Puntos de vista - a personal Spain blog

We usually think more of sunshine when we think about the climate down here in Andalucía. With over 300 days of sunshine per year, it’s hardly a wet area. Yet when it does rain, it certainly does it with a vengeance. In the last dozen years spent as a resident here Pablo de Ronda has experienced his fair share of bad weather. Here are some of his thoughts over that period.

20 December 2010

“Rain, rain, go away... (part 1)

... Come again some other day!”  OK, the joke’s over!  ¡Basta ya con la lluvia!  We’ve had more than enough of the wet stuff now! It’s hardly stopped here in the Serranía de Ronda since 16 December last year! Over 500 litres per square metre fell in just two weeks, according to the Spanish Met Office (INM)!

Local rivers have burst their banks five times! Hotels and other holiday accommodation have been inundated and put out of business, homes have been flooded and crops ruined.

The infrastructure has been significantly damaged: roads, rail lines, public buildings, housing stock, drainage systems.  Houses are growing mould inside because of the ongoing damp conditions and no chance to dry out.

Insurance companies are refusing to pay out - ¡acto de Dios! – so everyone is passing the responsibility buck: Ayuntamientos, Junta de Andalucía, ADIF (the rail company).  Nobody wants to fork out the compensation, although it looks as if the Junta de Andalucía may ultimately have to pick up the tab for failing to maintain its rivers properly.

On the positive side the reservoirs are fuller than they’ve been for many a year.  My village, Montejaque, has acquired a reservoir it never had since an ill-conceived and ill-fated dam was constructed in 1929!

But, really, we’ve had enough now ...

“Rain rain go away
Come again some other day
Rain, rain, go away
Bring my love a sunny day.”

19 January 2011

“Rain, rain, go away!” (2)

“Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!”

The history and origins of the lyrics to this version of the English nursery rhyme date back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), one of the Tudor monarchs. During this period of English history there was constant rivalry between Spain and England culminating in the launch of the Spanish Armada in 1588. 

The Armada, led by the Duke of Medina Sedonia, numbered over 130 galleons, while the English fleet, under Admiral Lord Howard, totalled just 34 small Navy vessels and 163 armed merchant ships. His second-in-command that day was Sir Francis Drake.  The most famous (but probably apocryphal) anecdote about Drake and the Spanish Armada relates that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards. There is no known eyewitness account of this incident and the earliest retelling of it was printed 37 years later.

Whatever the truth, the great Spanish Armada was defeated. Only 65 Spanish galleons and just 10,000 men returned to Spain.

Truth is the attack by the Spanish Armada failed because of superior tactics, the swift nature of the smaller English ships and also because of the stormy weather which scattered the Armada fleet. Hence the origins of this version of the nursery rhyme.

December 2018

The Rain in Spain

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the pla–ain”

This lyric from the musical My Fair Lady based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a load of nonsense. In my 12 years’ experience of living in the Serranía de Ronda, the rain in Spain falls mainly on the adjacent Sierra de Grazalema. In fact the town of Grazalema is the wettest place in Spain. According to official statistics, more of the wet stuff falls on this pretty mountain town than anywhere else in the whole of Spain. More even than in the towns of Galicia, Asturias and the Basque Country, which we more readily associate with wet weather.

In 2018 you would have thought the end of the world was nigh. In the spring heavy rain fell over a short period and caused major flooding around the Serranía de Ronda. At the Hotel Molino del Puente, at the bottom of the hill below our house, the restaurant, bar and terrace ended up under 30cm of water. Miraculously the hotel was cleaned, dried out and re-opened within 48 hours!

Then in October of the same year, so much rain fell in three hours that the whole of the area was declared an emergency zone. The hotel suffered again – this time water was lapping the ceiling of the bar and restaurant and first floor rooms were flooded by the torrent that ran off the fields, busted the land drains and entered through the front door of the hotel. This time the clear-up took longer and the hotel didn’t re-open until April 2019.

