Mijas Pueblo

Every day of the year at least half a dozen coaches arrive in Mijas and disencumber their load of Asia tourists on to the streets. The vast majority are Japanese, but some are South Korean or Chinese. They galavant franticly  around the historic parts of the village accompanied by a simple photocopied map.
Others have a tour guide and their pace is more leisurely. They Photograph everything, and I mean everything! I was having a beer with some friends in the small Bar Cueva 'The Cave Bar', when a large group bustled in chatting feverishly. They first photographed the beer pump, then the bar tender, then a few cheap pictures on the wall, then they were gone! We were left staring at each other wondering if we had momentarily slipped into an altered reality.
I have always found them to be gracious and warm when engaged in conversation. One Japanese couple a came up to me whilst having coffee to ask directions to the tourist office, we however ended up chatting for half an hour, we shared stories of our different cultures and customs, quite fascinating! The couple told me how they related to the Andalusian People as they shared the same core values of family, Traditions and food.

This is Aidian Lim and his wife, they are from South Korea, they are on their honeymoon and traveled up to Mijas on public transport, having booked  independently. Aidian said "Mijas is like a time capsule, we have nothing like this in Korea" and promised to return.

 I once found myself caught up with a tour, and, as I found myself swept along with the flow, I struck up with the guide. His name was Juan Antonio, he is employed buy the town hall to and is kept very busy. He speaks no Japanese or Korean so he guides in Spanish and English, he explained that on average half of the tourist he takes around speak one or other of these languages and they translate to their companions.

Juan with his tour. 

You will get asked directions quite often on in Mijas and I'm not surprised! The map takes a bit of orientation before it becomes clear what is where! I know the village, and I find it hard understand the map, so what chance to our oriental friends have, but with a lot of pointing I can usually direct the people to where they want to go
The Town hall here value the Asian tourist and are in close touch with the Far Eastern tour operators to keep them updated with the Mijas brand.
Just recently the Mijas Councillor for Tourism, Santiago Martin, Held a meeting with major Asian providers ahead of the International tourist Fair 'FITUR' in Madrid. In this meeting Santiago presented Mijas as not just a charming Andalusian village with generous amounts of sun, sea and mountains, But also an Ideal setting for the lovers from the land of the setting sun to tie the nuptial Knot.
Santiago states in our local rag "We always will need more tourists, I cant overstate the importance of the Asian tourists, they are extremely curios and will add a lot of value to our Municipality."
It has even been suggested that excursions on the local donkey taxis could be included in the wedding packages.
All in all it looks likely that the Asian invasion will continue!
 

Last Monday 16th January, A local Police control in Mijas Pueblo noticed a young boy sitting on the kerb in the Coach carpark behind the Town Hall. As the Youth was showing signs of distress they stopped to investigate.The Lad, who appeared to be about 12 Years old was shivering uncontrollably, his clothing was ragged and covered in oil and grease. They also noticed he had distinctive Arab characteristics.The officers tried to question him to no avail as he simply begged for food.

At this point a coach driver who had just dropped his group of tourists approached the local Police and began to explain that he had been touring the Tunis/ Morrocan area stopping at various destinations. He then added that he was stopped by immigration officials at the Spanish border where it was discovered that there was a group of  Morrocan adults hiding underneath his coach. These men were then escorted back across the border.

The coach driver, from Jaen, enphasized to the Police that he sincerely believed the young boy was part of this group but had remained undiscovered. The lad was taken to the local police station where he was provided with hot drinks, food and clean, warm clothing.

The 12 year old was then taken to the center for homeless immigrants run by the Junta De Andalucia, as is the local policy. The Police officers involved expressed their absolute amazement at the strength and fortitued required to endure such a journey.

I am totally astonished at the length the North Africans will go to in order to escape the abject poverty of their own Countries.

INCREDIBLE!!!!!!

It appears that the christmas tree route was not advertized in the local english press so I am posting a few more photos of the trees for those of you who would have liked to come and see them

This tree was made up of spent shotgun cartridges, impressive eh?

this one was put up by the parisheners of the local church and was more traditional

More recycled plastic this was very pretty at night

This one was out side our house

This was one of the biggest and the most clever...plastic bottles were split from the bottom to the neck and bent back to form flower shapes amazing

hope you enjoyed, more Mijas stuff coming soon x

Gosh its almost a year since I started this blog and instantly lost my internet conection...Well I'm back with a vengance so...........

This christmas the new incumbents at the town hall decided, in these times of austerity, to save funds by not putting up the usual illuminations. This might sound a bit bah-humbug but, in conjunction with the association of residents they hatched a very clever plan, it was rubbish!
It was decided that there would be a competition where various groups of residents would create their own trees in the streets around the village.
The town hall agreed to erect a skeleton structure for the participating groups to decorate, they also agreed to provide the power for each tree to be illuminated.  It was also decided that there would be an underlying theme for all the displays to follow and that was rubbish!
Well to be more precise all the trees were to be made of recycled materials!
The results were quite astonishing!
The structure to be decorated could not have been more simpler; an old metal pole was bolted to the pavement in the streets of the participants, then a circle of welded metal was bolted to the floor around the pole, next wires were stretched from the circle on the ground to the top of the pole creating the required conical shape, the decorating party could now begin. For three evenings a mini fiesta of creativity and bon homm was enacted outside our window and this was the result:

This tree is made completely out of old plastic drink bottles threaded on to a wire and attached to the skeleton! One chap was inside the frame on a step ladder fixing the wires, when he got to the top he realised that he had left no room for him to exit and we spent a hilarious half an hour giggling as we watched him trying to squeeze out the bottom helped by his companions who were almost wetting themselves!

This one was made of old sacks screwed into flower shapes.

this next one was drink cans hand painted with the colours of the teams in the spanish league

To top it all the Tourist office created a 'Ruta de los Arboles', - route of the trees and for one euro you got a map of where the seventeen trees could be found. the proceeds went into the village food bank fund to help feed unemployed famalies

Joy in hard times x