Issue #16‏

All Aboard!
On March 6th my friend David and I went to Madrid. We went from Malaga on the AVE train. AVE is an acronym for Alta Velocidad Española which means Spanish high speed. Coincidentally, ave is Spanish for bird.

There are two train stations in Madrid: Puerta Atocha in the south and Chamartin on the north side of the city. The trip from Malaga to Puerta Atocha in the historic centre of Madrid cost less than 50 Euros. The AVE reached speeds of 300 Km/h and the 537 kms from Maria Zambrano Station in Malaga took 2 hours and 50 minutes.

The train is comfortable and free headphones are provided so that passengers can watch the movie. Light meals, sandwiches, snacks and beverages with and without alcohol can be purchased at the snack bar near the front of the train.

Since July 2008 the sculptures Noche y Día (Night and Day), by Antonio López have been on show at Atocha station in Madrid. They are three metres high and weigh 2 tons. We had to beg security to let us take pictures of me standing next to the sleeping baby head because they were shutting down the station. I asked our taxi driver why there were so many police and he said something about a minister (my Spanish isn´t great and people in Madrid have a different accent) so I´m guessing some high-ranking government official was coming into Madrid by train. Stay tuned for more about Madrid!


The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Issue #15

Toro, Toro, Toro


It occurred to me that many of my faithful readers are not on Facebook and so will not know that I am now a published writer! I can now claim to be a regular contributor to the El Dorado News.

I have been in Spain for many months and have yet to attend a bullfight. I am torn between an anthropologist´s desire to witness, first hand, a performance that is an icon of Spanish culture and an animal lover´s abhorrence at watching the bulls suffer. If the flurry of articles appearing in the English-language press is an indicator, I am not the only one who is conflicted. The El Dorado News provided a brief history of the sport indicating that cave paintings in Altamira, Spain dating back to before 2,000 B.C. suggest the roots of bullfighting. The Moors, according to the article, “changed bullfighting significantly from the brutish, formless spectacle practiced”. Some believe bullfighting to be a sacrifice stemming from Roman bull worship. The modern bullfight began to develop when the men on foot, who used capes to aid the men on horseback, attracted more attention from the audience and it is much the same today as it has been since about 1726 when the use of the sword and the small cape was introduced in Ronda.

Last month, Catalan parliament voted in favour of the introduction of a law to officially prohibit the killing of bulls for sport. Navarre´s regional parliament approved a declaration recognizing the region´s bull running festival and bullfights as an intangible cultural heritage. The running of the bulls in Pamplona in July is a huge tourist attraction and a spokesperson for the Convergencia de Democratas de Navarra said it was “advisable and opportune” to recognise the value of bullfights for Navarra, now that there is an open debate nationwide about such events. The conservative Popular Party is calling for respect for what it says is “a deeply-rooted, uniquely Mediterranean tradition that dates back to the days of Ancient Greece.”

Bullfighting, however, is more than a tradition, it is a business. In Torremolinos the town hall has put the contract for running the bullring up for tender. The five-year contract would cost about 20,000 euros per year and conditions include organizing at least fifteen bullfights every year. The economic crisis could turn bullfighting into a dying art. To cover the cost of breeding and feeding a fighting bull, it must sell for at least 5,000 euros. Some breeders are selling off fighting bulls for food for a maximum of 420 euros per animal. Others are diversifying into pigs or olive and cork production. The worst affected, according to industry experts, would not be the bull breeders but those directly and indirectly employed by the industry. Bullfighting employs approximately 200,000 people and accounts for 1.5% of Spain´s GDP. Ever dwindling numbers of spectators, cutbacks imposed by limits on fiestas´ budgets and a one third drop in the number of fights in the period of 2008 to 2009 may all contribute the end of bullfighting in Spain.

Some of the regional governments in Andalucia have launched a project to encourage tourism and targeting the beleaguered bull fighting industry. The project named `Torritorio toro´, or bull territory, will include tours of bull breeding farms to see the bulls in all stages of development and the chance to fight a small cow. There will also be visits to bullfighting museums and rings with a focus on learning about the customs and traditions that are part of the ´national sport´.

Issue #14

Semana Santa

                                                                                  

Alright, I´ll admit it - I went to Malaga, a city I know well, instead of Seville, which I have yet to visit, because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Antonio Banderas. All of the English-language newspapers carried photos of him and mentioned how he takes part in the processions. One of the papers stated,"Banderas is a keen participator in Malaga´s Easter week processions which are considered on a par with those of Seville." This is a rather strange comment; not the "Banderas is keen" part but the "on a par with those of Seville" part because, in fact, Malaga holds the most elaborate in the world!