The road past our house became a river. A friend’s car was washed away and ours was left suspended over a ditch that had been created when the water rinsed away the side of the road where my car was parked. The car had to be craned out and transported to the garage.

In Ronda, the emblematic Arab Baths were badly damaged and many streets, including the main shopping street Calle La Bola, were flooded, as the drainage infrastructure failed to cope. Around the Serranía low-slung villages such as Benaoján Estación, Jimera de Líbar Estación, La Cañada del Real Tesoro and El Colmenar were severely flooded and some houses wrecked.

As this was deemed an act of God, the insurance companies were off the hook and the consorcio, a government–backed bailout scheme/emergency fund, paid for by us through a levy on our insurance premiums, stepped in. For example the 800€ damage to my car was paid for by the consorcio.

This fund also picked up the tab for the damage wreaked in our garden, viz fallen trees, a wrecked fence, and a pebbled area that was washed away. Amazingly not a drop of water entered our house, although neighbours did suffer a little water ingress.

January 2021

“Here comes the Rain Again!”

We are currently experiencing a period of rainfall, but fortunately, toca madera (touch wood) it doesn’t seem to be the damaging kind. Given the amount of dry weather in recent years, the water is definitely welcome for the farmers and in order to top up our rather empty reservoirs.

But, don’t ever let anyone tell you that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. It clearly does not!

December 2021

“Wet Christmas!”

It’s been raining constantly for several days in the run-up to Christmas. I’m writing this on Christmas morning and it’s still going strong. Shame it’s not a bit colder then we’d be enjoying a White Christmas.

As it is, it’s miserable and wretched. Although, goodness me, we badly need the wet stuff after a very dry year. The reservoirs are so low that restrictions on water use have been introduced in several towns and villages.

Ironically, the TV screens yesterday were showing us footage of Cádiz and Seville under water.

“The Rain in Spain …..”

Pablo de Ronda doesn’t have a “bucket list” as such, but in that strange year of Covid-19, 2020, he’s done a number of things for the first time ever in his life. He looks back on 2020 and the positive things that have emerged, at least for him and his wife, out of the disaster of the Coronavirus pandemic…

To say that 2020 has not been a good year is a massive understatement. It started off OK, as normal. We spent Christmas and New Year with family in Germany; then in February we flew to the UK to see my children and grandchildren, two of whom were brand new “stork deliveries”!

Then by the middle of March, suddenly the whole world was in a tizz over a new killer virus and most countries went into “lockdown”. Here in Spain, the confinamiento was harsher than in many other places and we were all pretty much under house arrest.

This prompted me to go into action. First of all I upgraded my IT skills, in order to be able to communicate with family and friends whom we were no longer allowed to see. I bought a new mobile phone, I got WhatsApp, started using Facebook properly, and learned how to use the camera in my new mobile.

I purchased something online for the first time and found the whole idea of online shopping rather appealing. I’m a regular now, so much so that all the delivery people know where I live!

I trialled and then subscribed to Amazon Prime, which is amazing, and I also bought myself a smart bracelet.

During those three months of lockdown I was stopped three times by the police as I went food shopping/to the pharmacy/to the petrol station; all legitimate activities, of course. However, for me, being British and not used to high-profile policing, it was slightly unnerving to be “interrogated” by the Spanish equivalent of the Old Bill.

Then, when lockdown was eased at the end of June and we could buy things other than food, eg DIY materials, gardening products, paint and so on, I started to do things around the house and garden that I’d never done before in my life.

I used my basic carpentry “skills” (I did one year of woodwork at school, until they made me do Latin instead) to cannibalise some rotting wooden garden furniture. I successfully turned four sun loungers that were down on their luck into two decent sun loungers, a reclining chair and a patio table, all freshly stained and in use.

With the help of a couple of friends I constructed a carport, which despite some harsh weather lately, is still standing!

I rubbed down and “hammerited” all the metal garden furniture. Good stuff, that paint! Everything looks like new!

I built a refuse area to hide the unsightly rubbish and recycling bins.

I erected brezo fencing for the first time.

