Brian's good deed

Friday is market day in Alhama and the market is held at the bottom of a very steep hill.  We went this morning to buy some oranges, lemons, and cherries.  On the way back up the hill we met a small woman carrying a bag of potatos.  We don't know what they weighed, but the bag looked very heavy because the woman carrying them had stopped for a rest.  I should add that it was also extremely hot - the temperature for the past few days has been in the mid 30s and very sunny.

As Brian was carrying our purchases, I tried to help her as she started off again but the bag kept slipping and I had to stop.  Brian took over then, but the same thing happened to him. He then discovered that she had got one of the potatos and pushed it into the corner of the bag and that was how she was able to carry it without it slipping from her hand.  They progressed to the top of the first part of the hill, when she needed a rest and then he took it from her altogether and carried it on his shoulder all the way to her house.  We chatted in Spanish for most of the way, catching some of what she said, but missing most of it, but when we finally got there she insisted on introducing us to her mother.  

We had already identified the area we were in, as one of the poorer parts of town and this was born out when we met the mother.  She is a tiny little woman who looks as though she has spent  most of her life working in the fields and it seemed to me that she doesn't have a single tooth left.  She was delighted that we had helped her and offered us a drink, but we declined and headed back to the other side of the Church which appears to be a bit more prosperous.

The bag was one of those plastic string ones and the weight has ranged from 10 to 30 kilos!  Because the potatos were unwashed, Brian has carried the evidence of his good deed around on his grey shirt, and almost looks like a local - only trouble is that he is so much taller!  Muy alto as they say in Spanish. 

Yesterday after lunch we took a drive in the opposite direction to Granada and made a circular route toward Jatar and then to Arenas del Rey (Sands of the King).  It is a small town where we took some photos of the plaza de Alfonso and the Church and then on to a huge lake created by a dam across the Alhama and Cacin rivers.

We followed a sign to a Mirador and Bar (lookout) but no joy with the bar, so walked back to the main road where we chatted to a gentleman who come over to tell us that the dam was not full at the moment and that there was no where open where we could get a drink!

Walked to the centre of the dam wall and took some photos, as the view to the Sierra Tejeda is impressive.  The dam has the name Los Bermejales.

Came back for a rest and went out for dinner last night to the second of the restaurants we have tried in town.  The first one Meson Diego was where we had lunch one day last week, and last night's is called Al Dente.  As the name suggests it is mostly Italian and we both had pasta. As usual we were far too early - we got there around 8.15, but everyone sits around drinking if they get out that early and don't start eating until around 9.30 or 10.00.  

 

Prima Donna Citroen

2 June 2010

Took the car around to the Citroen Repairer here in Alhama and the boss (Antonio) told us to leave it with him for an hour or so. I was able to show him a copy of the email I had composed to Citroen in Granada so he understood the problem.

When we returned the car was plugged into the computerised diagnostic equipment. Antonio eventually turned up to give us the report but of course we couldn't understand a word of it. With great patience he told us to wait a minute and after making a phone call drove off with his mechanic. After awhile a young lady showed up and asked us if we were the people having trouble with their car. She was Lisa from England and worked in a local real estate office - apparently Antonio had phoned her to help him explain to us about the car. So soon Antonio returned and the interpretation process began. It turned out that the diagnostic equipment showed no fault at all and Antonio thought it was just a glitch (my word) with the car being new. Anyway he was quite happy to hear we were living in Alhama and said to bring the car back if the warning light came on again. When we drove off I noticed that the warning light was no longer showing so just the act of plugging the car into the diagnostic device seemed to have reset the system. Which was good as having a serious warning light about an engine misfunction is not the best thing to be looking at when you are driving.

The good new that this ill wind blew in was that Lisa told us that she gave Spanish lessons to a small group every Wed morning for a couple of hours. So we are going to drop in next week for some Spanish practice.


Later we went for a drive to Fuente Vaqueros a small town near Granada where the Spanish poet Federico Garci Lorca was born and where his birth house is a museum. However, after giving 'Sofia' a few navigation headaches we found the house but with no sign of it being any longer a museum. We are theorising that the Lorca Museum in Granada (where he had his summer house) has absorbed all the artifacts from his birth house. We will try to confirm this when we visit Granada.

General activities

I forgot to mention that in usual Smith fashion we did a familiarisation trip to Granada Airport on Thursday afternoon. When Ian and Diane arrive we now know exactly where to go to park and picthem up. Ditto Andrea.

 

On Sunday we went on one of the back roads to Antequera. We were going to stop in Loja but as it is pretty close to Alhama, decided to go straight through to Laguna de Fuente de Piedra. It is Andalucia's biggest natural lake and one of Europe's two main breeding grounds for the greater flamingo (the other is in the Camargue region of south west France). (Lonely Planet p270). When we got there we found that the flamingos were a long way off, but Brian zoomed in on them with the camera and got some good photos. I wanted him to get some of them when they were flying in, but they were too quick, so I bought some postcards instead.

We then went on to have lunch at Caserio de San Benito, a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet as being 'nearby'. This had Brian cursing all the way about how the Lonely Planet is always so far out in its calculations. Nearby turned out to be about 25 kms and while Sofia did a good job of getting us there, what was adding to Brian's stress, was that a message came up in the car that there was something wrong with its air pollution system.

The instruction book for the car is in French, so it presented a few problems trying to work out exactly what was wrong, but he decided that it is something to do with the catalytic converter. He rang Paris to find out the nearest Citroen repair place and was told it was Granada, and that as long as the warning light was showing orange it was okay, but if it turned to red, we would have to be towed.

As there was nothing we could do, we settled in for a lunch of rabbit with rice - conejo con arroz - which was okay. The atmosphere was good, but I reckon we could do a better job with a rabbit. It was well cooked but the rice had been cooked with the rabbit probably paella style in a sauce which was a bit like a french onion soup.

We got back to Alhama okay and Brian sent an email to the place in Granada.  We thought that we would give them some time to reply so Monday we walked to the thermal baths at the other end of the Gorge.  This is the more upmarket resort than the one we went to last week and on the way Brian took a number of photos.  In real life the first one looks like something that would be  good as a stained glass panel.  The others are of the gorge and the Roman bridge.







                                                                                                  

As we had not heard from the car place at lunchtime today - Tuesday 1st June, Brian rang them and the good news is that we are going to take it to a place here in Alhama tomorrow morning.