During Paul's parents stay we had fantastic weather, we had so much to show them and catch up with the weather really helped. It was Fiesta time in our village for the Virgen de la Rosario which included a Tortilla tasting competition on the Sunday afternoon, where locals entered the own tortilla recipes in the hope of winning a plate. We especially loved this as we had to try all the tortillas and free cold refreshments were provided to wash it all down. This took place in the wonderful plaza outside the church, set with gorgeous orange trees which gave much needed shade on this very hot day. The girls were happy too as there was entertainment just for them and face painting too! The evening before a stage was erected in the plaza along with a bouncy castle and come 10pm the music began and the plaza began to fill. Children impressed with traditional dances and a fantastic duo entertained us with their vocal talents. We left the party at midnight as we were all a bit tired and sadly the night was now in full swing. We really should have had a siesta that day...
Sunday evening there was mass and then a procession of the Virgen de la Rosario we went along at 7pm not knowing what we would find, the church was full for mass and so we sat and waited. The band started slowly congregating around the plaza, for a local band we were impressed by the amount of members. Once mass had finished they began to bring the beautiful Virgen out, they then stood it down and one of the mass began to ask the men who would like to help carry the Virgen. They asked Paul, not entirely sure what they wanted i encouraged Paul to take part. This maybe wasn't the best of my ideas. Poor Paul then had to carry the Virgen around the whole of the village up and down the hills followed by the band. It was incredibly heavy and i didn't know wether to laugh or cry! Luckily they did keep stopping for rests and Paul did have his trainers on but i don't think he will be volunteering next time. We did support Paul by following him with the rest of the conregation and we almost made it the whole way but the thought of a nice cold beer was just too irresistible. It didn't go down well when the procession route when straight past the bar we were in
so we were well and truly busted. Despite the pain Paul was in it scored him lots of brownie points and once they made it back to the church (the procession lasted about 60 minutes) they made a speech and thanked Paul, they are such a lovely bunch of people!! That night we certainly gained more friends they did really appreciate Paul's efforts.
On the Saturday we took a trip to Chilches and visited my Mum and Rob for the first time, and see how they have settled into their house. They have rented a lovely house right on the beach. Once we all had a good look around for some reason they thought it would be good to walk to the restaurant on the beach. My mum assured us that we would be fine to walk as it was a 'short' walk, well it was more like a 25 minute walk which took its toll with the midday sun beating down on us. Once we arrived thirsty and very hungry we couldn't wait to sit down. One slight problem the restaurant was very busy and the waiter was not amused when we had not reserved a table, never the less he did manage to seat us and it was not a problem after all....The food was delicious and after a few too many wines we all couldn't reisit the call of the sea. The girls ran off first and we were closely behind, belly's full we floated around in the gorgeous water not looking forward to our trek back.
One of the families we have got to know in the village have a delightful young daughter called Macarena and she seems to be taken with our girls. They try their best to talk to us and we try our hardest to understand. We had seen them that morning at the market and they made an effort to come over and tell us that later on they would be bringing a pony over and the girls can ride it. The girls were thrilled and we said of course we would meet them at 5.30pm that evening. After our time at the beach we rushed home and changed ready to meet the family and the pony. We made it in time but no sign of them..... 7.30pm came and in typical Spanish style they showed up 
Lots of fun was had and we took some great pictures. A great way to start the fiesta!
While Paul's parents were with us we did alot we took them to Velez Malga, Torre del Mar, into the mountian - Sierra Tejeda we packed alot into seven days. They plan on visiting every 2 months and have already booked for December and February.
As I mentioned in last week's blog we are taking Spanish lessons, we found out about the lessons purely by chance when we met a couple who have lived in a nearby village for many years and had lots of good advice for us newbies. They asked if we had our name down for the free Spanish lessons at the school, shocked we said no we hadn't heard about this. We thought surely not, free lessons and literally around the corner from where we live and below our daughter's school?? Anyway, I found the phone number, called the lady and was told to go along tomorrow to the school to see her. We walked along the next day and introduced ourselves to the lovely teacher Alicia and she said to come back at 11.30 for a lesson. Ok, we thought we'll give it a go once again not knowing what we had signed up for. The lesson was great but a bit slow for us so we quickly moved onto the next group which started at 9.30, this time works perfectly as the girls start school at 9.30 and as i said the lesson's are next door to the school. The lessons are a great asset and yes they are free! 
I'll sign off with a photo of the sunset from our front door. I'll never get bored of this 
