June 1st - 7th 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
Another beautiful day. A few high clouds and temperatures are around 80°F in the shade. Very pleasant.
Adelia and Paco have invited us to their son Antonio's first communion tomorrow. They had very kindly got an invitation translated into English for us by Antonio's schhool teacher.
Jane decided we need a communion card so off we go down to the coast. Christina's in the Courtyard, Monte Duquesa.
Jane found a nice one in English. We then went to an internet cafe.
Monte Duquesa is a building site. The area around the 'Courtyard' has been completed and it is a lot nicer actually in the streets of the urbanisation than from looking at it from a distance.
There are a number of shops as well as those mentioned earlier. A couple of cafe's, a bar, estate agents. Everyone seemed to be British.
Here are some photographs of some of the new developments being built, views to the coast and the completed 'Courtyard' area of Monte Duquesa.
We drove home through some great countryside, crossing the Rio Genal below Gaucín.
More and more flowers are blooming. There's a twiggy shrub with a silvery leaf which has yellow flowers. It is flowering all over the campo. The silver and the yellow are a great contrast.
We worked most of the evening. Starting to prune/merge and develop the forums on www.1costadelsol.com.
There is an events calendar on the 1costadelsol.com website. Click Calendar in the navigation bar or follow this link. Then select the pueblo or resort from the Jump Calendar list at the bottom right hand corner of the page.
You can add public ferias and fiestas and 100% free or charity events.
Commercial, promotions and Entertainment events can be added for a small fee of 10€ per day of the event.
So a Fri-Sat-Sunday weekend event would cost only 30 €s to list.
All listings feed through to the Pueblos Events guide as well as onto the front page Entertainment and Fiestas forum.
They also appear on the 'Today's Events' section of the front page as a timely reminder.
People can also subscribe to be reminded of an up and coming event by e-mail.
We endeavour to give you as much publicity for your event as possible.
1CostaDelSol.com Calendar
The first event input so far is for the Open Studio weekend in Gaucín 2-3rd June 2007.
Also next weekend 9-10th June 2007.
The event starts at 10am until 7pm. There is an exhibition and maps of the route around the 17 studios which are opening can be found in the Convento. Calle Convento Gaucin.
We'll try to visit next weekend, with Jane's parent's Esther and Bob.
It's Antonio Jesus Ruiz Romero's big day today. His first communion.
There's the church service of course at 13:00h. Then the celebrations begin in the plaza.
We had a great time and so did everyone else.
Antonio's big day went smoothly and he was even brave enough to sing unaccompanied to everyone in the plaza.
A big thanks to Paco and Adelia for the invitation and for a wonderful day.
More photographs can be found on www.benarraba.com
Jane was photographer. Some really good shots and I think she got everybody who wanted their photograph taken.
Antonio's Communion Benarrabá
We have new guests, from New Orleans. Anne and Sue arrived in Spain last week and have spent time in Madrid and Sevilla. They love Benarrabá and the Genal Valley.
Anne's a keen 'Birder' she's looking forward to seeing a few raptors.
They want to see Rosie and Domingo, so we'll plan a drive/walk into the campo with them tomorrow.
Another lovely day.
We spent the day around the house.
I made a start on all the photographs we'd taken at the communion. Over three hundred to go through and select probably around half to go on the Benarrabá website. We don't want to miss anyone out.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go with Anne and Sue our American guest's to see Rosie and Domingo.
We took the car as we plan on carrying on down to the Rio Genal.
This is Anne and Sue (seated). Enlargements by clicking on the photograph.
Here's Sue feeding Rosie.
Sue finds out that Domingo is very friendly.
Sue kindly took a few photographs of Jane and myself. I like the first Jane thinks that Domingo is about to eat her arm, but he only wipes his nose on her. He's a ... lovely little burro.
We drove down to the Rio Genal.
It was a lovely evening. Very tranquil.
Anne and Sue kindly invited us to join them for a meal.
We went to Algatocín first for a refreshing drink in a bar before driving to the Restaurante Fuentecilla which was closed.
So we drove back to Benarrabá to the Restaurante Kábilas, run by friend's Mercedes and Javier.
Which turned out to be a great choice as the meal was great.
We really enjoyed Anne and Sue's company. Big thanks to them. We hope to catch up with them again during their stay with us. A lovely evening.
Back home Jane and I watched 'Fracture' starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.
A good film, well worth seeing.