My gallego friend Jorge and I built a raised bed in the garden, using old railway sleepers, where I have planted broad beans, winter lettuce and potatoes.

Jorge and I harvested the olives from our single tree – about 20 kilos – and I am currently soaking them in brine before I marinate them with garlic, herbs and spices for eventual use as table olives.

I am currently half-way through renovating a coffee table I found at the dump.

Once we were allowed to move about again, I pressure-washed the exterior terraces of Casa Rita, our house in Montejaque (Málaga), and did some bricklaying too. All new activities for me.

On the cultural side, I’ve seen my first ever zambomba, a traditional Christmas concert popular in Andalucía, and I “went back to school” in Ronda to start a drama class.

In October I organised and ran the first-ever, we think, bilingual pub quiz in the Serranía de Ronda. Unfortunately, subsequently planned quizzes have been postponed because of the latest Covid-19 restrictions.

What else did I do in 2020 that I’ve never done before?

I had a brain scan (the less said about that, the better!)

Oh, I got a dog, Berti, a rescued German pointer.

Plus, I’ve written my first ever book, which we hope to publish in the next couple of years.

And I swam in the Mediterranean for the first time – for the first time in December, that is!

So, although I don’t have a “bucket list” as such, I suppose, in a way, I’ve accumulated a retrospective one.

I think I may plan a proper “bucket list” for the coming decade, however. Things that will be on it include, in no particular order of priority:

• Visit Galicia, the only region of Spain I don’t know.
• Take a balloon flight over Ronda
• Have a go at padel. I used to play a lot of squash and tennis, so, despite tired legs and advancing age, I might be reasonable at this “trendy” racket sport
• Visit Ascari race track, outside Ronda
• Walk the Caminito del Rey
• Take my wife to Madrid
• Travel on the Al Andalus train
• Walk a section of El Camino de Santiago
• Stay in a Center Parcs in France, the Netherlands or Belgium with the kids and grandkids (that’s a lot of people – over 20 at the last count)
• Dine in Benahavís, the gastronomic hub of this part of Andalucía

That’s a good ten things – I think that will have to do for now!

Pablo de Ronda has had dealings with all three Spanish police forces over the years. Here is his assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses and their level of ‘niceness’ or charm.

I was stopped by the tráfico section of the Guardia Civil on my way into Ronda the other day. Not sure what I’d done, but they asked for my car documents anyway and my ID.

While one of them was checking me out on his handheld computer, his colleague asked me if I had a police record.

Without hesitation I replied: “Yes, sir, several in fact. ‘Walking on the Moon’, ‘Roxanne’, ‘Message in a Bottle’ …..”

Three police forces

There are three different police bodies in Spain, which I have written about previously [Editor: please see hyperlink at end of article].

Each force has its own responsibilities, but there is sometimes an overlap, which is confusing for Spaniards as well as foreigners. Which one do you go to report a crime, for example? Depends on whether the crime took pace in the town or in the country.

Guardia Civil

My first memories of the Spanish police date from the 1970s when I was in my early 20s studying Spanish in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa).

These were the, at that time, dreaded Guardia Civil, General Franco’s ‘stormtroopers’. They had a reputation for fierceness and brutality and for being uncompromising.

Their patent-leather tricorn hats were a symbol of these quasi-military types and they struck fear into hearts and minds of the locals, especially in the Basque country where Franco was ‘waging war’ on the Basque identity and their language euskera, which was prohibited.

In San Sebastián every August there was a machine-gun toting guardia civil on every street corner. General Franco liked to spend his summer hols in the elegant Basque resort and the security had to be really tight.

Franco died in November 1975 and the process of Spain becoming a parliamentary democracy began in earnest, aided by and abetted by Franco’s nominated heir as head of state, King Juan Carlos I*.

One thing that had to change was the Guardia Civil. The force was subjected to a root and branch makeover. They began a charm offensive; out went the military-style uniforms and the tricorn hats, the latter to be replaced by soft berets. They were trained to be respectful and pleasant towards the public.

So, 45 years on, most Guardia Civil officers are polite and friendly and, above all, human and flexible in their approach to law enforcement.

