Quick Update

I've had around twenty visits to the blog since the polls closed last night, many clearly looking for the results, so this is the situation today. Four parties fielded candidates. One (Equo, which is linked to Podemos) got a number of votes but not enough to secure a seat. There is a complete stand off between the other three parties. With eleven seats to play for, the result was Partido Andalucista (3), Partido Popular (4) and PSOE (4). Two things are certain. After twenty years PA has lost control of the Ayuntamiento. And I was not elected, not that I ever expected that I would be.

When I know what happens next, I'll write some more on the subject.

Almost The Last Day Of Campaigning.

Sunday we go to the polls and so Saturday is a day for reflecting ad deciding, assuming you haven't already decided. No campaigning is allowed after midnight tomorrow. We are only a small village even though we run our own affairs, around three and a half thousand inhabitants, nowhere near enough to have your own mayor and council in the UK.

The present mayor, or alcalde, held office with his party for twenty years, but has now retired and so we face the electorate with a new leader, but with the same committment to the continued economic. cultural, sporting and tourist development of the village.

I am linking to an election video that we have uploaded to youtube. Remember, 3,500 residents; this is what has been achieved on their behalf. Don't worry about understanding the words. The pictures tell the full story.

https://www.facebook.com/ian.hurdley.3/posts/10152759961611384

A Taste Of History

Today some friends from a neighbouring village came over to see us and take up to a restaurant in the nearby hamlet of El Acebuchal about seven kilometres from Frigiliana. It is approached by way of a narrow twisting road climbing up into the mountains, so I was relieved that John was driving, especially as he has a four by four. In fact the road is part of the ancient mule train route through the mountains from the coast to Granada. The hamlet was a stop along the route for the muleteers to get food and drink before continuing on their way. It grew up during the seventeenth century and was inhabited up to 1949.

Following the end of the Spanish Civil War a large group of communist fighters retreated into the surrounding mountains from where they conducted a guerrilla campaign against the army and Guardia Civil. There are different versions of the part played by the inhabitants of El Acebuchal, but the outcome was that in1949 they were all evicted by the Guardia Civil and the place gradually collapsed into a collection of ruins. Then in 1998 one couple who had moved to Frigiliana finally got permission to begin a rebuilding programme which was completed in 2005, though a number of houses remain unrestored. Antonio and Virtudes also reopened and ran the bar, although they have now pretty much retired and their son, also Antonio, has taken over. By coincidence, Antonio (senior) and Virtudes still live in Frigiliana, two doors away from us; but I had never before been to their bar/restaurant, our destination today.

I knew that the menu focused on local game which is abundant in these mountains - rabbit, mountain goat, wild boar and deer, plus chicken, pork (no rural home was without its chickens and its pig in days gone by) and locally grown vegetables so I was expecting these meats cooked 'a la parrilla  ' (over coals) or 'a la plancha ' (on the griddle), as elsewhere. Not so. This was the traditional cooking of the sierras, hearty stews cooked in wood-fired ovens. Our friends each chose the chicken, my wife opted for oxtail and I went for the rabbit. Each had its own distinctive rich, dark sauce, beautifully spiced to complement the particular meat which just fell off the bone. Only one word will adequately describe those sauces; unctuous.

So it was a great lunch, but also a fascinating insight into the history of this region. The spice combinations were typical of the Maghreb, the North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia and Algeria. This was cooking brought with them to Al Andalusia, by the Berber tribes which invaded the Peninsula via Gibraltar (Gibr Al Tariq) way back in the eighth century. As my title says - a taste of history.