I took about 300 pictures of which only a third were clear enough to make out the Nazarenos dressed in the tall, pointy hats or the groups of 200-plus men bearing up to five tons of trono. Not one of the photos was of Antonio.

In Rachel Stewart´s piece `My Holy Week Experience´she wrote,"After a rather long wait and plenty of speculation as to which person draped in the cream robes of the brotherhood [Fusionaldes] could be Banderas, the `nazarenos´ came into sight guideing the rest of the group, accompanied by the elated squeal of a friend who was adamant that she could recognise him from his eyes and expensive-looking shoes."

Normally, I would have been freaked out by the crowd but this time I felt a part of it. When I excused my way through the throng and a man asked me, in Spanish of course, where I thought I was going in this crush, I simply smiled and pointed over his head into the ocean of people behind him. Yes, I was actually going to dive into the sea of bodies rather than run screaming from them.

I felt very fortunate to have been able to witness this important tradition.

Issue #13

The Sun is Shining Today!

For time immemorial, neighbours have chatted about the weather but here in Spain the weather has been so dramatic as to be the stuff of headlines. This month the top weather story was Barcelona´s blizzard. One of the English-language publications here on the Costa del Sol stated, “If you think Andalucian weather has been bad then just take a look at Barcelona, which has been hit with the heaviest snowfall in 25 years. The Catalan capital came to a standstill, while flights were cancelled, schools were closed and trains were trapped on the tracks after 50 centimetres of snow.”

In 2004 the European Environment Agency predicted that Spain and Portugal would be most affected by coming climate change. “Storms, floods and droughts are likely to become more and more frequent with a significant rise in temperature expected…Natural disasters appear to becoming more frequent with twice as many serious events recorded in Europe in the nineties in comparison with the previous decade. Such events can cause very heavy economic losses, e.g. the droughts of 1999 caused losses of more than 3 billion euros in Spain.”

Ironically, the weather news in Andalucia this month has been about all the rain. Roads in Nerja, ruined by floods in 2007 and that deteriorated further with recent rains will be repaired, cliffs are to be reinforced and a bridge will be replaced. The price tag is an estimated 257,000 euros. Agricultural losses and estimated damage to infrastructure due to recent heavy rainfall in La Axarquia region is 172 million euros. Olives alone account for four million of that figure. In the Forest Hills area of Estepona, recent rains caused devastating landslides last week. Eight of the evacuated families have been given the green light to return to their homes but three others are not so fortunate. The Estepona town hall is repairing the affected streets. Cartama town hall has reported damage caused by heavy rains to the municipal cemetery and thirty niches had to be relocated to a new pavillion. Alhaurin de la Torre town hall is suing the owners of the Santa Amalia stables for the cost of removing the carcasses of twenty-six horses, along with numerous dogs,goats, and ponies who died when the stable, built illegally on a floodplain, was inundated by the Rio Guadalhorce. Economic commentators state that the unseasonably poor weather on the Costa del Sol and its resulting lower tourist numbers have had a greater financial impact on local businesses than the international economic downturn. Andrew Forbes writes in the Sur in English.”…it appears the winter weather has been the last straw for some of the coasts most prestigious hotels.” He quotes Count Rudi Von Schonburg as saying, “climate change and the heavy rain has put clients off coming here.”

Issue #12

Top of the Morning to You!


I have celebrated St. Patrick´s Day only once before and that was in Montreal. At the time I appreciated the irony of attending festivities for the patron saint of Ireland in the heart of francophone Canada. Here I am once again paying homage to that priest, this time in Spain. According to The News, one of the English-language newspapers available on the Costa del Sol, St. Patrick´s Day was officially celebrated for the first time on March 17th, 1753.

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century to a wealthy family. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest. In 432, he says that he was called back to Ireland by God, though as a bishop, to save the Irish, and indeed he was successful at this, focusing on converting royalty and aristocracy as well as the poor. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of teaching and spreading God's Word he died on 17 March, 461 AD, and was buried at Downpatrick.
In hopes of making a political statement, during the 1798 rebellion, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on the 17th of March. The phrase "the wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from the song of the same name. St. Patrick´s Day was also believed to have served as a one-day break during Lent, the forty day period of fasting before Easter. This would involve drinking alcohol; something which became a tradition.

