Posts

Showing posts from 2014

An environmental success story: Laguna de los Tollos

Image
We hear with depressing regularity about natural habitats being destroyed in the pursuit of profit. So it's good to learn about a project where the opposite has happened, thanks to the hard work and persistence of a group of environmental conservationists.  Such a project is the Laguna de los Tollos , near the town of El Cuervo just north of Jerez. Until 1976 this lake was an important stopover for wetland birds, including flamingoes in their thousands, winging their way between the Coto Doñana and the Laguna de Fuente de Piedra in Málaga Province.  It was also a breeding site for purple swamp hens (aka purple gallinules), crested coot and the rare white-headed duck.  Then along came Hefran SA, a mineral exploitation company, who dug a pit next to the lake to extract the special clay needed to produce Fuller's Earth - a mineral used in the pharmaceutical industry and in the production of cat litter. The effect on the lake was catastrophic.  The water level dropped a

No hay pan para tanto chorizo!

Image
No, this is not a post about food.  "Chorizo", as well as being a famous Spanish sausage, is a slang word for thief (probably derived from the gypsy word chori ).   The slogan is saying that there are so many chorizos in the country (in the form of politicians, businessmen and bankers lining their pockets)  that there isn't enough bread to go round. But the chickens are coming home to roost. In the past month alone, 127 potential chorizos have come under investigation, 38  have been locked up and 37 have resigned from their posts.  A staggering 75% of cabinet ministers from José María Aznar's last PP government (2000-2004) are currently either in prison or under investigation . The latest scandal to hit the country was Operación Púnica , an investigation into bribes for contracts. Last Monday saw 51 arrests in a sweep across Madrid, Murcia, Valencia and León last Monday.  Four have been held on remand, including two mayors. Millions of euros were found hidden in

CRECE-Empleo - Every little helps

Image
Fifteen Alcalá women, who have all been unemployed for some time, have something to celebrate this week. They have been selected to take part in a nine-month training programme on basic restaurant and bar skills, comprising six months' theory followed a further three months' work experience in local businesses. During that time they will receive a grant of €400 a month. At the end of the period they will get a certificate (but no guarantee of a job).  A further 125 Alcalá residents considered "at risk of social exclusion", including some with physical or mental disabilities) will get help from coordinators who will liaise with local businesses to find them placements according to their abilities. The Chosen Few (plus a handful of politicians) This project, known as CRECE-Empleo , is being funded 80% by the European Social Fund and 20% by the Diputación de Cádiz.   It is part of a further injection of EU funds to help the chronic unemployment situati

Feria in the '50s

Image
Alcalá's August fair is one of the highlights of the festive calendar, with friends and families getting together for four days of eating, drinking, loud music, dancing and general merriment.   But it wasn't always like that and it wasn't always in August.   Francisco Teodoro Sánchez Vera , an alcalaíno now living in Catalonia, describes the ferias he remembers from his childhood.   Read the original Spanish version here  During the years of my childhood and adolescence in Alcalá, there was no fair in August. It was celebrated in May, and it was very different to nowadays. In those days the girls didn't wear dresses with frills, and you didn't hear sevillanas 1 on the Paseo de la Playa. We had song and dance del gazpacho 2 to the rhythm of verdiales or pasodobles, played by local groups with well-known musicians like my friend Jésus Sánchez, father of the great Alejandro Sanz. 3 There were also f lamenco shows in the Cinema Gazul,

La Vuelta Ciclista - on yer bike, Alcalá!

Image
Spain's international cycling road-race, La Vuelta a España , kicked off yesterday in Jerez de la Frontera.  Over the next three weeks nearly two hundred men on wheels will punish their bodies relentlessly over some of Spain's hairiest mountain passes, ending up in Santiago de Compostela.  There is much local excitement because the first three stages are taking place in Cádiz province.Today they are touring the Costa de la Luz, from Algeciras to San Fernando, and tomorrow's stage sets off from a Spanish aircraft carrier moored in the port of Cádiz. (This is ostensibly to honour Spain's former monarch , who abdicated recently after a series of scandals.  He's kept his job as head of the armed forces, but his relationship with cycling is unclear.) Stage 2 - a nice flat bit The third stage was supposed to come through Alcalá de los Gazules, on the way to Arcos de la Frontera via the daunting crags of the Sierra de Grazalema.  Cycling fans and local hostelries

Stork Talk

Image
One of the most impressive large birds seen regularly around Alcalá is the white stork, Ciconia ciconia . The other day we witnessed about two hundred of them flying overhead, on their way from wintering in Africa to their breeding grounds in Europe. They take the shortest route across the Mediterranean, because the thermals which lift them high into the air during their migration don't form over water. An estimated eighty thousand of them come our way, across the Strait of Gibraltar, though many more cross at the other end of the Med, across the Bosphorus and up through Turkey. White storks grazing in the spring meadows Alcalá now has three resident pairs, whose nests can be seen on pylons to the left of the A375 as you come into town from junction 42 on the A381.  You can often see them grazing in the fields nearby, or wheeling overhead.  Further south on the A381 towards Los Barrios there are nests on every pylon, and the derelict sugar factory at El Portal is a verit

Restaurante El Campanero is back in business

Image
Alcalá's 'Mesón Asador el Campanero' closed its doors a few years ago, leaving a gap at the top end of the food chain in the town centre. The restaurant was a carnivore's paradise, with the heads of beasts looking down on you as you tucked into their relatives.  We ate there a couple of times when we first came to Alcalá, but high prices and highly uncomfortable chairs (the traditional ones with lumpy wicker seats) put us off going there once we retired and moved here permanently. Following a total makeover, El Campanero recently re-opened under the management of Andalucía and Manuel Jímenez Jímenez, whose parents first opened the establishment in 1999. Andalucía and Manuel also run the popular "Gin Club" bar, Copas Campanero, opposite the restaurant.  I'm not sure when they find time to sleep. El Campanero is located  near the BP garage, opposite the Día supermarket.  It is open every day except Tuesdays from 8 a.m. till late, for breakfast,