1www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

olive pressThe original and only English-language

investigative newspaper in Andalucía

HAPPY EASTER INDEED, AS OLIVE PRESS FINALLY REACHES ALL EIGHT ANDALUCIA PROVINCES WITH 30,000 PAPERS PRINTED

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2 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 ADVERTORIAL

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A HUGE row has blown up after a mayor appar-ently blamed foreign-ers and ‘ecologists’ for a backlash against a scheme to build a gigan-tic housing complex on a virgin beach.Tarifa’s mayor found himself in a giant storm after making the ob-scene remarks to a jour-nalist.Furious that a huge pe-tition of over 80,000 names was opposing the project, PP mayor Juan Andres Gil told Adela Gama, of El Confiden-cial: “What Tarifa needs

Don’t blame the guiris!

Tarifa mayor in huge storm after he slams foreigners and ecologists for backlash against his ‘unsustainable’ megaproject on virgin beach

By Eloise Horsfield is more work and fewer guiris (foreigners).”He then added: “To hell with the ecologists.”The row came after he was publicly grilled following a 15-minute speech about why the development, near stun-ning Valdevaqueros Beach, was positive for the town.He insisted that the 700,000 square metre scheme to build 350 apartments and a 1,400 room hotel complex – passed by the town hall last week - would bring necessary investment and jobs to Tarifa.However, not everyone agreed with him, with lo-

cal politicians and envi-ronmentalists insisting the project was a ‘bar-barity’ and ‘completely unsustainable’.So concerned are the lo-cal IU and Equo party, led by former Green-peace boss Juan Lopez de Uralde, that in just a few weeks, the petition has grown fast and an appeal has been made to Brussels.“This has only just start-ed,” said Lopez de Ural-de. “There is still much that can be done to avoid bricking over the un-spoilt Valdevaqueros beach.“The economy of specu-lation has led us into the

pit where we are now and these same recipes are not going to get us out of it.“These schemes mere-ly make some people richer while ruining the landscape and heritage for everyone else.”One local British busi-nessman, who asked not to named for fear of repercussions from the town hall, told the Ol-ive Press: “Local people have been anti-foreigner for a while.“And on this develop-ment? Well some of us are 11completely against

Turn to Page 11

VIRGIN BEACH: Valdevaqueros and (inset) Gil

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THE €100 billion bailout of Spain’s banking sector has been dismissed as a ‘sticking plas-ter’ solution to the country’s economic woes.It comes after ini-tial market gains quickly dissipated amid fears of fur-ther financial fall out.

No more than a sticking plaster

Turn to Page 49

PRINCE Edward holds court in a fetch-ing panama hat, as his wife the Count-ess of Wessex does all the ‘hard work’ greeting school children, on day two of the controversial Royal visit to Gibral-tar to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. See full story on page 21

Keep up the good work, dear!

Dubbed ‘bailout lite’, the relaxed terms of the pack-age have caused an-ger in other bailed out countries in-cluding Ireland and Greece.Both are subject to much more strin-gent terms.

4 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 4 NEWS The Olive Press - Number One for crime

ON TRIAL: Cerezo

A FORMER mayor is in court for the sec-ond time charged with town planning of-fences.Competa’s former PP leader – who spent 32 years in power – is facing two years behind bars and a 10 year ban from hold-ing public office for granting illegal build-ing licences on non-buildable land.Leovigildo Lopez Cerezo is already banned from public office for seven years for other planning crimes.But he has now been accused of granting permits for properties ‘knowing that they could not be approved’.He is on trial at Malaga’s provincial court alongside four other councillors, the town hall architect and secretary.The defendents are said to have used underhand methods to make it look as though they were acting in compliance

A BRITISH gang who ran a lucrative ‘fraud school’ for conmen has been jailed.The group, who trained wannabe fraudsters and supplied them with fake documentation, got up to six years each following a three-year investigation.They had made millions providing fake documents

HOLIDAYMAKERS who become victims of crime may have to brush up on their pidgin Spanish this summer.It comes after the National Police slashed its transla-tion services in Spain.In the highly controver-sial move, police stations around Spain have been told not to use translators during the summer tourism season.Part of an ongoing series of cost-cutting measures, foreigners reporting crimes will now need to rely on the language skills of the officer on duty.There will continue to be of-ficers who serve as transla-tors in investigations and in immigration units.

Fraud school closed down Spain-based gang sent to prison

for providing fake documents and ‘tutorials’ for wannabe conmen

By James Bryce and instructions on how to commit fraud to thousands of clients online.This included the creation of false bank statements, wage slips, driving licences and utility bills from their office in Alicante.They also gave advice and unofficial ‘tutorials’ to con-men based on the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.The criminal enterprise, known as Confidential Ac-

cess (CA), even sold so-called ‘platinum’ products costing €7,000, which in-cluded detailed information about how to commit iden-tity fraud.In total, around 11,000 people used CA’s services through online forums which used nautical terms to determine the level of trust given to each member.Some spent more than €25,000 on false docu-

ments, with some going on to commit crimes worth more than €1 million. Detective Inspector Tim Dowdeswell said: “This was a sophisticated operation which has netted millions of pounds over the years.“These cyber criminals not only provided the tools to commit fraud, they instruct-ed their clients in how to use them to make the maximum amount of money, while ruining real people’s credit histories into the bargain.”Alicante-based Jason Place (pictured), 42, from Kent, was jailed for six years, while accomplice Barry Sales was not prosecuted due to terminal illness.Mark Powell-Richards, 59, a credit broker from Kent and Allen Stringer, 57, from Leeds, were both sentenced to 225 months for conspira-cy to defraud.Michael Daly, 68, and Arun Thear, 22, both received suspended sentences, while Jaipal Singh, 31, was sen-tenced to 18 months for conspiracy to defraud.

It’s a crime not to speak Spanish

Ex mayor is back in the dockwith An-dalucian planning law. C e r e z o s e r v e d between 1991 and 2007 in C o m p e -ta, hav-ing been mayor in Canillas de Albaida for 16 years before that.In 2008 he was fined and banned from public office for seven years after being convicted of granting licences for eight properties on non-buildable land.

MASTERMIND: Place made millions from Alicante

5www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012NEWS

YOU can be forgiven for thinking there has been an invasion of reality TV stars on the Costa del Sol over the last week.Indeed, you could hardly move in Marbella or Puerto Banus without tripping over one of the cast from hit show The Only Way is Essex, bet-ter known as TOWIE.The TV show has been filming for a one-off ‘Marbs’ special, with the cast hanging out at the beach clubs by day and the ritzy restau-rants by night.In some of the more unlikely pictures to emerge, Lauren Goodger joined co-stars Cara Kilbey and Frankie Essex at the exclusive restaurant Polo House, where they were seen dining with its owner, former British Household Cavalry officer

CALL The Police - Sting is heading to Marbella.The British singer is set to wow fans with rendi-tions of his best loved hits - including Rox-anne, Every Breath You Take and So Lonely - taken from a career spanning three decades.The former The Police front man is performing as part of his latest tour which will take in 60 cit-ies around the world.Tickets for the concert, which will take place on June 30 in the Puente Romano Tennis Club, went on sale this week.

FASHION giant Zara has won a legal battle against a designer who claimed the Spanish shop had ripped off his shoes.Christian Louboutin sued the chain after claiming it had copied the red-sole design on his so-called ‘Yo Yo’ slingbacks.But a French court has ruled that Zara’s cut-price version, costing €49, could not be confused with the French designer’s €490 shoes, even though both versions have a peep toe with a distinctive red sole. Following Zara’s successful ap-

BULLFIGHTER Juan Jose Padilla has had another close shave - but this time out of the ring.The matador - known as ‘The Pirate’, after losing his eye in a bullfight last year - has escaped prison for assaulting a police of-ficer in 2010.A San Sebastian court heard how Padilla, who testified via video link from his hometown of Jerez, hit an officer who was breathalysing his friend.But as he has no previous crimi-nal record he was given a seven-month suspended sentence and €400 fine.Meanwhile, in a week of highs and lows, the bullfighter also received the ‘Insignia de Oro’ from Algeciras.The bullfighter, who began his

The Pirate comes unstuck yet againMatador Padilla manages to escape prison sentence, despite having punched a policeman

NO SHOEING FOR ZARA

MIX-UP: Spanish chain wins legal battle over claims it copied shoe design of a rival

BULLY: Padilla

ODD COUPLE: Hewitt with Goodger and friend

By James Bryce peal, Louboutin must pay €2,500 in compensa-tion.It is not the first time the designer, whose shoes are often sported by Vic-toria Beckham (right), has been embroiled in a legal row over red-soled shoes.He is currently fighting Yves Saint Laurent over a disputed trademark, and whether he should have the sole rights to sell them.The lawsuit reads: “Mr Louboutin is the first designer to develop the idea of having red soles on women’s shoes.”