More About My Entry Into Spanish Politics

It looks like being a busy time over the next four weeks. Yesterday was photoshoot day. Group and individual photographs for the manifesto document. Last Tuesday evening I spent a couple of hours at a meeting for foreign residents to hear their concerns and to provide thought for finalising the manifesto. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting to thrash out more of the detail and then on Tuesday evening I’m due to join the team at a meeting to listen to local business people, Spanish and foreign. Other meetings are held with different groups, those involved in sporting activities in the village, women, older people. We also need to sell the new team, though that must await the start of the campaigning period on 8th May. That’s already in my diary for the public presentation of the team to the voters. Javier, the alcalde for the past twenty years has passed the reins to Paco, a well-known and much respected man around the village: by day he is a carpenter, and he is also Hermano Mayor of the Cofradía. I can best describe that as President of the Brotherhoods, best known for their Holy Week processions as penitents, but busy with other works around the village as well. The only consejala standing for reelection is María José who has done sterling work over the past four years to build visitor numbers and boost our tourism industry. Otherwise it’s new blood all the way, apart from Kevin Wright, not a councillor himself but loved and valued around the village for his work through the Town Hall’s Department for Foreign Residents. As I said last time I referred to the elections, I am down at the bottom of the list so don’t expect to be one of those elected. So why stand? I said a few words about that at the meeting with foreign residents. First of all, I consider it an honour to be invited to join the team at all. Over and above that though, I have known the village since the autumn of 1983, first on holiday visits, then for a six month ‘test drive’ and for the last seven years as a resident. So I have seen the changes and can put the Partido Andalucista contribution into context. And it is a huge contribution. In 1983 while we were here there was a celebration to mark the presentation of an title that Frigiliana had been awarded the year before, when it was declared the prettiest village in Spain, amazing for a population of just around 2,000 people. The award was largely the result of the previous alcalde, Antonio Navas Acosta. With a keen interest in the history of the region, he was instrumental in the decision that the cobbled streets, which were in a parlous state, should be replaced not with concrete, but with relaid cobbles, and that these moreover should incorporate traditional Arab patterns picked out in a contrasting colour of cobble. He also had twelve ceramic tile panels mounted on walls around the historic quarter of the village, telling the story of the Battle of Frigiliana. So with the renovations and the award the stage was set to develop a valuable tourism resource. Except it didn’t happen. The elections of 1983 brought a change of political control and an alcalde actively opposed to the idea of tourism. He refused to allow coach parties to come up to the village. That was the continuing state of affairs until Partido Andalucista took control in the 1995 elections: twelve years of opportunity wasted. Back in 1983 it was still less than ten years since the death of Franco. The transition to democracy was even more recent, and this was a totally different village. Andalucía was traditionally a land of day labourers: some days you had work, some days you didn’t. It reminds me in that sense of dock workers in Britain in the forties and fifties - standing in all weathers outside the dock gates in the hope of being picked from the crowd to go inside and do some paid work. Hand to mouth. So just about every family had their plot of land where they could grow vegetables of various kinds, keep a pig and a few chickens, and so put food on the table. Almost every family also had one or more mules, the multipurpose farming animals that made all this possible. Housing was cramped, dark and damp. Life was better than it had been in the thirties and forties, but still had a lot of improving to do. Apart from the reconstruction at La Molineta (then a totally separate hamlet), and an upmarket development of villas at nearby Cortijo de San Rafael on the road down to the coast, there were virtually no foreigners living in the village and the great majorityof those came and went on holiday visits. The new village was still very sparsely developed with lots of open space. The cemetery was on the edge of the campo. Restaurant Orihuela marked the beginning of the village as you came up from Nerja. At the far end of the village, once you came to the junction of Calle Real and Calle San Teresa de Ávila, there was nothing more apart from the Ecce Homo chapel, and Cobos bar. Oh, and an irrigation channel where the women would still gather to do their laundry by hand in the cold water. Leaving the village there was a dirt road leading out into the campo to the family plots and eventually to the neighbouring village of Torrox. The ridges on the far side of the valley had no water supply and so were mainly uninhabited. That was recognised by the incoming PA administration and plans were soon drawn up to improve the daily life of the villagers. Tourism was on the up and up, and so was the building industry as hotels and apartment blocks were needed to cope with the growing demand for accommodation. Locally, Nerja was part of this growth and starting to offer job opportunities in construction and hospitality. As tourist numbers increased in Nerja, people increasingly came looking for holiday homes to buy in Frigiliana. This in turn speeded up the new building in the newer part of the village, as people were able to move out of their substandard homes - which were immediately renovated by the foreigners, providing work in the village - and into decent properties. Progressively from 1995, the road to Torrox was widened, the worst bends straightened and the whole road properly surfaced. This allowed development of housing out into the campo, and as the infrastructure crept along, first one ridge and then another became accessible and homes were foreign buyers start to spring up. A ring road was built bypassing the new village and solving the problem of roads not equipped for two way traffic. A programme of urban development was put in place, with a clear objective; no massive urbanisations, no high rise, everything to conform to a size and style which was in harmony with what already existed. Against the trend of Spanish villages declining and dying, Frigiliana was able to grow and until the global recession of 2007 was able to provide employment for its young people, as well as a whole range of leisure opportunities, a multisports centre and gymnasium, a municipal swimming pool and all weather football ground and a padel court and several others. All of this has happened since PA came to power in 1995, and to my mind, that is no coincidence. That is why I was only too happy to accept the invitation to be part of this year’s team, and give something back to the community that welcomes us and so many other foreigners to live in their village.