I always thought that everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patrick´s Day but judging by the surprised looks on the faces of my Spanish neighbours, I was wrong. My assumption probably was based on the fact that the 2006 census by Statcan, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,155 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the nation's total population.

And whether or not you are Irish or of Irish descent,

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Issue #11

Happy Andalucia Day

Today marks six months that Inu-chan and I have been in Spain. We have moved away from our home in Arroyo de la Miel to a new place in Torremuelle. Torre means tower and for centuries the picturesque watchtowers ringing the coast of Spain from Gibraltar to the Pyrenees gave warning of attacks by the Barbary Pirates from North Africa. Torremuelle is an urbanization, a subdivision, of Benalmadena-Costa and it has its own train station just one stop west of Arroyo de la Miel.
There are no highrise buildings in our new neighbourhood and our lovely apartment has views of the Mediterranean and the hillside with Benalmadena Pueblo and the Buddhist stupa, from the front terrace. The back terrace is an enclosed jungle of vines perfect for a tiny tiger to hunt little lizards in, so perfect, in fact, that it came with a tiny tiger already there. I am presently trying to find her family. She is very sweet natured and wears a pink collar. She looks up the high walls and cries so she must have fallen into our back terrace.

Thanks to her I have already spoken with three different neighbours and they are Spanish, French and German which has led me to conclude that Torremuelle is a multi-cultural enclave.

I am attaching a link to Torremuelle´s website.   http://www.torremuelle.net/index.php?lan

The cat named dog is no more.

On Monday the 25th of April, 2011, Inu-chan, my beloved tiny, Japanese tiger died.  My muse, mentor and monster, she began her life with me in her birthplace of Yamagata, Japan.  She moved with me to Vancouver, Canada and a few years later to Benalmadena,Spain. She died at home in Singapore having seen more continents, countries, airports and assuredly, more cargo holds, than most human beings.

As I write this there are 18 emails and 24 expressions of condolence on Facebook.  A lot of them are from people who got to meet her and say they are glad they did.  The others are from people who know how very much I am going to miss her, even if they don't know why.

On Monday at 11:13PM I wrote on my Facebook status, "Inu-chan died suddenly at home today. I don't know what else to say."

I wrote in my newsletter yesterday:

 "Yesterday my tiny, Japanese tiger died suddenly at home in Singapore. She wasn't ill and there was no evidence of an accident. I 'googled' Sudden Cat Death and discovered it is much more common than I could have guessed and the vets seem to agree that heart failure is quite common even in younger cats. Inu-chan was 10 and a half years old.

I regret that she did not live long enough to enjoy the much deserved celebrity that would have been heaped upon her after Memoirs of a Cat Named Dog hit the New York Times bestseller list but the 22 messages of condolence received within 24 hours suggest that she had already enjoyed more than her 'fifteen minutes of fame'.

Inu was not the first of my cats to die but she will be the last. My heart is not strong enough to do this again."

With each day I find the strength to write more.  I still can't talk (or write) about her without crying but I am finding the words, and that is a very good thing.  Unlike all of the cats I had before, Inu will live on in 'her' memoirs.

Issue #10

A Day in Andrea´s Life

I don´t have a job that demands my time so my schedule is extremely flexible. I wake up with the sun and have a couple of glasses of café con leche before showering and dressing. Some mornings I do a load of laundry while having my coffee and then take it up to the roof to dry after I am dressed. I am usually out and about by noon. Some days I explore my neighbourhood and some days neighbouring towns. Most days I go to one of the two supermarkets near my apartment and pick up a few items. I get the biggest thrill out of picking up a baguette and it is still warm. The supermarkets are not open on Sundays so if I am in desperate need of something I go to Barker´s Booze and Groceries. It is open everyday and has quite an impressive selection for a shop that is not as big as your average 7-11 convenience store. I try to write daily or at very least edit what I have already written. I spend about three hours in the internet cafe every day.

Yesterday was the beginning of Carnaval and it was kicked off here in Benalmadena with a drag queen show. There were children in costumes racing around the square where the stage was erected and a cotton candy concession was open for business. I learned today that Carnaval was banned during General Franco´s dictatorship. I also found an article with great pictures and have attached a link below for those who wish to know more about this festival.       http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrcarnaval.html