MARBS UNDER ATTACK

career in the Las Palomas ring in the city in 1994, received a standing ovation as he accepted the award.

Call The Police!

James Hewitt. The girls washed down a sumptuous dinner of buffalo mozzarella, baby lamb cutlets and lem-on torte with Veuve Clicquot champagne before hitting the dancefloor.Goodger - who is currently undertaking the Cambridge Weight Plan - showed off her slim figure as she posed for photos with the 54-year-old restaurateur. The girls were also spotted partying at La Sala restaurant in Puerto Banus alongside foot-ballers including David Bentley, Stephen Carr and Jake Livermore.Other cast members, including Chloe Sims (right, top) and Lauren Pope (right, bottom) were also seen shopping in Puerto Banus.

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Black is backSUPERMODEL Naomi Campbell has come under fire for wearing the same black bikini in Ibiza for a week.The British supermodel, 42, still looked stunning though as she re-laxed on the beach with Russian bil-lionaire boyfriend Vladislav Doronin.The couple, who live in Moscow, are regulars to the White Island.

6 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 6 NEWS

By Eloise Horsfield

MORE protection is being sought for the Iberian lynx after it emerged that the en-dangered species is spread-ing around Spain.In sensational claims, it ap-pears that the world’s rarest wildcat may now number up to 50 individuals living in Castilla y Leon and Ex-tremadura.In an exciting new study natural history scholar Luis Garzon, bases his claims on interviews with farmers and shepherds, evidence of stools, tracks and noises heard during the breeding season between December and February.In 2006 excrement was also found in Madrid which later turned out to definitely be-long to a lynx.A further number are also living in Castilla-La Man-cha.When added to the 396 closely-monitored indi-viduals living in the wild or breeding centres in Andalu-cia, it is excellent news for the critically endangered feline.Now the new discovery has led to calls for further con-trol of herbicides, as well as a halt to rabbit hunting, the lynxes main prey, in various key areas.“Current wood-clearing practices will have to stop too,” says natural history expert Ramon Grande del Brio, whose research has confirmed up to five lynxes living in the Salamanca re-

gion.“The machines they use de-stroy everything.”In April this year, a female lynx was spotted in Ciudad Real, in Castilla-La Mancha.

IT was love at first sight.Queen Sofia has adopted a three-year-old ‘mutt’ from a Granada animal charity after she spotted it at a pet fair in Madrid.Paquita, a mixed breed dog, had been abandoned at the Ladridos Vagabundos As-sociation and needed a new home. “Now our little Paquita is living in a palace,” said a spokesman for the volun-teer-run association. “The Queen came over and said she reminded her of a dog she’d had that died of old age.“Then she said she wanted to adopt her. We are very happy the queen was inter-ested in adopting a ‘mutt’.”

It’s a dog’s life for one Granada ‘mutt’

National tourNew protection measures sought as evidence shows that the lynx is finally expanding beyond Andalucian borders

The animal was confirmed as Fontana, a three-year-old born in Cordoba’s Andujar-Cardena mountain range in 2009 who had not been photographed since 2010.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Andalucian-born Fontana was spotted in Castilla-La Mancha, 15o km away from home

7www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012NEWS 7

A BRITISH woman has called in police after a land-scape gardener launched a vicious internet campaign against her.Emma Surgenor (pictured), 47, who runs a construction company with her husband Peter Rennie, 51, argues her business is being put in jeopardy over the ‘ridicu-lous’ online claims.Among the rants being made by the former expat business associate are that she is an international crim-inal, wanted in the UK.“It is a really horrible situ-ation,” explains Surgenor, who lives in San Pablo de Buceite, near Sotogrande.“I tried to ignore it but it is getting out of control now

and it is really upsetting. I just don’t know what to do.“I need to fight back from all this as it is impacting on my business, as potential clients are being put off,” claims Surgenor, who pre-viously ran a construction company in the UK.

Tackling the trolls

Police called in over internet hate campaign which claims expat is a ‘wanted criminal’

EXCLUSIVEby Wendy Williams

She insists locals have been gossiping about it and she has received ‘numerous calls’ – some from potential clients – asking about the claims.“The problem is I can’t prove it’s him, even though his name is mentioned in several posts.“He has done the same thing to other people, with various aliases and almost exactly the same wording, but we are all helpless.“Anyone can write anything about anyone on the internet and it seems it just stays there.”One of the blogs, posted un-der the alias ‘jantje waarhe-id’ – which means ‘Johnny the Truth’ in Dutch – actu-ally claims her company Rose and Thistle ‘is known to be a criminal firm due to a victim trail of biblical pro-portions’.It continues: “Emma has

quite an extensive criminal record in the UK for theft, malpractices and racketeer-ing.”It gives no further details and Surgenor strongly de-nies it.“I can prove that I have ab-solutely no criminal record either here or in the UK, nor has my husband.“It is completely defamato-ry, but you can’t get rid of it and now our customers are reading it.“We have been here for nine years and I have never been taken to court by a client ei-ther here or in the UK.“We are just ordinary peo-ple, passionate about what we do. I am terribly upset by it all.”When the Olive Press tried to contact the gardener – whose identity we cannot reveal for legal reasons - his number was no longer in service.NASTY: The hate campaign undertaken by

internet ‘troll’ jantje waarheid

ACTION: Surgenor

8 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 COMMENT

The original and only English-languageinvestigative newspaper in Andalucía

OPINION OPINION

Telephone: 951 166 060 or 691 831 399A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in southern Spain - 152,000 copies distributed monthly (90,000 digitally) with an estimated readership, including the website, of more than 500,000 people a month.Luke Stewart Media S.L - CIF: B91664029Urb Cayetano Arroyo, Buzon 13, Arriate 29350 MalagaPrinted by Corporación de Medios de Andalucía S.A.Editor: Jon Clarkejon@theolivepress.esNews Editor: Wendy Williams 689646049 wendy@theolivepress.esReporters: James Bryce james@theolivepress.esand Eloise Horsfield eloise@theolivepress.esDistribution: 951 166 060

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SALES TEAM:West Costa del Sol Jane Jewson 673958858AxarquiaCharlie Bamber 661452180CadizElizabeth Gould 620 532 672Ronda/San Pedro/MarbellaJon Clarke 691 831 399

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Contact our team of fully-qualified jour-nalists, Eloise, Jon, Wendy or James on

951166060 or emailnewsdesk@theolivepress.es

Got a news story?

Battle for the beachesTHE fact that Tarifa’s mayor wants to build an enormous hotel complex next to unspoilt Valdevaqueros Beach is be-yond worrying.Yes, the area desperately needs jobs, and yes, this develop-ment would create them (at least in the short term) – but this does not make it anywhere near right.To blight the unspoilt scenery with such an unsightly devel-opment would be to lose track of what Tarifa is all about.The good news is that it has happened before... and was fought off.For two years, former mayor Miguel Manella tried to triple the size of Tarifa’s port to create 2,000 jobs – all the time threatening the area’s fragile ecosystem.Thankfully the plan was finally rejected by the Environment Ministry, after huge local opposition.Now the same opposition must work together to do it again. Whether they are ‘guiri’ or not.

Storm in a teacupThe Earl and Countess of Wessex touched down in Gibral-tar on Monday to be greeted by equal amounts of fanfare and fury, depending on which side of the border you are on.But with all the controversy surrounding the visit at a politi-cal level, it is easy to overlook the reality of the situation at a human level.While politicians in both Gibraltar and Spain have engaged in self-serving acts of political point scoring - residents on both sides of the border have been busy making the most of the occasion.There are plenty of Spanish residents with businesses in Gi-braltar who welcomed the Royals with open arms thanks to the extra revenue generated by the crowds of well-wishers.Meanwhile businesses in La Linea will also have benefitted to a lesser extent from the passing trade created by curious Brits from the Costa del Sol hoping for a glimpse of Royalty.The ferocity of the row over Gibraltar’s sovereignty may have intensified recently, but as can be seen from the fea-ture (right), there is more mutual affection between Spain and Britain than perhaps first meets the eye.

