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Adam Regester – Artist

David Darby — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:55:28 +0000

XIV Solidarity Campaign with Baracoa

Editor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:13:06 +0000

The XIV Solidarity Campaign with Baracoa (Cuba) enjoyed some sunshine, thank God, as there was a worry that recent rains would spoil the fund-raising event, which, by the way, will be using some of the funds obtained to help the people of Haiti.
Joaquín was in fine Olympic-rice-throwing spirit, entertaining the crowd with his peculiar way of adding rice and other coingredients to a giant paella pan. There was also live music provided by the duet, Sortilegio. There was also dancing provided by Cubanísmo and Sabor Andaluz.
Several local business provided goods for the raffle, including legs of cured ham, boxes of wine, suckling pig, restaurant meals and holiday trips. Also, on sale, were two books which have been edited and published by the charity; one entitled, “Lo que hemos hecho,”which covers all the aid provided by the charity for this Cuban town, and the other entitled, “La Muerte de Evangelio,” which is a novel based on the history of the Cuban boxer by that name.

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Cabra Road Cut

Editor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:33:12 +0000

Jete gasoline station in background

The Jete road was cut twice, thanks to the heavy rainfalls. The first time was on Christmas Eve, when the hungry and turbulent river washed away a piece of road, just after the gasoline station, right next to the new bridge. Until the road was restored, traffic had to go over the hill to Ítrabo and down to Salobreña to reach the coast. The reparation work was lighting fast and you really have to take your hat off to the work crew because most of us were expecting a temporary repair, but they just whistled up a new road!
One of the people caught out by the road cut was Debbie from the Border District (UK), who lives up in Jete. She was heroically equipped with a moped and a determination to get some chicken feed in, but one look at the JCB tearing up the surviving tarmac convinced her that the chickens were going to have to wait!
I was also speaking with a group of locals, one of whom came up with an interesting point. Paco said that we were lucky that this sustained rain did not come in September 2007, which was when the big flood occurred. Although about 300 litres per square metre fell in just 40 minutes on that occasion, the December/January rains produced a lot more water, obviously. What he meant was, it was thanks to the reinforcing of the riverbanks and the clearing of the riverbeds after the 2007 flash flood that the river was able to handle the sheer quantity of rainfall this time round. Had the rivers been as unprepared as they were in August 2007, the resulting flood down in Almuñécar would have been much worse. Every cloud has a silver lining, sort of thing.
Finally – on this first cut – if it had not been for the new bridge pillars etc, it is more than likely that the river would have devoured more metres and would have brought the gasoline-station forecourt down.
Anyway, the road was cut again just outside the northern end of Jete when a part of the steep embankment fell onto the road. The result: another peak in Ítrabo tourism. Mind you, there will be more than a few Otiveños, Jeteños and Lentegireños (aka los mingos) making their way over to Ítrabo soon, as the village will be holding its annual wine fest soon!

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Counting the Blessings

Editor — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:29:45 +0000

Whatever is covered later on in the Almuñécar section, it is probably a good idea to take a stock check of what we have. You see, it doesn’t matter whether you came here 40, 30, 20, 10, or just 5 years ago – Almuñécar is still very much a privileged place to live in.

It’s easy to lose sight of that fact, as you witness the ravages of time and unfathomable municipal decision taking. Yes, it was more attractive before, but then again, that goes for most of us, doesn’t it? It was a different Spain; not just a different Almuñécar, after all.

It is always through the eyes of others – newly arrived, first-time visitors, invariably – that makes you re-open your eyes, look round, and think. “Bloody hell, yes it is nice.”

Take the Paseo del Altillo. The old one has gone, so that is the end of it. It doesn’t matter if you preferred the old one, or that the Altillo car park took far too long; that, there were 100-year-old trees on the old one; that it was carried out in an underhand and highly questionable fashion… the fact is that it doesn’t exist and this one does. Whether we old sweats find it pleasing or not matters not one hoot because Salobreña or Motril would love to have the Paseo del Altillo gracing their shoreline, as would most coastal towns.

We have a castle that dates back to Moorish time – even further in a more modest guise. We have a water park and we have probably the best aquarium in the whole of Andalucía. We have Roman aqueducts, medieval watchtowers & coastal garrison forts, as well as a Punic fish-salting factory dating back to 100 years before the birth of Christ.

Shall I go on? Bugger it! We have a highly enviable climate and 96% of all sub-tropical fruit plantations in the whole of Europe. We have an impressive bird park and Andalucía’s best permanent bonsai display in a beautiful garden-park. We have 28 chiringuitos distributed on our 26 beaches. We have a veritable treasure of underwater marine landscape that would extract bubbles of ecstasy from any diver, who, by the way, come from all over Spain and further to be able to explore it.

We have a beautiful wildlife reserve, marine, and terrestrial flora & fauna, in the form of El Parque Natural de Cantarriján. And for all its controversy, there is the Mountain Park of Peña Escrita, which enjoys fantastic views, cosy log cabins and a good cafeteria/restaurant.

