines to the letter, submitting all the requisite paperwork and waited the usual three months for a response only to be told "denied" yet again. We have applied five out of six years for grants and not once have we been granted a single centimo. The explanation we got this time was that we did not qualify for the grants because we are located in the middle of the countryside!! Clearly discrimination. If we had been located on the lovely Costa del Sol or even in Ronda, we would have been granted the funds or so we were informed. Frustrating and infuriating to say the least!!

Anyway, we finally worked something out and got eight new plasma 19 inch screen TDT ready televisions which were delivered about 10 days ago. I installed them all last week and found that we now have 42 channels, some radio and some visual. We can even change the broadcast language to V.O. (if it is available) which will be great for our non-Spanish clientele who come across an American program for example, and can then view it in English. And now we have radio in the rooms as well offering a variety of channels from news/talk radio to contemporary/classical music channels, and that makes me happy. But I still have to make a small card to inform clients how the TVs function... to be added to the "to-do" check list!

Well, that's a quick review of the last few weeks. We have a day free tomorrow and then more clients arriving on Friday. The weather has been perfect for the last few days, not too hot and quite fresh in the evenings perfect for sleeping!! And the stars, what stars are out there!!

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.