Early snow

It looks like it might be a good ski season in the Sierra Nevada this year, as they've had a couple of major snow falls already and it's still only October. Traditionally they open the ski lifts on December 1st, but I think they may bring it forward if conditions allow. No snow in Juviles yet, although it looks like it's going to be pretty cold this week - while we have guests from Paris staying in the house, no doubt frantically searching for firewood as I type this. Or making their way to Tino's bar to keep warm, one or the other...

Not such an innocent corner of Spain, then...

In my recent post about Lorca's remains I referred to the Alpujarra being practically oblivous to the civil war and the horrors of the Franco dictatorship. I picked that up from a number of literary sources and readily accepted it like many (including local PP supporters and ex-pats attracted to what they see as a bucolic paradise) who find benign ignorance the most acceptable explanation for the Alpujarra's absence from the written history of the period. It seems it doesn't stack up. As an article here in the Olive Press (in English) details, the Alpujarra is dotted with mass graves of people murdered by the Nationalists, including a burial site at the El Carrizal barranco between Lanjaron and Orgiva said to contain up to 4,000 corpses. If true, that would make it the biggest of the killing fields in Spain. Incidents of Guardia Civil murdering "Reds" in Torvizcon and Castaras are reported here too. For any English-speakers interested in Southern Spain, The Olive Press is worth a bookmark. Home page here.

Easy rider

Most places, when huge gangs of guys on customised motorcyles roll into town, they lower the shutters, lock up their daughters and play dead. In Juviles they put a few kegs of beer in the church square and start frying eggs. Pictures and video of the 3rd annual bikers' rally on the town hall website here. Notice the lovely weather for late september.

Chocolate quail, anyone?

The hotly contested title of best new tapa in Spain this year goes to Carlos Valenti of Madrid, who's just won the IV Concurso Pinchos with cordoniz con bizcocho de chocolate. That's quail with chocolate cake. The sponge incorporates the quail's liver for "a magical effect in the mouth". You won't get anything quite that sophisticated round our way, but then the tapas are free in the Alpujarra, and you get what you're given. Some memorable offerings in Juviles include Tino's omelette with ketchup, Susi's spicy snails and the old favourite, a baby morcilla (black pudding), served scalding hot and sitting on a small round of bread. Less successful were the boquerones (anchovies in vinegar) strewn over a plate of crisps that everyone seemed to think was a good idea a couple of years ago. The combination didn't do anything for either ingredient, and seems mercifully to have died out. Best tapa in the village would probably be Tino's chops cooked directly over the wood fire during the winter. I also have fond memories of a big plate of fried liver with chips at Susi's when we'd just unpacked the van in the dark after a five hour drive from Seville. There was nothing to eat in the house bar a packet of marzipan, and all the local restaurants were closed, so you can imagine how pleased we were when the plate of offal arrived in front of us, unbidden.

Looking for Lorca

Conservative Granada was largely on the wrong side during the civil war and the subsequent dictatorship, but it did produce one of the left's great poster boys in poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. Murdered by Nationalists within the first days of the conflict and buried somewhere near the airport which now bears his name, he's the subject of a grisly bit of archaeology as crusading super-judge Baltazar Garzon has ordered the opening of several mass graves in order to find his bones. Here he is in Lanjaron in the twenties, taking the waters, naturally. According to Brennan and (ahem) Chris Stewart, the Alpujarrans mostly ignored the war and didn't really understand politics anyway. No change there, then.

More wildlife

In Juvíles we're used to wildlife invading, what with swallows and geckos making their homes in the house itself, and any number of invertebrates calling in from time to time. It comes as more of a surprise in Scotland. Yesterday I entered the dining room to find a distressed robin flying around, and when I tried to help it out it managed to trap itself in between the sashes of the window - I'd been painting the frames. After a couple of failed attempts to free it, the bird played dead while I lifted it up and carried it out into the garden. Its tiny heart was beating like a drum, but it flew off in what looked like a perfectly healthy state. I didn't have the presence of mind to find the camera, so I had to get this shot online. (Although they live in the UK all year round they've become a symbol of winter, and it seems to be against the law to photograph robins without snow.)

You might see a European robin while staying at our place in Juvíles; the distribution goes all the way down to Mauritania. Other likely sightings depending on the season include hoopoes, black redstarts, bee eaters, Bonelli's eagle, vultures and not far away on the coast, flamingos. There are supposed to be naturalised parrots around, though I've never seen one. There are lots and lots of sparrows, too.

The credit crunch isn't so bad...

...that your next holiday has to be in a caravan in North Wales. Why not visit a village where there never was any credit to be crunched in the first place, namely Juviles, Granada, Spain? Book a week in our beautiful house for approximately £300. With plenty of room for five, that's just sixty quid a head for comfort, tranquility and staggering natural beauty. A glass of beer or wine in a local bar is between 1 and 1.50 euros, and comes with a complimentary tapa, while a three course lunch with wine can still be had for less than €10. Alternatively you can cook yourself, using fabulous local produce in our fully-equipped kitchen. You can rent a car for about a hundred quid a week in Spain, and walking in the beautiful countryside costs nothing. Which means that if you can sort yourself out with a good flight deal, you can have a holiday at our place for less than it costs to stay at home.

We're currently taking bookings for most weeks up until the middle of December (we're booked for Christmas) and for all of next year, so visit our permanent site to check availability. The alternative could be too grim to contemplate...

"The Alpujarra is in tears..."

A quote from today's Ideal, referring to the funeral in Cadiar of a young local woman who was murdered early this week by her partner. The couple were both serving in the military and the crime occurred in married quarters in Granada city. Uncomfortably, Cadiar is full to the gills with folk gathered for a fiesta, complete with all the usual bunting, flags, kids' entertainers and wine fountain. The sombre procession of military personnel carrying a coffin through the streets to the church must have been rather surreal amongst that lot. The paper says everyone in Cadiar knew Encarni - which didn't need saying, really, as everyone knows everyone in the Alpujarra. Story here, in Spanish.

Messages from the Alpujarra

I just added the Alpujarra Messageboard to my list of links. It's a treasure trove of fatalistic posts by people who bought houses in El Golco three years ago and still haven't had their electricity or water connected. There are postings of a more general interest, too, including the odd restaurant recommendation, news of fiestas, puppies looking for good homes etc. It's run by the people behind Blue Sky Escapes estate agency, but there's certainly no hard sell and they recently closed for new business anyway. See the link in the column on the right or just go here.