So, have I forgotten anything? even if I have, just what exactly are we whinging about? The way the town is run? Whose fault is that –I can’t remember any military coup, can you?

Hey, I’m the biggest whinger – there are six years of back copies to prove it, and you can bet that there will be criticisms later on in this section, but that’s my job, just as it is my moral duty to write an article like this to remind myself and you guys that we live in an amazingly wonderful place… and above all, through choice.

¡Viva Almuñécar!

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Senegalese Party

Editor — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:59:16 +0000

We went along to the Senegalese party, which was held in the marquee on Plaza de Kuwait on the 11th of December. It was packed. There was live music – some of the ethnic instruments used were amazing! There were also stalls selling all kinds of Senegalese handicraft; everything from paintings, carved figures and traditional clothing to samples of Senegalese sweetmeats etc.

It was sad to see that no mention of the fiesta made the provincial press, other than agenda notes. In other words there was no follow up press.

We don’t have room here for all the photos that we took, but we will post them in full colour on the website, together with this article, where they can be better appreciated. How quickly we forget that these young immigrants dropped everything that they were doing to clean the town up immediately after the big flood.

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Meanwhile, in Orgiva…

Editor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:58:15 +0000

And now for the news from Órgiva… there isn’t any, so you’re just going to have to make do with some photos from your fiestas. Go out and rob a bank or something and generate a bit of news, Folks! Besides, there’s no more room in this section for you this month.

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Feria de Asociaciones

Editor — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:15:57 +0000

A total of 39 associations and clubs took part in the annual Encuentro de Voluntarios de Almuñécar y La Herradura, which was held in the Botanical Gardens, Parque Majuelo on the weekend of the 20th/21st.
I was pleased to get to chat with Margarita who is one of the mainstays behind ADALH, which is an association for those with all kinds of physical and mental disabilities. They’ve been around for a year now and you might remember that last year the Royal Navy Association donated the total sum of their monthly raffles to ADALH, for which Margarita was over the moon.
The cancer association, AECC, was there, which gave me the opportunity to ask how the collection boxes were going and to pass on the message that more businesses that advertised with us wanted collection boxes next to their stack of Gazette, as readers were asking where they could deposit their euro. Thanks very much folks, on behalf of the AECC and ourselves.
I also had a good chance to chat with the lads from Senegal, asking them how things were going since their incredibly selfless efforts to tidy up Almuñécar after the September flood of 2006. Their association, Tauba, has opened up a small shop (about 20 paces from the Arboreum in Calle Trinidad 22), where they specialise in making and repairing leather sandals. Spare them a thought, too, Folks, as they did for us when we needed it.
I must admit that one of the stands that most attracted my attention was the stand for the aero-modelling club, where José Luis was exhibiting his bloody great B-26 (Invader, which is pretty much like the B-25 Mitchell, but without the twin tail boom) I could have spent the whole afternoon chatting with him about WW2 aircraft. To find out more about them, visit www.rccostatropical.com.
Obviously, with 39 associations taking part, I can’t mention them all, so I hope that the others will forgive their non-mention. If you had a stand there, then contact us and I will ask Dave to do a People & Places on your association. Anyway, as you will see, we have included a half-page photo page of the event in this section of the Gazette.

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Los Tiburones Bike Meet

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:35:21 +0000

Los Tiburones, which is an Almuñécar-based bike club, had their annual bike meet and for the second year running held it in Taramay (next to Iguana). We took plenty of photos, a limited selection of which you can find on the full photo page near the end of this section. The rest can be found on our website, in colour, at www.seasidegazette.es.
Apart from the organised cruises around Almuñécar and La Herradura, there were also three rock concerts for a spot of head banging. Of course, they didn’t have to announce that they were on the way – the rumbling of dozens of large-cylinder bikes approaching was announcement enough.
Yet, even the bikes were forgotten when the big event came round, which was entitled La Lucha Lesbíca en Chocolate (Lesbian Wrestling in Chocolate), which was staged near the Roman aqueduct in Torrecuevas in the afternoon. There was also mechanical rodeo and male and female striptease acts in the early hours of the morning.
Despite these times of economical squeeze, and contrary to pessimistic forecasts, over 600 bikes turned up, which was about half the amount from last year, mind.

Gastronomic Fair

Editor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:55:43 +0000

[[Show as slideshow]]The XI Edition of the Annual Gastronomic Fair was held in the Majuelo botanical gardens from the 5th to the 7th of June. Twenty-three participants erected their stands to exhibit their cuisine
The even this year was organised by El Luto, who runs the Yerba Buena, as well as the Restaurante Avenida. This year he had managed to arrange a fine-spray system under the awning that covered the area, providing a light mist that kept everybody cool.
The XI Feria Gastronómica de Almuñécar-La Herradura counted on Restaurante Los Laureles, Restaurante Mirador de Cerro Gordo, Restaurante El Árbol Chambao de Joaquín, Restaurante La Ventura, and Restaurante Reina Sofía, amongst many others.

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Bike meet in Almuñécar

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:29:58 +0000

At the beginning of June in Almuñécar there was a bike meet organised by Los Tiburones

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