Issue #9

Hanging in the ´hood

Groups of buildings are called urbanizations in Spain and the cluster of ten high-rise buildings that Inu-chan and I live in is Urb. Jardines del Gamonal (roughly gardens of the chief). It is located approximately, depending on whether you are going uphill or down, ten minutes from the train station and Paloma Park and fifteen minutes from the beach, on foot. There are 18 small restaurants and bars in the complex, 3 of them on the ground floor of our building. The other locales, commercial locations, on the ground floors of the buildings include a pharmacy, hardware store, pet store,and bakery. There are also a few beauty salons, travel agents, green grocers and internet cafes.
The next urbanization as you head downhill toward the sea is Zodiaco Corinto. There you will find more pubs but also a veterinarian clinic, a British health clinic, a British supermarket (where I get my monthly treat of instant macaroni and cheese) and Terri Fox´s Palace, billed as "the most glamourous place to be on the coast ...where fantasy becomes reality ". The show stars female impersonators Terri Fox and Shantell Michaels. This is where I ushered in 2010, sitting at the bar with Terri´s mother.

Issue #8

Benalmadena: My kind of town

Thank you to the 25 people who responded to the survey. It helped me to realize that I am exactly where I should be!! Jessica Selzer, author of Do It Afraid, was the only person who said being near a city was the most important although 5 other respondents said being near an international airport was really important. Being near the beach was of top importance for 7 people, nature got 4 and pueblo 3, only one person said being close to cultural events was number 1 but plenty of the folks who answered the survey made it their number 2.

Wikipedia describes Benálmadena as a municipality in the province of Málaga, part of Andalusia in southern Spain. The municipality is 12km west of the city of Málaga, on the southern coast between the tourist areas of Torremolinos and Fuengirola. It has a population of approximately 53,000 residents but also caters to a large number of tourists. There are three parts one of which is Benalmádena Pueblo, the original village, which is about 3 kms inland at approximately 200m above sea level. Its core is a typical white-washed Andalusian village. It has an archaeological museum, a bull-fighting ring and the largest Buddhist Stupa in the Western world. Benalmádena Costa has discos, hotels, beaches, shopping centres, and a marina. Tourist attractions include SeaLife aquarium and Selwo Marine Park. Casino Torrequebrada is along this same stretch. And then there is Arroyo de la Miel which means stream of honey. This is where I live. It was originally a separate village and lies between Pueblo and Costa making it very convenient to both the sea and the mountains. It is also convenient to Malaga airport and the city of Malaga because of the train station. It has become the main residential area, and is also the most commercially active. Arroyo de la Miel is home to the Tivoli World amusement park and the teleferico, a cable car which runs to the top of Calamorro mountain (769 metres). From here one can enjoy panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada, Gibraltar and on clear days, the Moroccan coastline.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Issue #7

This is the third country in which I have spent Christmas, the first being Canada and then Japan and the only thing that the holidays share in these three countries is the date, December 25th.

For more than a decade preceding my move to Yamagata my ´traditional´ Christmas celebration began with Christmas Eve at the Worthington´s which included walking the half block to the Anglican church to sing carols and then returning to their warm and beautifully decorated home to eat, drink and be merry. Gifts were exchanged but not opened. The opening of presents had to wait until Christmas morning. In the wee small hours before dawn I would return to my house and sleep until noon. Upon waking, I would have coffee and open my presents and then get dressed to go to Zoë´s. The party she hosted all those years was the highlight of the season for many people and we would eat and drink some more with the party finally winding down well after midnight. I would spend boxing day at Gail´s apartment. It was a ´girls´only day attended by Gail´s mother, sister and niece. I was an honourary member of the clan on this special day and we would play card games and, yes you guessed it, eat and drink. With the exception of a couple of hours spent singing at St.Judes, the holidays were a secular celebration for me.

In Japan, Christmas is a secular event. There is no holiday and I worked every Christmas Day for the 5 years that I lived there. Christmas Eve is the largest ´date´night of the year, much like New Year´s Eve is in Canada, and the restaurants were crowded with young couples. Japanese families that celebrate Christmas do so by eating chicken for dinner (you have to pre-order your KFC for that day) and Christmas cake. This is not the heavy fruitcake that Canadians call Christmas cake. It is like birthday cake, complete with candles, but instead of "Happy Birthday" written in icing on the cake, there is "Merry Christmas". Small children are given a toy or other treat. The really big family time is New Year´s and that is when the shops are closed and everyone is home with their loved ones.

Here in Spain there are two really important days in the 12 days of Christmas. The celebrations begin with Nochebuena on the evening of December 24th. A feast consisting of seafood, fish, ham, cheese and cava (Spanish champagne) is enjoyed and there is music and dancing. The centrepiece of the decorations is not a tree but a nativity scene called a belén in Spanish. On January 6th, the Epiphany, is Three Kings Day. This is the time the children have been really looking forward to because the Three Kings will bring presents to the children just like they brought to the baby Jesus. There is a parade in every town with candy being tossed to the crowd. Christmas is definately not a secular holiday in Spain.