Policía Local

The same cannot be said of some officers of the Policía Local or los municipales, as they are known. My recent dealings with members of this force have left me flabbergasted and much worse-off financially.

I have been fined for parking infringements three times in Montejaque (Málaga) and twice in Ronda – that amounts to 500€ if you pay quickly and claim the 50% discount.

The way the sysem works is that if you pay within 20 working days and waive your right to challenge the fine, you pay only 100€ instead of 200€.

That’s unfair as it discourages motorists with a legitimate challenge from doing so. You never win against the cops anyway, I’ve been told by many a Spaniard. So, best to pay up sharpish, bite your tongue and get the discount.

Gone are the days when the local bobbies read the meters, montitored mums and dads outside school at the start and end of the school day and delivered important official post.

If they caught you parked wrongly, they’d just ask you to move on.

Not any longer!

Policía Nacional

As for the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía I have had little to do with them in recent years, as they are responsible for combating crime, which I am not involved in (Honest, guv!).

We had some problems 10 years ago involving threatening behaviour, actual bodily harm and damage to property. The CNP officers were quick to respond to our emergency calls and to deal with the problems. Out of interest the perpetrator of these ‘crimes’, José O., is currently behind bars in Alhaurín de la Torre penitentiary. Best place for him and long overdue!

I have had to present a few denuncias – theft of wife’s handbag (twice!), my wallet (once), loss of passport, ill-treatment of animals. That kind of thing.

On these occasions I found the officers to be slow and quite inefficient, yet polite and respectful also.

Police check

So, in conclusion, my rank order of ‘niceness’ is:

1^st - La Guardia Civil; 2^nd - La Policía Nacional; and a distant 3rd - La Policía Local.

And, guess which force earns the most?

You’ll be surprised!!

This year two Spanish national bank holidays fall in such a way that a puente, or bridge, in between these two dates creates a break from work of five days.  Pablo de Ronda explains.

We are all familiar with the concept of a “puente”. In other words, if a bank holiday falls on a Thursday or a Tuesday, the Friday or the Monday is taken as holiday to create a long weekend of four days. This happens a few times a year in Spain.

In 2021, however, Constitution Day is on Monday 6 December and Immaculate Conception on Wednesday 8 December, so most people will take Tuesday 7 December as “puente” and banks, offices and schools will remain closed.

This five-day break is great for everybody, for workers and their families and especially for the tourist, catering and retail industries. These three sectors will hope to be very busy in order to recoup some of the losses caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Many hotels are already fully booked, restaurants are anticipating full dining rooms and terraces and shops are gearing up for increased sales.

Ronda hotelier Julian Marshall, of Cortijo Perla Blanca, near Ronda, said: “My wife and I have other commitments outside Spain on those dates, but we can’t afford to close, so we’ve brought in locum staff to run the hotel and attend to our ‘full house’ of guests.”

Another Ronda hotel, Hotel Molino del Puente, and its restaurant, La Cascada, have been closed for three weeks while the owners, Ian and Elaine Love took a well-earned holiday after a difficult year coping with Covid-19 restrictions. But they’ll be back in time to open for this special “puente”.

As Elaine said: “This puente is always important for us in the hotel and catering trade, but this year should be even better as it’s five days long! We’re hoping for a bumper time.”

Álvaro Gutiérrez, proprietor of Hotel Palacete de Manara and Restaurante Entre Ascuas in Montejaque (Málaga) told me that things are looking really good.

“I am fully booked from 4 – 8 December. I also have a wedding for 400 people on Sunday 5 December. Things are looking good at last!”

Another factor to consider is that employees have just received their Christmas bonus, ie two months extra pay (most workers in Spain are paid 14 months per year, unlike the UK where 12 months is the norm), so they have money to spend in the run-up to Christmas and New Year.

So, here in Ronda, then, we not only have the three famous bridges in the town, namely  the Puente Nuevo, the Puente Romano and the Puente Árabe, this year we have the “Puente Largo” too!