Should you be contemplating an Autumn escape, here are a couple of great ideas for breaks here in the undiscovered Serrania de Ronda. The annual Mosto Festival in Cartajima. Whilst the wine is not so great, the party is! And…
1492 is just another number but also a year redolent of change, not just in Spain but globally. In this year, in the small Andalucian town of Santa Fe, near Granada, occurred two momentous historical moments. You will pass by…
Everybody who is interested now knows that the little pueblo blanco just four kilometres away from us is no longer a pueblo blanco but a pueblo azul. People are flocking to see the blue walls. The village is thriving. Restaurants…
Breakfast in Andalucia – sounds like the title of a Hemingway novel! We were on the hunt for the perfect photograph of Ronda – an image that would capture the magnificence of this ancient settlement. Having scoped out the best…
The Spanish stereotype once embodied the fearsome Duke of Alva, the grotesque Franco, the horrendous Inquisition. But times change and Spain is now all about flamenco and flounces, Carmen and castanets, bravado and bulls. Both the bravado and the bulls…
When a famous chef, a Spanish household name, stayed at Los Castaños, I was urged to have my photograph taken with him, get his autograph, publicise the event. But, unlike other hotels who make hay with their newsworthy guests, we…
From being an undiscovered, overlooked pristine Andalucian valley, the Alto Genal is really hitting the headlines. Not for all the reasons my guests and I are here: the untrampled beauty, the tranquillity broken only by birdsong, and the traditional villagers…
The Andalucians specialise in combining the sacred with the secular. A quintessential example of this phenomenon is Cartajima’s annual romeria, a picnic with Jesus, which was celebrated yesterday. The original inference of romeria was a pilgrimage to Rome which was,…
Mari, my expert on Cartajima food traditions, mentioned gachas the other day. Never heard of it, said I. What is it? I enquired. Salivating, she described a porridge of wheat flour and water which didn’t sound exactly appetising. But, it…
Many cans of “pitufo* azul” paint are emptied every day as Juzcar’s old walls are prepared for the big event on an unspecified day but rumoured (Sony aren’t saying anything) to be 16th June in advance of the launching of…