Scam alertIT is sad that the world we live in, means that people who are trusting are leaving themselves open to being scammed.Once again this week’s paper has a number of stories on fraud and forgery – from mayors to car salesmen.And with the existence of an actual ‘fraud school’ dedicated to teaching people how to scam others, the odds really are against us.There is at least some good news that police are taking seri-ously the case of expat Rodney Quinn and the Land Rover con-cession that asked him to sign a blank document.It merely serves as a reminder that you must always read the small print and double check everything, before signing... in particular that there is ink on the page!And if in any doubt, get hold of a good lawyer to help you.

THE British love Spain. Fact.The property market may be suf-fering and the press may be full of stories about how we are all des-

perate to go home, but don’t be fooled.The truth is us Britons show no signs of falling out of love with Spain – and the claims that a third of us want to go home are, quite frankly, well wide of the mark.Spain is by far the number one choice for Brits seeking a place in the sun and even those who choose not to live here keep coming back on holiday. Well, around 12 million of us, at least, each year as it happens. Coming primarily for the beaches, we are also here for the culture, the food and wine, with cities like Sevilla, Sala-manca and Madrid, brimming with Brit-ish tourists.This is all, of course, well catalogued... with writers such as British author George Orwell writing in Homage to Cat-alonia: “I would sooner be a foreigner in Spain than in most countries. How easy it is to make friends in Spain.”What is less well known however, is that the love affair flows two ways.Despite centuries of wars and hegemo-ny, the two nations have now forged a long-lasting bond that ties them, imper-turbably, together.And furthermore, the Spanish actually have a fondness for the English that far exceeds tolerating us for spending vast sums of money in their bars.As many as 71,000 Spaniards have now officially made their home in the UK, a figure that is rising as the Spanish are forced to go searching for jobs. On top of this, at any one time there could be at least another 100,000 Spaniards living a footloose life, many in West London.While Brits in Spain are taken by sun, sea, sand and sangria, etc, the Spanish are mostly seduced by our music, foot-ball.... and the fact we actually stop at zebra crossings!On top of this, according to online fo-rums, the Spanish like our television programmes – in particular comedy –

as well as the concept of being an Eng-lish gentleman.“I love the traditions and the values in the UK,” explains Jose Ramos Paul, a winemaker from Ronda. “The British are patriotic and look out for themselves.“And I love how much they support the monarchy.”He continues: “Of course there is a his-tory war and both of us had empires that brought us into conflict but we have supported one another when it was needed.“I have a lot of English friends and I think the relationship between Spain and England is very good now. In fact, I would argue it is the one of the coun-tries we have the strongest relationship with. We understand one another.”Much of this can be put down to the monarchy, as it happens, with the Queen of England actually being a cous-in of Queen Sofia of Spain.When speaking about the close bond between the royal families Queen Eliza-beth II actually once remarked that ‘all four of us’ – referring to herself, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Spanish king and queen – ‘are the great grand-

children of Queen Victoria’.Relations between the two families go back more than eight centuries howev-er, even before the establishment of the current Bourbon dynasty in Spain and Hanover in Britain. The two families were related by mar-riage for the first time in 1170, when the daughter of Henry II (of England), Elea-nor, married King Alfonso VIII of Castile.

Going to war over Gibraltar? No chance. As the royals tour the Rock, Wendy Williams explores the intriguing special relationship between Britain and Spain and, overleaf, the ways to know you are integrating well

Welove the

Brits... they stop at zebra

crossings!

FAN: Expat Chris Stewart and (left) Jose and Pilar Ramos Paul

9www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012COMMENT“There are a lot of connec-tions between the two coun-tries,” explains Gonzalo del Rio y Gonzalez-Gordon, from Carmona, whose family has run the famous Gonzalez Byass sherry house in Jerez for 176 years.“A lot of English people are partners with Spaniards in business and I think the two countries have a wonderful relationship from business to personal relationships.“My great granddad actually married a Scottish lady and despite the English being Saxons and the Spanish be-ing Latin, it works well.“I like the English culture, the customs, the education, and, above all, the way you under-stand honour and principles.“I certainly think most Span-iards like the English and we have a good future.”British expat writer Chris

Stewart agrees.The Driving Over Lemons au-thor, who insists he will only ever ‘leave Spain in a box’, in-sists: “The British and Span-ish get along pretty well.“We were sworn enemies for a long while, of course, and the relationship has been up and down but I think it is in a good phase at the moment.He continues: “We have cer-tainly had no trouble at all being accepted into the local community and it has been that way from the beginning. “I would like to think we are well thought of. I certainly think well of them,” he adds.“The cheap booze and the sunshine is a big attraction but there are also more pro-found things. There is a cul-tural connection. “Spain has always had some-thing exotic about it. “Now everyone wears the

20 ways to know you’ve become a localThe longer Brits live in Spain the more they become accustomed to the Spanish way of life, with things that once seemed strange now completely taken for granted.The following list highlights some of the eccentricities of Spanish living that are now an everyday occurrence for expats.

1) You think adding lemonade or coke to red wine is perfectly acceptable. 2) You can’t get over how early bars and clubs shut back home.3) You aren’t just surprised that the plumber/decorator has turned up on time; you’re

surprised he turned up at all.4) You’ve been part of a botellon.5) Not giving every new acquaintance two kisses seems so rude.6) On MSN you sometimes type ‘jajaja’ instead of ‘hahaha’7) You think aceite is a vital part of every meal. And you don’t understand how anyone

could think olive oil on toast is weird.8) A bull’s head on the wall of a bar isn’t a talking point; it’s just a part of the decor.9) You’re amazed when TV ad breaks last less than half an hour.10) You forget to say please when asking for things - you implied it in your tone of voice,

right?11) You don’t see sunflower seeds as a healthy snack - they’re just what all the cool

kids eat.12) Every sentence you speak contains at least one of these words: ‘bueno,’ ‘coño,’

‘vale,’ ‘venga,’ ‘pues nada’...13) You know what resaca means. And you had one at least once a week when you

lived in Spain.14) You eat lunch after 2pm and would never even think of having your evening meal

before 9pm.15) You know that after 2pm there’s no point in going shopping, you might as well just

have a siesta until 5pm.16) You know how to change a gas bottle or bombona.17) On a Sunday morning, you have breakfast before going to bed, not after you get up.18) The fact that all the male (or female) members of a family have the same first

name doesn’t surprise you.19) You know that the mullet didn’t just happen in the 80s. It is alive and well in Spain.20) You know the difference between ‘cojones’ and ‘cajones’, ‘tener calor’ and ‘estar

caliente’, ‘bacalao’ and ‘bakalao’...and maybe you learned the differences the hard way! (See Lost in Translation feature p42)

same things but it has still re-tained a hint of exoticism that you see through things like bullfighting. There is a certain otherness but at the same time it is not too far from Eng-land.”He continues: “The Victorians when they visited actually often wanted to be captured by bandits. After all, it was

a friendly ambush and they would pay them and it was all part of the travel experience.“We must also remember we did them a big favour in getting rid of Napoleon,” he adds.At the start of the Napoleonic Wars, and notably the Battle of Trafalgar, Spain found itself allied with France.But this was shor t - l i ved and when Napolean in-vaded Iberia to foist his brother onto the Spanish throne, the British and (most) Spanish joined forces.A united British-Spanish-Portuguese army, under the command of the Duke of Wel-lington, eventually forced the French out of Spain, in what

the Spanish now call their War of Independence.Although history, as taught in Spanish schools, minimises his contribution and those of the British soldiers that fought with him, there is no disputing that the Duke of Wellington was the driving force behind the success.Of course, this is not the only time that the British have taken up arms to defend their Spanish neighbour.At the outbreak of the Span-ish Civil War many Britons travelled out in great haste to defend the Spanish republic.The first British volunteer to die was actually a female art-ist Felicia Browne, who was killed attempting to blow up a fascist munitions train on August 28, 1936.Many Britons served in sev-

eral of the hast-ily raised militia units even be-fore they were grouped togeth-er in the Interna-tional brigades.“I would like to think I’d have been with them,” contin-ues bilingual Stewart, who has lived on

a farm in the Alpujarras for more than two decades.“It is very admirable. They came to fight out of a passion for Spain and a battle against fascism that was lost and

then won.”But we have not always fought for a common cause, it should be pointed out.In 1587, for example, Sir Francis Drake attacked the port of Cadiz and seized 3,000 barrels of the drink which soon became a favou-rite with the English Court and was even recommended by Queen Elizabeth I.Due to the ever growing popu-larity of sherry, many British entrepreneurs later set up their own businesses in Jerez during the 17th and 18th centuries. Names such as Gordon, Gar-vey, Byass and Sandeman be-came identified with the area.“The Brits are clearly lovers of all good things,” adds Gon-zalo del Rio, who sits on the board of the huge sherry dy-nasty Gonzalez Byass.“They are always eating and drinking the best qual-ity foods and wines and they always seek out the best places. “Indeed, if you look at all the good places in history the British found them.”And where, of course, have we settled the most? Well, in Spain. And having lived together, fought together, worked to-gether, married each other, and shared our hobbies, our cultures, our music, our food and our eccentricities, is it any wonder we are good friends?