A day spent on the computer sorting photographs for the communion and catching up with the blog.
Jane's parents Esther and Bob arrive tomorrow to stay with us just over a fortnight.
Anne and Sue are in the apartment, so for the first two nights Esther and Bob are staying with us.
This means Jane is in a cleaning frenzy.
I've been out a couple of times with the dogs, it's a lovely afternoon.
Later we went out to photograph a property a friend in the village wants us to list for him.
Just outside the village this countyhouse has terraced land covered in fruit and nut trees.
Here are a few photographs that we took in the terraced hillside around the house.
In the evening we carried on with our work. Jane's still cleaning and doing mountains of washing.
Tomorrow we've a busy day planned. Starting with a trip to Gibraltar then up the coast to Malaga, before returning to Benarraba.
We set off for Gibraltar at around 11:00h. It's a beautiful day with temperatures in the 80's°F.
We drove down the Guadiaro to San Pablo, then on passed Jimena de la Frontera.
Jimena de la Frontera.
We stopped at Venta Carrasco just passed Jimena de la Frontera for a coffee.
Then we drove to La Linea we parked and had a sandwich looking over the bay towards Gibraltar.
We filled up with petrol in Gibraltar. No problems at the border.
We headed up the coast road, passed Alcaidesa, Sotogrande, Duquesa, Sabinillas, Casares Costa, Estepona before stopping in San Pedro de Alcantara at Playa de Cortijo Blanco.
We are exploring the beaches and resorts of the Costa del Sol this year. I know it's a tough job and we do have to force ourselves to get out of bed in the morning ...
We've never been to the Playa de Cortijo Blanco before.
After our visit to San Pedro Playa de Cortijo Blanco, which I quite liked but Jane thought the beach wasn't very good. It was quite rocky and gritty. However it wasn't commercialised, just a few beach side bars and restaurantes. Cars were getting onto the beach down a dried up river bed.
We got in the car then got stuck in an one way system at school run time.
The school was flying a Union Jack as well as the Spanish flag.
All the parents seemed to have large gas guzzling people carriers and had double parked them all down the street. We crawled passed the school ... twice ... before breaking out of the one way system and going driving on through Marbella.
Marbella was fairly quiet, we traveled on to Calahonda.
We've never stopped here before.
The first area we tried was 'Royal Beach'. Down passed some bins behind a drive through McDonalds. Not a pretty entrance but the beach was sandy and quiet. The bar/restaurante shuts on Tuesdays.
After a short walk up the bay we went back to the car and drove a short distance to Doña Lola. Doña Lola is a lovely complex fronted by shops and restaurantes. Behind are some lovely apartments that are mainly timeshares with a few full time residents. We had a drink in Oscars, the girl in the bar (sorry forgot to get her name), kindly told us all about the area.
We crossed the road bridge to explore the shops and restaurantes on the inland side of the road. There are some huge developments spreading up from the coast into the hills. Again the look fairly unpleasant from a distance but once you are at street level they are very pleasant residential areas. Well planted with palms and Hibiscus hedges we walked around a few streets of whitewashed houses with small well maintained gardens.
We came across an area of restaurantes, arcades, estate agents plus a real British style fish and chip shop. We were debating whether to have a bag when Cheryl from Fuenplaza Group Real Estate Agents popped out to see if we wanted to buy some property. We said we were deciding whether to buy a bag of chips and not a luxury villa. Cheryl was a lovely lady and chatted to us about the area. If you need an Estate Agent in Calahonda try Cheryl at www.fuenplaza.com
Fuenplaza Group Real Estate Agents
Jane did have a bag of chips from 'Boathouse Fish & Chips' which were excellent.
We enjoyed our time in Calahonda and will return to explore more of the area very soon.
We crossed the road bridge back to the car and drove to the airport to meet Esther and Bob.
We haven't seen them since October last year, it's good to see them again.
We decided to drive back along the coast as there was an hour or so of daylight left.
We turned off into Fuengirola and then spent an hour driving around trying to get out!
Every cloud has a silver lining and we got to see quite a bit of this busy bustling town.
Eventually we did find the road out and headed through Calahonda, Marbella and Estepona to Sabinillas where we turned inland getting to Benarrabá just after 23:00h.
A long day but well worth it.
A big thanks to those who reported bad links - 404 messages on the blog arrows.
My fault for a typo.
