La Vida Alcalaína

Back in January we spent our Sunday nights glued to the TV watching Jesús Calleja and the Spanish teams taking part in the Dakar Rally, bouncing across the dunes and deserts of Chile and Argentina in a series of unlikely-looking vehicles.  This weekend we had our own local version:   Baja Comarca La Janda - organised by RS Sport and Andinas Racing, and part of the Campeonato de Andalucía de Enduro Todo Terreno (All-Terrain Endurance Championships of Andalucia). Thirty-nine teams took part, inlcuding some who had taken part in the Dakar Rally.  They lined up on the Paseo de la Playa on Saturday morning, before roaring past the bemused market shoppers towards the hills and valleys of La Janda - a route made especially challenging by the heavy rains we have seen in recent weeks. The winners were José Antonio Hinojo and Israel Diego Gilabert from Almeria, in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Photos by Chemary Gómez Reyes:

Unlike the last two years, the sun shone on Alcalá for this year's Carnaval.    The Playa was like a fairground;  the concerts in the marquee were packed; half the town dressed up in costume, and industrial quantities of paella, sardinas, chicharrones and tagarninas were cooked in the open air and served to the crowds. Yesterday we watched the pasacalles del humor (humorous street parade), and it struck me yet again how wonderfully sociable, resourceful and fun-loving the Alcalainos are. This isn't put on for the tourists, or to make money - it is entertainment for the people by the people.  Check out this video if you can spare a couple of minutes, and you will see how infectiously good-humoured it all is: The following history of Carnaval in this area, and how it survived Franco's attempts to clean it up, is extracted from an article by a writer who grew up in Alcalá in the 1930s. Memories of Alcala 29: Carnival (translated from an essay by Juan Leiva)

"!Don Carnal llega!" the headline in our local paper announced last week.  It's carnival time!  Like New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad, Spain shakes out its feathers at the passing of winter with a flamboyant celebration of Martes Gordo - Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday.   Most Spanish towns celebrate  carnaval  with parades, lavish costumes and non-stop partying; Tenerife and Sitges are among the most flamboyant.  Some of them go on for a week or two. The excesses of carnaval are intended to prepare us for Cuaresma  (Lent)- forty days of abstinence from the pleasures of the flesh.  The word probably comes from the Latin carnem levare , to put away meat, or carne vale, farewell to the flesh .   Like so many Christian customs, the feast evolved from a pagan ritual:  lupercalia , a time for spring-cleaning and spiritual purification, which took place in mid February.  In Britain, all that survives  is pancake-tossing (and even that makes the  Health and Safety people

Alcalá being the birthplace of Spain´s first Minister of Equal Rights, Bibiana Aido , the townswomen take  International Women's Day very seriously.  Just as Alcalá's St George's Day celebrations are spread out over three days, so events for the the Día Internacional de las Mujeres (8 March) ran from Monday till Thursday, ranging from from workshops on equality in the workplace to a "juvenile gymkhana". AMAG, the Asociación de Mujeres de Alcalá de los Gazules , has members of all ages and social backgrounds, and organises social, charitable and educational events throughout the year.  They are especially keen to reach out to the town´s fifty or so resident foreigners, ourselves included.  Last year we were invited to speak to several dozen alcalainas about why we had moved here, and also about women´s roles in our own countries.  This year was slightly less scary; they organised an " Encuentro entre culturas ", a meeting between cultures, where we