FAMILY TIES: Queen Elizabeth with cousin Queen Sofia

SECOND HOME: The Spanish celebrate their World Cup Victory in London

The Brits are lovers of good

things, they are always eating and drinking the best

10 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 NEWS

News IN BRIEF

A Smurf yearJUZCAR has received 130,000 visitors in the year since the village was painted blue to promote the Smurfs in 3D film.

Speeding upMijas mayor Angel Nozal has launched a campaign to have the speed limit on the A-7 restored to 100kph after it was reduced to 80kph last year.

Jailhouse rockThe Concerto Malaga chamber orchestra has performed a concert of classical music to inmates in Alhaurin de la Torre prison.

Rubbish fineA Mijas resident has been fined €20,000 for illegally dumping a truckload of garden waste for the second time.

10

THE Algarrobico hotel is an ‘aberration’ and must be knocked down.This is the view of Spain’s IU party, after a group of Almeria town halls banded together to get the illegal hotel opened.The group of 16 town halls (15 from the PP party) insist the 411-room monstrosity

Knock it downIU party hits back after local town halls insist on opening illegal Algarrobico hotel

built on a beach in Cabo de Gata Natural Park would cre-ate an estimated 300 jobs.“Whether we like it or not, the hotel is pretty much fin-ished,” said Alcontar mayor Antonio Ramon Salas.“I think the benefits of opening it would be shared across Almeria and help establish quality tourism in

the region.” He also claimed that demo-lition would cause an even bigger environmental im-pact than leaving it. However, IU deputy Ascen-sion de las Heras dismissed the claim as wrong.She said that while job cre-ation is an ‘absolute prior-ity’, these jobs must be ‘so-cially useful and secure’.“The Algarrobico is an aber-ration, one of the biggest on the Spanish coastline,” she said. “It must come down.”She added that the organ-ised demolition and re-cuperation of the natural space it is built on ‘would bring many more jobs than continuing with this proj-ect,’.Meanwhile Junta Environ-ment councillor Luis Planas has made his position clear.“The Junta’s position on this subject is unchanged,” he said. “From an environmental point of view it is not ac-ceptable, and legally speak-ing judicial proceedings are still active.”

Tourist sites ‘to be added to UN danger list’THREE key tourist attractions in Andalucia are set to be placed on a UNESCO ‘danger list’ alongside a host of sites in war-torn countries, including Iraq and Kosovo.The trio in Sevilla - the Cathedral, Alcazar and Archivo de las Indias - are to be blacklisted due to the nega-tive impact on them from a tower block currently under construction.The threat to the World Heritage Sites by the so-called Torre Pelli project will be considered at a conference to be held in Russia from June 24.The Spanish authorities have ignored repeated warn-ings by UNESCO to reduce the planned height of the 178-metre skyscraper to comply with their strict guide-lines.The €300 million construction is set to become the new headquarters of Cajasol bank.

11www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012NEWS 11

it and some are just concerned about its lo-cation.“Perhaps if it was in the town and not on its own in a green location it would have been OK.”Another local, estate agent Tony Cassidy, said that while he could ‘see the need for it’, he added: “There are other places it could be built in the town.”Irish expat Raphael Doyle, who lives in nearby Vejer, summed up the development well. Labelling it as ‘short-termism’, he said: “It is the human response to insecurity, greed and elections.“All we can do if we love nature is say ‘no’.

‘Guiris’ fight Tarifa plan

From Page 1

ALMERIA has once again come under fire for being the Andalucian province with the most beaches suf-fering from pollution and urban sprawl.According to the latest Black Flag report by Ecologistas en Accion the province has a shocking 29 flags.The report - the antithesis of the European Blue Flag awards – highlights beaches that are deemed unclean or overbuilt to show how ‘hu-man activities are causing deterioration or destruction’.

Stop, look and see what you will lose. And keep saying it.”He was also upset with the use of the word ‘guiri’ during a public speech.“The use of the word is unfortunate. We need our politicians to exercise thoughtful-ness and to resist the temptation to slip into facile, populist prejudices. “The Spanish people are better and deserve better than that.”Meanwhile a spokesman for the Junta’s Environment department insisted that they were ‘monitoring the situation closely’.To sign the petition visit http://tinyurl.com/bp3pxgu and visit ‘Salvemos Valdevaqueros’ on Facebook.

WORRYING: Gil’s proposals for Valdevaqueros

Wild West in Far EastBy Wendy Williams In particular the report

highlights many beaches in Cabo de Gata Natural Park, which it says are in danger of ‘urban speculation’.In total, Andalucia has 62 black flags this year with a further 81 ‘black spots’, which indicate a lower - but still noteworthy - level of pollution.This is actually slightly low-er than last year, when there were 64 black flags and 80 black spots.It comes after the beaches including Playas Cruz del Mar y Regla, in Chipiona, Playa de los Banos del Car-

men in Malaga and Punta de Banos in Estepona im-proved quality.Cadiz is the province with the second highest number of flags with 16, followed by Mal-aga with eight, Huelva with six and Granada with three.“In most cases however, they have not solved the problems that we highlight-ed in previous years,” said the group.It comes as the EU Blue Flag beach results for 2012 show Spain has recorded its ‘best ever’ outcome winning a total of 638 blue flags, 35 more than last year.

Almeria still has worst black spots, while four beaches manage to clean up their act in annual coastline report

DANGER: Speculation threatens many of Cabo de Gata’s beaches

12 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 NEWS12

CAPTION:

A deep discoveryA MASSIVE fossilised cave has been discovered in Huercal-Overa.The Sima del Campico, found by five lo-cal potholers, is the largest cave found in the area to date.According to the group - who are re-maining tight-lipped about its exact whereabouts until it has been cata-logued by the authorities – the hard to reach cave is 60 metres deep and over 150 and 200 metres long.It consists mostly of limestone but there are numerous fossils and stalag-mites.“It was not a complete fluke as we have been looking for something like this for a long time,” explained Juan Luis Fer-nandez, one of the group.“Being locals there is a lot of personal satisfaction in having found a cave like this in our own town,” he added.

New AA group for Costa de la LuzALCOHOLICS Anonymous (AA) is now running an English-speaking help group in Vejer.AA offers support and information for anybody who is af-fected by a drinking problem.“We’re always happy to give more information to anyone who’s interested, and especially to talk to anyone who feels they may need help,” said a spokesman.For more information, ring 693 474 647 or 669 843 065.

SPANISH researchers have come under fire for incor-rectly dating the world’s biggest haul of human fos-sils by a staggering 200,000 years.Britain’s leading expert on evolution, Professor Chris Stringer, slammed the team in charge of a find at Atapu-erca cave, near Burgos.He claims the site, known as La Sima de los Huesos – the ‘Pit of Bones’ – is actually filled with 400,000-year-old Neanderthal remains and not a 600,000-year-old species called Homo heidel-

DATELINE DODOS

By Wendy Williams

bergensis.Writing in the journal Evo-lutionary Anthropology, the professor from the Nat-ural History Museum, said: “The Atapuerca finds are hugely important.“There is no other site like it in terms of numbers of bones and skulls of our an-cient predecessors and the team there has done a mag-

nificent job in excavating the site. “However, if we cannot cor-rectly fix the age and iden-tity of the remains then we are in trouble,” he added.