Also big thanks to Kathleen Robinson for reporting a Browser issue with IE, since using photographs from the gallery.Hopefully both these problemas are now fixed.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
If you'd like to see enlargements click on the photographs.
Also we often put more photographs in the galleries than we use in the blog.
Big thanks to Marilyn (barmymarny) for uploading over 100 photographs of Andalucia/Spain yesterday.
Marilyn O'Loughlin's Photo Gallery
Here's just one of Marilyn's photographs. The Art Gallery near the Puente Nuevo in Ronda.
The weather continues to be fantastic.
Jane, Bob and Esther go down to San Luis de Sabinillas for a walk along the beach by the Mediterranean sea and to do some shopping.
This is Heather and her cute little dog. Heather owns 'The Restaurante with No Name' on the beach front at San Luis de Sabinillas. So book a table and tell her you've seen her photo on the blog.
Back in Benarrabá, the local Griffon Vultures were having a meeting on the limestone outcrop above the village. Jane counted over fifty of them.
Later we went to Gaucín to buy seed for the donkeys.
Then we drove to see them. They are well.
Domingo took a liking to Esther ... he thinks that she has more carrots.
Bob with little Rosie.
On the way back to the village we passed Sebastián and Maria. They were painting the water deposit on their huerto (veg garden). Sebastián was inside it. We wondered if he could get out okay, he's not very tall.
In the evening we ate tandoori chicken with salad. Jane and I showed Bob and Esther lots of recent photographs from the blog and gallery. England won 0-3 in Estonia. Michael Owen scored, which is good news.
Another beautiful sunny day.
We spent the morning around the apartment.
Anne and Sue left early this morning. Heading to New Orleans via Madrid.
We wish them a safe journey home and we hope to meet them again in the future as they both really enjoyed their stay in the mountains and we enjoyed their company.
Gaucín Open Studios Weekend
A reminder that it is the second weekend of the Gaucín Open Studios Weekend. Saturday/Sunday.
There is an exhibition in the Convent and here maps of the route of the studios can be obtained.
We understand seventeen studios are open.
It all kicks off at 11:00h and continues until 19:00h.
We hope to go on Saturday.
www.artgaucin.com
In the afternoon Jane and I walked to the Restaurante Kábilas to sit on the sun terrace but it was closed!
I'm not sure when it is going to open during weekdays. A pity as we enjoy sitting in the sun here.
This purple flowered tree is very beautiful. I'm not sure what it is called. We noticed some in Marbella a few days ago. I also remember seeing an avenue of them in Málaga.
Another purple flower. This time Wisteria. This is in the colegio in Benarrabá.
The sun was quite strong but nothing stops these two football crazy kids.
They play all the time, usually together. They are both as a result very good. The girl supports Barcelona and the boy Real Madrid. These teams are tied at the top of La Liga with two games to go. Sevilla are two points behind. An exciting finale to the Spanish football season.
We walked down to Pub Bar Dami.
We like Dami's bar, there's always a friendly welcome and he does some great tapas.
Next we called into Bar Andrés Sánchez.
Another great bar. We are spoilt in this small village having so many bars. Each different but all with a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.
Some of the 'Usual Suspects'.
In Bar Andrés Sanchez between 2-3pm and 8pm until late you can order hot tapas from the kitchen. The rest of the day a variety of cold tapas is on sale. Tapas and most drinks in Benarrabá cost 75 centimos around 50p or $1. Benarrabá is one of, if not the cheapest village in the area.
Calle Pósito (near the church) in Benarrabá has three bars and during the summer it is a fantastic place to spend the evening, a great atmosphere and if you're used to Gaucín or coast prices the bill at the end of the night will be a pleasant surprise if not a complete shock.
Sebastián.
Quite often in the afternoon or evening a card or domino school is to be found outside the Ayuntamiento(Town Hall). Always good natured and we think for fun. We've never seen money changing hands.
Finally here's one of me enjoying the afternoon sun outside Andrés.
As well as being cheap for tapas, wine and beer, Benarrabá is famous for its acorn fed organic pork. Local jamon is prized and we're lucky that Carnicería Antonia in the village sells fantastic pork products.
We bought a joint to roast in the oven that weighed 3lb/1.4kg it is around 5€s a kg so cost us 7€s/£5. Amazing value for organic pork.
We roasted it alongside potatoes and carrots, a fantastic meal for four. With meat left over for sandwiches!