Spoilt For Choice (cont.)

If you prefer something British then your requirements will be well met at Splash, alongside the swimming pool on Calle Carlos Cano, at Fandangos, beyond Calle Chorruelo or at Balcon de Frigiliana at the bottom of Avenida Andalucía just before the roundabout at the entrance to the village. A restaurant pretty much in a category of its own is El Boquetillo on Calle San Sebastian, very close to the centre of the village. Andy the chef is from Scotland. He is a keen fan of street food and the two combine in one of his starters, haggis fritters. But the menu offers wraps, nachos, quesadillas, noodles, Thai curries, and imaginative salads. He is often called away to cater for big tours (this year's include X Factor, The Vamps and AC/DC) but his handpicked and personally trained staff know what he wants so well, that you will not know from the food or the service whether Andy is in the kitchen or not; they maintain the standard he has set. It also has the benefit of being unbelievably reasonably priced. In fact, we eat there every week unless we are away from the village. For something a bit more special and if you are prepared to lash out a few more euros you have a choice of four restaurants, all up in the Barribarto, the original Arab part of the village. The Garden Restaurant leans towards North African and Middle Estern flavours. As the name implies it is set in gardens with really good views across the village. Go up the stepped street, Calle Hernando el Darro until you come to an arch on the righthand side. Take this tune and continue up the hill. The Garden is on the right. If you carry on up to the top, you come to El Mirador, probably our favourite celebration destination. Rafa and his wife Rose Mary are from Uruguay and their menu is international in character and outstanding in quality. If, on the other hand, you ignore the archway and instead go straight ahead from Hernando el Darro up Calle Armagura, then you will quickly arrive at one of the newer restaurants, Oshun Gastronomy Lounge which specialises in Asian fusion, with a strong emphasis on fish and seafood. Like the previous two, it offers spectacular views from the terraces. The fourth restaurant is on again up Armagura until you reach Calle Alta. Turn left and almost immediately on your left is Adarve, a fitting name as in Arabic it refer to the walkway that runs along the top of a town's defensive walls which were once here. Primarily top quality Spanish with a with a wider, Mediterranean flavour. Anybody needing a celebration while in Frigiliana could do no better than one of these four restaurants. I have neglected to mention restaurants serving typically Andalusian or Spanish food. Despite the impression I may have given so far, they account for the great majority of the choices open to you. It is virtually impossible to get a bad meal or bad service. I shall just mention a handful that I particularly like, but try anywhere without anxiety. The oldest restaurant in the same family is El Tangay on Avenida de Andalucía. This is where you will find absolutely authentic traditional dishes of the Axarquía, the area surrounding Frigiliana. I love their soup with cabbage, chickpeas, jamon, chicken, chorizo and sometimes black pudding. It's your typical big pan always on the stove type of soup. Up the hill, heading back towards the centre of the village is Las Chinas, not, as you might wrongly assume from the name, a Chinese restaurant but traditional Spanish. In the centre of the village, much loved by coach parties is the terrace of Virtudes. If we're late back from the airport this is one of the restaurants that can usually be relied upon to be still serving. The Plaza de la Iglesia, opposite the church offers Taberna del Sacristan, with tables out on the plaza, a great atmosphere. Then heading down Calle Chorruelo you have a choice of two, La Bodeguilla or La Alegría del Barrio. Actually, La Bodeguilla itself offers a choice of two. In addition to the restaurant on Chorruelo, in the evenings when the weather is appropriate the original La Bodeguilla is open in a tiny, tucked away square just alongside the church. Is it any wonder I love living here!