Distorts“The problem is that many of the skeletons unearthed at La Sima clearly have Ne-anderthal features. “But all other evidence indi-cated Neanderthals did not appear on the scene for an-other 200,000 years. “Dating these bones to such an early date completely distorts our picture of our evolution.”La Sima de los Huesos was discovered by pothol-ers exploring Atapuerca’s UNESCO-protected cavern system and excavations be-gan in 1990.

Spanish archaeologists are 200,000 years out at Atapuerca cave, claims British professor

NOT THAT OLD: The cave and (inset) evolution expert Chris Stringer

VAST: The hidden cavity

13www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 201213 NEWS

News IN BRIEF

DATELINE DODOS

MILLIONAIRE businessman Flavio Briatore is set to open a ‘Billionaire Club’ on the Costa del Sol.The former Formula One mogul - who famously dated su-permodel Naomi Campbell - will open the venue on Mar-bella’s Golden Mile next month.The venture will be the fourth Billionaire Club to be launched by the former Queens Park Rangers owner, along-side branches in Istanbul, Monaco and Sardinia.The 58-year-old Italian - married to Wonderbra model Elis-abetta Gregoraci, 28 - is known to be fond of Spain with his yacht, Force Blue, regularly seen in Puerto Banus. The club will open on the site of the former La Leyenda res-taurant on July 5.

WEST End stars Niamh Perry, Robyn North and Danielle Bowen have been wowing crowds on the Costa del Sol in a bid to raise money for Children with Cancer.The stars performed at Marbella’s stunning Villa Tiberio as part of the 24th Summer Party fundraising gala dinner in aid of the UK charity.The evening included a three-course dinner, dancing and an auction with all money going to Children with Cancer, the leading national chil-dren’s charity dedicated to the fight against childhood cancer.

Pole position for F1 Flavio’s nightclub

Congress callingCarlos Divar, the President of the Supreme Court, is to appear in Congress to answer questions over his weekend trips to Marbella paid for with taxpayers’ money.

Durham minersA group of miners from Durham are heading to Spain to share their expertise on the industry with striking miners in Leon.

Hola HuffingtonAmerican news website, the Huffington Post has launched a Spanish-language version in partnership with El Pais.

West End comes south

Pict

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: Cou

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IMPS

ON

14 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 14 NEWS

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IT may sound like every mother’s nightmare.But a Spanish devil has been jumping over newborn ba-bies in a bid to cleanse them of original sin.Over 200 people took part in this year’s annual El Co-lacho festival, in Castrill de Murcia, near Bilbao, which symbolises the eternal fight between good and evil.As part of one of the coun-try’s more unusual festivals a Spaniard dressed in yellow and red - representing the devil - takes a running leap over babies born during the previous year.The brave babies are placed in rows on mattresses in the street.It is believed the bizarre

MEET singer Rosie Jordan, 13, who will be strutting her stuff at the Search for a Star talent contest in aid of Cudeca on Saturday.Along with three other finalists, Rosie is competing for a €500 cash prize as part of the Hot Talent Show at the Teatro Ciudad, hosted by Marbella Stage School.Two singers, plus a dancer and a dance troupe from Gibraltar have managed to make it to the final out of dozens of entries.The Olive Press is pleased to have stumped up half the prize money in order to support local talent as well as the work of Benal-

MEET THE STARS

A big leap of faith

madena’s cancer hospice.It’s sure to be a great occasion, with a full evening of entertainment provided by stu-dents from Mar-bella Stage School.Tickets (€10) are available from Marbella Stage School on 952 906 865 or from the theatre box office on Sunday.

RISKY: Spanish ‘devil’ leaps over newbornsritual - which dates back to 1621 - will put the infants on a path to a good life, opening

their entrance to heaven.There have never been re-ports of injuries to the babies.

15www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

16 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 AXARQUIA NEWS

Axq IN BRIEF Animal bashA FUNDRAISER is seeking sponsors for a night market in aid of cancer hospice Cu-deca.The event, hosted by Lon-doner Sheree Lloyd (below) and opened by Comares mayor Manuel Robles Ro-bles, will take place on July 27 during the feria at Las Cuevas de Comares. Mrs Lloyd, who helped raise almost €1,000 for Axarquia Animal Rescue at a simi-lar event earlier this year, hopes to hit the €1,500 mark this time.“I lost my mother to can-cer, as well as a close friend who was dead within a week of diagnosis,” said Lloyd, whose event will include stalls, a bar, a raffle, an auc-tion and guest performers such as singer Katie Louise Mann, AKA ‘The English Rose’.To help, contact Sheree at slgp23@gmail.com

Sally Harrison on the sweet village of Colmenar

Although populated since the Neolithic period, Colmenar is one of the younger

pueblos as it wasn’t estab-lished until after the Chris-tian Kings’ conquest – and it didn’t become an indepen-dent township until 1777. The name comes from col-mena (Spanish for beehive) after a local honey-producing estate of the same name, and fittingly the town’s coat of arms features a haycock sur-rounded by seven bees.Today you can still buy local honey, particularly at the lo-cal honey museum, which is

well worth a visit.At the top of the village on a hill is a magnificent 17th century hermitage, La Santi-sima Virgen de la Candelaria, which was consecrated to the local patron saint and be-

came a historical local monu-ment in 1982. According to legend, it was erected by a group of sailors from the Canary Islands who wanted to show their grati-tude after surviving a storm.

Lower down is the 16th cen-tury parish church of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion with its Moorish-style architecture.The town’s festive calendar starts on February 2 with a celebration of the town’s pa-tron saint, the Virgen de la Candaleria.One of the most popular fes-tivals is the Dia de la Pipa on May 3 when all the townsfolk head to the countryside to eat bread rolls filled with hard boiled eggs, and of course to drink and be merry! The most attractive route to get here is via the Montes de Malaga on the Carretera de Colmenar, through the pine forests with the road winding high over itself via two tun-nels.

Visit: www.axarquiaproper-ties.com

A true ‘hive’ of activity

COLMENAR: One of the ‘younger’ Axarquia pueblos

THE Spanish government has rejected a last-ditch attempt to stop prospect-ing for gas off the coast of Motril.In a written reply, it insists there can be ‘no technical argument’ to prevent it from

D-Day for drillingGovernment refuses to halt plan to prospect for oil off Axarquia coasttaking place next year.Canadian multinational CNWL Oil was given the

green light in 2010 to look for hydrocarbons on the condition the company

meets all the environmental requirements.A spokesman for Malaga’s Izquierda Plural political party sent a written ques-tion to the government in the hope the project to drill off the Costa Tropical would be abandoned.But a government spokes-man said: “There is not suf-ficient technical argument to justify a blanket prohibi-tion to search for gas.” “The current legislation provides measures and ad-equate safeguards for the proper conduct of the in-vestigation to ensure the marine environment is pro-tected.”It said CNWL Oil still has to carry out an environmental impact study to ‘identify and quantify all the poten-tial impacts that the opera-tions they intend to perform could cause’.Drilling is unlikely to start before next year.

Expat, 13, scoops Spanish writing prizeA BRITISH expat teenager has been praised for her imaginative storytell-ing in Spanish.Chloe Madison Grubb (right), from Salo-brena, won first prize in eastern Andalu-cia in the Coca Cola short story contest.The story – about an evil painter and a magnifying glass – saw her chosen to enter the final, alongside six finalists, out of 1500 entries.The bilingual 13-year-old has now won a trip to Amsterdam, a tablet comput-er, plus a Sony laptop for her school,

IES Nazari.“I was really shocked,” said Chloe, who only had a few words of Span-ish when she moved here from Buck-inghamshire six years ago with mum Dawn, dad Graham and sister Erin.Chloe will now take part in a creative writing course in Madrid where the fi-nalists will learn to improve their en-tries for a chance to be placed in the top three.

Tree partyCHILDREN in Nerja dressed in 19th century costume to celebrate 125 years of the araucaria tree, which was first planted there in 1887 after being imported from Chile.

Foot inTorrox youngster Jessica Fernandez, 19, has received a medal of honour from the town hall after joining a professional women’s football team in Italy.

Orange warsAn emergency meeting will be held in Rincon de la Victoria to address the issue of huge orange patches appearing on beaches, caused by anchovy and sardine spawn.

