Out and About

Sadly, today we said 'Good-bye' to our visitors and they should be arriving safely back home round about now. But we have had a lovely week with them, and have taken the opportunity to not only show them some of our favourite local beautispots, but also to explore new ground as well.

Of course, we started by walking round the village, and then taking them to El Calón so they could see the flat, and the coastline around there. We also visited San Juan and the beaches at Garrucha and Mojacar. We were quite lucky with the weather, and every day we were able to sit outside, chatting or eating! We all caught the sun a bit, and we managed to walk around in shorts or skirts most of the time. There has been some strong winds during the week, so at times we have been glad of an extra layer, but it didn't stop us doing what we wanted to.

We didn't go too far over the holiday weekend as we wanted to enjoy the Easter processions, which we went to Turre to see, except for Maundy Thursday when we just went to the little one in our village. It started at 10.00 at night so the pictures of that are not good. But it was quite an experience, and well worth going to. In between the processions we visited several other places. We did manage to get up the hill to Mojacar Pueblo at last. This is an old Moorish village with narrow streets, and terraces of white houses reaching up the slopes. The view from the top is amazing. One way you can see all the agricultural land, and you can just about see our village from there, and the other way there are views of Mojacar Playa (beach).

Jenny wanted to see the dessert so another day we drove as far as Tabernas, the only area in Europe classified as dessert. It is where they filmed the spaghetti westerns, but the film sets are now a sort of theme park. On the way we stopped at a little village called Sorbas, and then we went on to Carbonares and from there followed the winding, cliff-hugging road that leads back to Mojacar. We chose to get to Carbonares using a narrow mountain road, and on the way we passed a huge solar 'farm' with fields of solar panels. Some were waved to follow the contours of the land and they looked quite attractive.

Yesterday we drove almost to Almeria and then cut down to the coast of the natural park called Cabo de Gata. There is a large salt lake there which is sometimes home to a flock of flamingos, but we couldn't see any yesterday. There were also lots of lovely flowers. We saw some ground-hugging yellow daisies with what we thought was a red line around their centres, but on closer inspection, this turned out to be tiny red spider mites! There are loads of daisies around which are a bright flourescent pink, both growing wild and free, and cultivated in containers, . We drove to the bottom tip of the Cabo to a faro (light house), and a mirrador (view point), from where, on a good day, I am told you can see the coast of Africa. It was not clear enough for that yesterday, but the views were still very fine; lots of jagged rocks and what was probably coral breaking the waves in a wide arc between them. The natural park extends quite a distance into the sea. Next we drove on to one of our favourite beach villages called San José and ate our picnic on the sand. This little village is a popular holiday resort for both the Spanish and foreigners, and during July and August it's normal population of 300 rockets to 3,000, so we only go there 'off-season'.

There is tiny peninsular of white houses known as Isleta de Moro that is mentioned in all the guide books so I wanted to see that. It was reminiscent of a small Cornish fishing village, with lots of small boats pulled up the sand dunes. Finally we drove on to Los Negros, another sea-side resort/fishing village. We last went there two years ago, and it had grown a lot since then. We sat on a sunny terrace and drank cups of tea while we watched some hardy children play in the sea. The cliff that edged the bay looked like the head of a girl with her hair streaming behind her. Well I thought so anyway! The others weren't convinced. Look at my gallery and see what you think. That was John and Jenny's last full day, so they took us out for a very nice meal in the evening.

Today we just had time to wander round the market in the village, and have some lunch on the porch, and then it was time for them to pack. All in all it has been a really good week and we made the most of every day.

He is risen!

Happy Easter to all my followers! I have to say that the Spanish really appreciate the fact that today there is something to celebrate, and they do so in great style. Having looked at the local programmes we decided to take our visitors back to the little Town of Turre, where we were on Good Friday, to watch today's procession, so at 11.00 we were back in the courtyard outside the church. There were more people around today and it was very hot and sunny. I now know a little more about the three brotherhoods in the parade. The white group is Hermandad de la Virgen de los dolores (The Brotherhood of the Madonna; Our Lady of Sorrows). That explains why she has such a sad face. The green group are Hermandad de San Juan (The Brotherhood of St. John), and the purple group are Hermandad del Señor, (the Brotherhood of our Lord). Today's parade was led by San Juan's group and they were followed by a much larger band than on Friday, who had exchanged their black suits for elaborate black and red ones with silver frogging. They looked, and sounded, really good. Then the statue of the Madonna was carried out. On Friday her trono was covered with white roses and lilies, but today they were also threaded with pink roses, and the statue was wearing an elaborate black robe. Of course the third trono was not used today as it represented the crucifixion, but a small trono bearing a casket with a cross of red roses on it was carried straight to the town square where it was guarded by two men dressed as centurions. We walked down to the square and waited with the crowd there for the procession to arrive. When it did, there was a lot of the strange running up and down and lifting high the float of San Juan, that we had seen on Friday. I managed to catch it on video so you will see what I mean. This little routine was repeated five or six times, and then once by the white group. It was so hot, and it looked really hard work. One of the young men carrying San Juan couldn't make it. His legs buckled and he fell, but he was quickly replaced and the sequence continued. One of the other lads was struggling to keep control of his knees, and his legs were buckling, but he just made it to the end. After all this, the two tronos were taken up a wide walk-way, and at the top they were greeted by a new trono, (carried by the purple group) which represented the ressurection. The three tronos all faced each others and their carriers started to dance, bouncing the statues up and down and side to side. Then there was a big cheer, rockets full of sparkling paper were launched into the sky and a few fireworks were let off. Then the trono bearers reversed their cloaks so what had been the pale blue lining was now on the outside. They hugged and kissed, and passed bottles of champagne around. Then two people climbed onto the Madonna's throne and removed her black robe to reveal a beautiful pale blue and gold one underneath. As I said, they celebrated in style, and it was exciting to be a part of that happy crowd. Once again I wanted to share it with you so here are a couple of short videos. The second one is poor quality. I was holding the camera in my right hand to take photos and my phone in my left hand for videos, and I had to hold it high above the heads of those in front, so my arms got a bit tired and wobbly, but it will give you some idea of what it was like.