Issue # 6

Feedback Request

First off, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has taken the time to let me know what they think of the Correo. I really appreciate it! So why, you ask, am I asking for feedback now? Well, I am seriously considering moving to another part of Andalucia. My lovely home in Arroyo de la Miel was on a 6 month contract and it is up at the end of February 2010. Please take a few minutes to consider these questions and send back your answers. Everyone who responds will receive a free week of accomodation on the beautiful Costa del Sol with all the sangria you can drink.

If you were planning a holiday in the south of Spain which of the following would be important to you?

1/ Close to an international airport

2/ Close to a city

3/ Close to a beach

4/ Located in a small Andalusian pueblo

5/ Close to a marina or port

6/ Close to cultural activities i.e. bullfights, museums, festivals, markets

7/ Close to fun activites i.e. theme parks, aquariums, casinos

8/ Close to a shopping centre or major department store

9/ Close to nature i.e. mountains, forests, rivers

10/ Close to a Buddhist temple ;-)

Please organize from most important to least important and feel free to add any comments or suggestions.

5th Issue

The Berlin Zirkus: An Evening at a Traditional Circus

I attended the early performance of the Berlin Zirkus on November 28, 2009 in Benalmadena, Spain. I sat in the front row and with popcorn in hand excitedly awaited the show. The ring was enclosed with bars as the first act was the Bengal tigers. Frank Bügler is the patriarch of the family and he trains the animals with the exception of the horses and ponies who are trained by Patricia Bügler. After the tigers, the bars were removed and the audience was treated to an impressive display of juggling by Maikel, a prepubescent boy who is following in the footsteps of his teenage brother Anthony, a consummate showman who really plays to the crowd. Their younger sister acts as assistant to Anthony´s plate spinning display and is mastering the hoops. She doesn´t have her own act yet. There are two different clown acts and a tightrope display by Miguel Ferreri that had me on the edge of my seat. The non-human performers include camels, long-horned cattle, the aforementioned tigers, horses and ponies and my favourite, the elephants. I had my picture taken with Miss Esmeralda. The finale brings all the performers and their children into the ring and the smallest children get a chance to show their skills and get a taste for the limelight.

The term circus is commonly used to describe a travelling company of performers that may include acrobats,clowns, trained animals,and other stunt-oriented artists. The Latin word circus comes from the Greek word kirkos meaning circle or ring. The circus of Rome is thought to have been influenced by the Greeks, with chariot racing and the exhibition of animals as traditional attractions. For some time after the fall of Rome, itinerant showmen travelled the fair grounds of Europe. Animal trainers and performers are thought to have exploited the nostalgia for the Roman circus, travelling between towns and performing at local fairs.

The first true animals acts in the circus were equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh entered a cage with several big cats in 1833, and is generally considered to be the first wild animal trainer in American circus history. The use of animals in the circus has been a matter of controversy, as animal-welfare groups have documented many cases of cruelty in the training of performing animals. The modern circus, like the Cirque de Soleil, uses only human performers. The traditional circus may soon become a thing of the past.

4th Issue

When Doing Laundry is a Pleasure

Even though it is November, the metal door to the roof of my building is hot enough to fry a proverbial egg on it. Like in Japan, most people hang their washing out to dry and where I live, lines have been strung on the roof to take advantage of the sun and wind. In Gibraltar, those without balconies hang their laundry on lines strung outside windows.

Every time I do this typical household chore I am struck by the blinding beauty of the view and I have to take a moment just to appreciate how really fortunate I am.

The other thing that I always think about as I anchor my wet clothes to the line with wooden clothes pins is how much our mother loved to hang her laundry outdoors. She didn´t have a view of the Mediterranean but she just adored the way things smelled when she brought them back inside. During the long, frigid winters in northern Ontario, she would have to dry our clothes by hanging them on lines strung in the basement of our house. As soon as the mercury would climb above freezing she would brave the still chilly days to hang them outside where they would benefit from fresh air and sunshine.

While I was in Morocco, I was reminded of how the Tswana women knelt on the edge of the Thamalakane River to do their washing because the women of both of these African countries use the same detergent, Omo; however, the women in Chefchaouen have a shelter with concrete basins and scrubbing boards erected over a mountain stream

I will end this Correo with a quote from Colleen C. Barrett

Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.