Gold stealA man has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for stealing €12,000 euros worth of jewellery from a house in Torrox while it was undergoing building works.

17www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

D-Day for drilling

18 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

19www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 201219 AXARQUIA NEWS

TORROX is taking emer-gency road safety measures after a car drove into din-ers in its main square for the second time in just four months.The town hall has con-firmed it is drawing up an action plan after two Span-ish pensioners, aged 67 and

After two accidents in Torrox’s main square mayor reconsiders €144,000 traffic plan

By Eloise Horsfield 72, were injured in the latest incident.The pair had been dining at the Plaza Bar in Plaza de la Consti-tucion, when the Fiat Panda crashed into their table.In February, the Olive Press told how six expats were in-jured – and a pet dog killed – when a 4x4 lost control in the same square.Eyewitness to both inci-

Back to square one?

dents Les Jones, 55, re-vealed: “It is incredible that this has happened again.“From what I understand a tin of paint rolled under the driver’s feet, causing her to lose control of the car.”“She was covered with white paint.”He added: “Something defi-nitely has to be done.”Mayor Francisco Munoz has vowed to install bollards and fencing and improve signalling to prevent it hap-pening again.Ironically the town hall still owes a construction compa-ny €144,000 for road works undertaken in the square earlier this year.To the bemusement of many residents this included the removal of kerbs, which might have prevented both accidents.“It is clear there are not the sufficient measures to pro-tect pedestrians, despite the high cost of the recent road works,” admitted Munoz.

DANGER: Torrox’s Plaza de la Constitucion and (inset) Les Jones who witnessed both attacks

Settling up scoresAXARQUIA Town Halls have finally settled €68.8 mil-lion in outstanding debts to suppliers thanks to a fund from central government.Thousands of businesses have benefitted from a De-cree issued in February, giving town halls the chance to sign up for government support to pay bills.Velez Malaga has since settled 8,000 bills to 850 sup-pliers, totalling €27.7, while Rincon de la Victoria has transferred €23.4 million, Nerja €4.8 million and Be-namocarra €2 million. “This plan has enabled us to pay large amounts of money to suppliers, who are the true generators of employment in our country,” said PP senator Patricia Navarro.

20 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012The Olive Press NOW has 31,000 papers delivered across EIGHT provinces of Andalucia and Gibraltar every fortnight by our hard-working team of distributors

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ALAMEDAMobile Home Park • Posada Tempranillo • Petrol Station • Casa Benito

ALCALAConexions • Hotel Torrepalma • Library • Tourist Office • Optico Real • Hotel Zacatin • Estate Agent Andaluz • BP

ALGATOCINBP Service Station

ALHAURIN el Grande Alhaurin Golf • La Boma Rest. • 1st and 2nd Tabacconist • Annas Butchers • Christinas Paper Shop • Arte Hair • Martins Paper Shop • British Supermarket • Posh Pets • Cudeca •

ALHAURIN de la TorreBP • Las Brisas Restaurante • Montemar Restaurante • Lauro Golf

ALMUNECARSpar Supermercado • Tourist Office • El Faro Bar • Olivares Shop • Danny s Bar

ALORAHarveys • Tropicana • Repsol PetrolCudeca • Zalea Bar

ALOZAINAPetrol Station

ANTASFrandi • The Full Swing • El Poligono • Costa Cars

ANTEQUERALidl • La Veronica • Antequera Golf • Tourist Office • Hotel Plaza San Sebastian • BP • Hotel Las Villas de Antikaria

ARCHIDONACepsa Garage • 3R Café /Bar • Mercadona Garage • Sunset Estates

ARDALESPaco’s Bar

ARRIATEPetrol Station

ATAJATEAndalazar

BEDARTown Hall • Empalme • CajamarOlive

BENADALIDLos Labros

BENAHAVISCanela Cafe /Bar • Amanhavis

BENALAURIALa Molienda

BENALMADENA COSTASuper Save • Hapenny Bridge Pub • Kiosko Puerto (Marina) • Tourist Office • Paloma Library • Irish Time Bar • Xanit Hospital • UK Foods

BENAMARGOSALa Vaqueria

BENAOJANMeroil • Papeleria Ruiz • Hotel Molino del Santo• Cuatro Paradas

BENAVISTABowls Club • Card Shop • Ibex Insurance • Grumbles • English Butcher • Costa Less Supermarket • Plaza Hotel • Dog House • Brubecks • El Paraiso Golf •Petrol Station • Kids Kingdom • Agro Jardin • Calpe School • Pegotty’s Fish & Chips • Experience Group

BENAMACARRAHotel Cortijo Bravo

BUBIONSupermercado Coviran

CABOPINOPina Pinaka • Cabo Pizza • Sportsmans Bar • Cabopino Camping • Garage •Shebeens Pub • Paper ShopSupermarket • Plaza Bar • Alberts Restaurant

CABRATourist Office

CADIARPagamenos

CALAHONDAAge Care • Party Party • The Pit Shop • Sol Finders • GT Mc Kenna Butchers • Internet Café • Mercadona • Spikes Hairdressers • RBL • Club Naranja • Plaza next to Paper Shop

CALYPSOMPA Estates (Bryce) • Inspirations Haidressers

CAMPILLOSKiosk • BP Petrol Station

CAPILEIRESupermercado Coviran • Bar

CARTAMA ESTACIONAguamania • Topres

CASABERMEJAPetrol Station

CASARESArroyo Honda • Venta Victoria • Venta Garcia • Villas and Fincas • La Tienda •Mi Cortijo • Muebles Gavira

CHICLANALHD • Monopoly • Oasis Bar • Tourist Office • Posthouse

COINTourist Office • Cudeca • Guerreros • Insurance Office • Bohem Rest. • Internacional • La Trocha • Chain • Leslies • BP • Buyrite • Robertos

COLMENARCO2 • Bar Campesino

COMPETATodo Papel • Pavo Real and Restaurant • Sugar and spice • Alicats

CORTESCamping el Salitre • El Gecko • Mary Becker • La Fuente

CORTIJO CABRERARestaurant

CORDOBABodegas Campos • Hotel Casas de la Juderia • La Fragua

CUEVAS DEL BECERROPetrol Station

DIANARoyal Nordic Club • Man Friday Supermarket • Super Market • Aud Dublin • Big BlueBox

DUQUESA PORTPaparazzi Neswagents • Supermarket • Las Gallerias • English Butcher • Duquesa Golf Club • Marlows Restaurant • Souvenir Shop • Gaston Golf • Manilva Properties • Monte Duquesa Sq • La Bella Vista Camping • Clubhouse Bar • Duquesa Estates • Castillo Foreign Resident Centre • Macues Restaurant • Penguin Bar

El CHORROOlive Branch BB • El Kiosko • Hotel Posada el Conde • Rest. Boca Bella

EL FAROEl Faro Supermarket • Carlton Bar

EL ROSARIOBar • Bar • Town Hall

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ESTEPABP Garage

ESTEPONAHospiten • Best Coches • Arte Escuela Ecuestre Restaurant • Pointer Vets • Eden Bar • Laguna Village Entrance • Terra SanaDigi Print • Optica Machin • Carrefour • Longmans Bookshop • Fergussons Bar • Cudeca Bar • Dune Bar • Furniture World • Padel and Sports • Techo Aluminio • Lidls • Amapola • Tourist Centre • Estepona Golf • International Club of Estepona • Costa Nature • Albayat Resort • Muebles Gavira

ESTEPONA MARINASailors Cafe • Business Centre EportBicUniversal Estate Agents • The Irish FiddlerMarlow Chip Chop

FRIGILIANAHotel Almazara

FUENGIROLAIceland • Camping Fuengirola • Scotties

Butchers • Salon Varieties • BP • Specsavers • Cudeca • Dunnes Stores • Yorkshire Linen • Speedy s Garage • RMDC Glass • Euro Market • St. Anthony s College • Tamisa Golf Hotel

FUENTE DE PIEDRABar Rebujito • Corner Bar • Diane’s • Donkey Sanctuary

GARRUCHAClinica Veterinaria

GAUCINRepsol Petrol Station • Hotel Caballo Andaluz • Pura Vida Health Shop • Benassim Deli • Fructosa • El Convento • Casa Antonia • La Fuente • El Puente

GIBRALTARBray Properties • Café Fresco • Kristina Szekely • Laziz Rest. • Ipanema Rest. • O’Reileys • Ocean Village Express • Ibex Insurance • Morrisons • Savills • Rock Hotel • Elliot Hotel • Sacarellos • Icc Shoping Centre • Chamber of Commerce • Cafe Solo • Copywrite • Café Rojo • Colourworks • MH Bland • Sovereign • Rolex • Caleta Hotel • Ibex Insurance

GRANADA Airport • Hotel Macia Plaza • La Romanilla • Hotel Fontecruz Granada • Metro Bookshop • Hannigans 1 • Hannigans 2 • Tourist Office • El Catrachod • Jardines de Zoraya • La Alacena de Andalucia • Hotel Palacio de Santa

GUADALMINATricky Rickys • Bookworld

GUAROPetrol Station

IZNAJARBP • The Yoga School • Sueños • Los Cuatro Vientos Bar

JEREZLos Jandalos • Tourist Office

JIMENA DE LA FRONTERACepsa• Papeleria Los Garabatos • Bar Cuenca • La Tasca • Hostal Anon • Bar Oba • Estate Agents • Casa Henrietta

JIMERA DE LIBAR ESTACIONBar Allioli

LA CALA DE MIJASCorner Café • Lions Charity Shop • Pensioners Bar • Internet Café • Papeleria

Quetzal • Captains Bar • Zurich Office • BP Garage

LA CALETAPapeleria las Colonias

LA HERRADURAThe Hideaway Bar • Libreria Coral • La Tartana Hotel

LA VINUELAHotel Vinuela

LANJARONAmbienza • Cafe Bar Health • Tourist Information • Los Llanos

LAS BUGANVILLASVictor’s • Cactus

LECRIN VALLEYE.S Leman Gasolina

LOJACafe Continental • Repsol garage

LOS GALLARDOSUnicaja • Subministros Ridao • Gas station • Camping los Gallardos

LOS ROMANESCamping Bar

LUCENACarrefour Pet Shop • Hotel Bronces • B.P near the fire stn.

MALAGA CITYBritish Consulate • Café Andino • Dunkin Coffee • Hotel Tribuna • Pizzeria el Laboratorio • Restaurante Vino Mio • Hotel EL Pintor • Calle Brusseles • Celtic Irish Bar • Café con Libro • Picasso • Robert Boyd • Hotel Don Curro • Hotel Molino Larios • Tourist Office • Hotel Vinci

MALAGA AIRPORTHelle Hollis • Car Parking Malaga • Easy Park • Aena Information Desk • Monarch

MANILVAKwasi Cafe • Curtain & Bedding • English bookshop.Manilva Solicitors • Dr Santos Centro de Balud • Fathom’s Bar • Natura Garden Centre • Vets • Eden Gift Shop • Visage Hair Salon • Coast to Coast Properties.

MARBELLALa Cuisine • Casa del Te • Hotel Fuerte • Hotel Morada la Hermosa • Town House Hotel• Villa Marbella Hotel • Swans International School • Vergola • Puente Romano Hotel• Polo House • Absolute Café

• Deli next Door • Casa Mono • Casanis• Lawbird

MIJAS PUEBLOTourist Office • Town Hall • BP Garage

MIJAS ROADWorld of Furniture • Centro Idea Danish Centre

MOJACARGas station • Masko • HabanaKoi • Marina de la Torre Club • Costa Coches • Kasbah Romantic • Sal’sDiego Ortega • Pippas • La ColleraPaco • El Olivo • Comptoir de la Crepe • Jolly Lemon • Total entertainment • Tomas • Mojacar Estates • Beachcomber • H Puntazo • Trufibar • Clinica Dental (Parque comercial) • Kimrick • Parador

MOJACAR PUEBLOCentro de Arte Municipal • Thao • English Library • Bar Pavana

MOLLINABar Margarita • And Estates • Brit Shop • Lazy Days Mobile Home Park •Saydo park

MONDAPaper Shop • Petrol St.

MONTEFRIOAlan Russell

MONTE HALCONESOne stop café (Ronda road) • Irish café

MONTEJAQUEHotel Montejaque • Las Casitas

MOTRILAki • Café AL Campo • Tourist OfficeLos Moriscos Golf • Bar/ Rest Moriscos • Ideal Papeleria • Gran Elba Hotel

NERJAHotel Carabeo • English Book Shop • Supermercado Iranzo • Dancers Bar • Smiths Bookshop • Tourist Office • John the Barber • H2O Bar • Keyhomes Estates Agents • Team Estate AgentsMojito Bar

NUEVA ANDALUCIAAloha News • Garden Bar • Yanks • Wilsons • Alberts • La Sala restaurant • Mad Hatters • Terra Sana • N10 Hotel • RWK furniture

OLVERAPetrol Station • Dynos • Olvera Properties • Via Verde • Rest. El Puerto

ORGIVAIndoor Market • Camac • Internet Café • Alpujarra Supermercado • Baraka

PAMPANEIRAHotel • Gasolinera

PERIANACantueso

PITRESCamping • Bar • Bar

PIZARRAKiwi • Aliprox

PRIEGO DE CORDOBATourist office • Kiosko maribelCepsa garage x2

PUENTE DON MANUELPetrol Station • Moreno’s • Petts Dentist • English Shop • Arkwrights • Bar Atilla

PUERTO BANUSVIPS • Gift Shop (Port) • Moneycorp • Mumtaz • Jacks • Bookworld • Iceland • Cravings • Kristina Zekely • La Sala • Starz Cafe

PUERTO REY (VERA)Club Deportivo • La Esquina

RINCON DE LA VICTORIATourist Office • Hotel Rincon SolAnoreta Golf

RIO FRIOHotel Almazara

RIOGORDOCoviran

RIVIERA DEL SOLMiraflores Bowls Club • La Terraza Supermarket • La Terraza Paper Shop

RONDAMolino del Puente • BP • Almocabar • Bar San Francisco • Tourist Office • Siete de Copas • Atrium • Chocolate • Casa Ortega • Osaka • TragaTapas • Hotel Maestranza • Hotel ColonHotel Polo • Hotel Don Miguel • Locutorio • Serrania Services • Libreria Dumas • Huskies

RUTEEstanco

SABINILLASEnglish Bookshop • Eden • Hairdresser • Coast to Coast • Bar • Lidls

SALINASCasa Monolo • Meson Estacion

SALOBRENAHotel Salobrena • Correos • Tourist Office • Café Goya • 1616 Books • Abyla Papeleria • Restaurante Flores • Café Emilio

SAN PEDROTourist Office • Passion Café • TRE Radio Station • Staysure • Book Shop by N10

SAN ROQUESan Roque Golf Suites Reception area and golf clubhouse • Okay cafe • Supermarket

SIERRA DE YEGUASKiosko

SOTOGRANDE GUADIARONewsagent • Corner Café • Lemon Tree Café • Estate Agent • English Butcher Shop • Sotofiesta • Terra SanaBusiness Centre NH Hotel • Abbeygate Insurance • Mara Rest. • Anglo Wines • Lidls • Videola • Irish Pub • Hairy Lemon •La Terrace •Cafe Ke

TARIFATourist Office • lidl • cafe central • hurricane hotel •hotels in centre

TEBAMeson de Diego

TOLOXCross Road Bar

TORRE DEL MARPapeleria el Faro • English Bookshop Pasatiempo • Expatriate Help Centre • Lukuma • Baviera Golf • Las Yucas • Cudeca

TORREMOLINOSTourist Offices x 3 • Cudeca Town CentreBaileys Pub • BP Garage (Towards Benalmadena) •others

TORROXRussels English Shop • Sol y Sombra • Light of India • El Pino English Shop • Tourist Office

TRIANABar Triana

TURREFundraiser • Chili • Zambra • Super Turre • Casa Diego • Total entertainment • Tio Tomas

UBEDAGolden Poppy English Center

UGIJARJuan’s Bar and Bookshop

VEJERBookend

VELEZ MALAGAGarden Centre La Palma • Eroski Centre • Bar Jamaica • Dunnes

VERAIceland (Suzzanne) • Galasa • Terraza Carmona

VILLANUEVA DE ALGAIDASLa Bodeguita

VILLANUEVA DE ROSARIOBar • Bar • Town hall

VILLANUEVA DE TAPIALa Paloma Rest.

VILLANUEVA DE TRABUCORonnies • La Plaza • La Rubia • El Rincon de Teresa • Trabuco Books

YUNQUERAPetrol St.

ZAHARA DE LA SIERRAAl Lago

NEW DISTRIBUTION SPOTS ADDED EVERY ISSUE - LATEST INCLUDE SUPERSAVE IN BENALMADENA, ICELAND IN VERA, ANN’S BOOKSHOP, IN ARROYO, HOTEL FUERTE IN MARBELLA AND EIC SCHOOL IN ELVIRIA

A WIDER REACH

Covering the costas and inland to eight provinces

And here’s how our rivals fare:

21www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 201221GIBRALTAR NEWS

A GROUP of Spaniards have been kicked out of Gibraltar ‘for their own safety’ after angering patriotic locals during the Dia-mond Jubilee celebrations.Police escorted the tourists to the border after a 50-strong mob surrounded them.They claimed the Spaniards had provoked them after one of them kissed the badge on his Spain football shirt.A Gibraltar police spokesman compared the provocation to ‘going round Tel Aviv celebrating Hitler’, despite the group, from Sevilla, claiming not to have been aware of political tensions between Spain and the Rock.“You have to understand the climate be-tween Gibraltar and Spain at the moment, it is not the best, particularly with the fish-ing dispute,” he told the Olive Press.“People are hyper-sensitive at the moment and you can compare it (kissing the badge) to going round Tel Aviv celebrating Hitler.”The spokesman confirmed that two mem-bers of the Spanish group were taken to a police station but no arrests were made.“It was the Jubilee weekend with Union flags everywhere and everyone was in high spirits, but the incident created a tense at-mosphere, some people took offence and temper’s flared.“We explained the situation to them and

Diamond Jubilee insultSpanish group – who behaved ‘like Hitler being celebrated in Tel Aviv’ – are escorted from Gibraltar ‘for their own safety’

ESCORT: Group were ushered out of Gibraltar after taking photos with ‘birdman’ (top)

told them the best thing to do in the cir-cumstances is go back to Spain.“It would not have been a good idea to stay in Gibraltar. We moved them for their own safety,” he added.Inmaculada Rueda, her boyfriend Jaime Berjarano and three friends had been kill-ing time in Gibraltar ahead of an evening football match in the nearby Spanish bor-der town of La Linea.“We were walking down Main Street and we saw a man with two parrots, one on each shoulder. Jaime placed himself to have his photo taken, and it was then he kissed the shirt,” Rueda said.“People were shouting ‘go back to your own country’ and we felt physically threatened, it was shameful.“I’ll never go back to Gibraltar.”

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By James Bryce

IT has taken less than five years... but now the Olive Press website is firmly installed in the world’s Top 100,000 websites.Standing proudly at 99,492, www.theolivepress.es is miles above its main

competitors Sur in English (283,062) and Euro Weekly News (179,223).The ranking is made by Alexa.com, which compares 30 mil-lion sites globally.Only two English websites come above us in Spain, Typically Spanish at 73,038 and Andalucia.com at 37,483.Andalucia.com, started up by Estepona-based expat Chris Chaplow in 1996, is impressively the 8th most visited geo-graphical domain in the world.Meanwhile, our website is getting around 100,000 ‘unique’ visitors a month and an incredible 60,000 people are now reading our paper online each issueThat’s over seven times more than in August, just six months ago.

UP WITH THE ELITE

And, here is what a few other advertisers think:

‘A Full House thanks to the OP!’“I would like to thank you for promoting our talk about tax issues held in April. We had a full house and it was a great success which was, in part, due to our adverts in The Olive Press. I would also like to thank your readers who attended and let them know that we will be organising a further talk in the autumn, obviously publishing the details in The Olive Press well beforehand.”Kind regards, Jose M Lopez Avalos, Senior Partner, Marbella Solicitors Group

Olive Press enters top 100,000 global websites

Clients from La Zagaleta!“ Since we started advertising with the Olive Press I have really noticed the difference in the kind of callers who have been ringing up. While advertisements in rival papers sent me to meet Ben in a pub from Benalmadena, the Olive Press offered me potential clients from exclusive places like La Zagaleta.”Nigel Goldman, Petersham Coins and

Stamps, Marbella

An intelligent, thoughtful lot

“I have been working with the Olive Press and its sister magazine The Green Guide for nearly three years and been absolutely staggered at the sort of decent, upmarket clients that have come my way. Your readers are clearly a thoughtful, intelligent – and above all – a green and sustainably-minded lot. When I recently had a couple of adverts in one of your downmarket rivals I got not one call, despite claims that it was the biggest paper in southern Spain. Keep up the good work.”Chris Bourne, Forestry Trading, Gibraltar At least two

house sales!

“We have had probably a dozen enquiries for homes – and at least two sales – since we started advertising in both the Olive Press and its sister website All About Andalucia Property. Thanks a lot guys.”Adam Neale, Terra Meridiana Estate Agents, Estepona

Ideal medium for

quality businesses

“Advertising with the Olive Press and

its associated website Dining Secrets

of Andalucia is the ideal medium for

a quality restaurant and hotel. We are

really pleased with the response we get

from both media. ”Andy Chapell, Molino del Santo Hotel,

Ronda

22 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 GIBRALTAR NEWS

Gib IN BRIEF

THE winners have been an-nounced in the Art category for the Newton Creative Awards 2012, in Gibraltar.Tyron Oton claimed the top prize in the 12 and under category, while Anne-Marie Valverde was successful in the 17 and over group.The deadline for submis-sions in the Music category is October 31 2012. Visit: www.newton.gi for details.

Arty winners

Spain reclaims lost treasure

PRINCE Edward showed he had his father’s risque sense of humour during a contro-versial walkabout in Gibral-tar this week.On a short stroll up Main Street alongside his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, he could not resist cracking a joke to a wheel-chair user who had been pa-tiently waiting to see them.On seeing the woman, he sidled over and joked she was ‘lucky’ she had brought her chair.In shades remarkably simi-lar to the sort of controver-sial jokes his father Prince Philip, the Duke of Edin-burgh is famous for, the woman laughed it off.In total, the Royals spent over an hour chatting to shop owners and bunting-waving children, amid a sea

of union flags.They made a particular ef-fort to chat to 91-year-old Gibraltarian Aurelio Mon-tegriffo, who dined with the Queen when she visited the Rock in 1954.During the first day of a Rock tour to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the prince later told an Olive Press reporter that ‘it was lovely to be in Gibraltar’. Wherever they went they re-ceived an enthusiastic wel-come from well-wishers.The crowds enthusiastically

Joker like his dadControversial royal visit gets off to a flying start – despite wheelchair gag Emily Batty and James

Bryce in Gibraltar

waved their flags of red, blue and white and broke into the Gibraltar and British an-thems as the roy-als arrived at the Convent to meet First Minister Fa-bian Picardo at 2pm.Chief Minister

Fabian Picardo, said: “The people of Gibraltar have done themselves proud.“We wanted to show Her Majesty our respect, affec-tion and loyalty in her Dia-mond Jubilee year and the people of Gibraltar have come out in droves to wel-come our Royal visitors.”During the three-day visit they are set to take in a wide variety of sites.On arrival on Monday they inspected a Tri-Service Guard of Honour at RAF Gibraltar before laying the

DISPUTED treasure from the Odyssey case has been returned to Spain from Gi-braltar.The 59 items of archaeologi-cal significance had been held on the Rock through-out a bitter five-year legal dispute over ownership of the haul.The items have now re-turned to Spain after the US Supreme Court dismissed a claim by the US salvage company, Odyssey Marine Exploration. However, some coins have remained on the Rock and will not be returned after judges in the US and Gi-braltar rejected ownership claims made by Spain.The items are part of a €375 million haul recovered from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which was sunk in the Straits by a British warship in 1804.

Oil spillA CLEAN up is underway following a minor oil spill caused by bunkering activities in the Port.

Taxing taskThe government is chasing £36 million in unpaid tax owed up to the end of March, according to data from the Income Tax Office.

Net benefitRepresentatives of Gibraltar’s fishing commission and Spanish fishermen have held the first meeting of the joint technical working group set up to resolve the fishing dispute.

Solar flightA solar-powered plane has crossed the Strait of Gibraltar as part of the world’s first transcontinental flight by a zero fuel aircraft, between Madrid and Rabat in Morocco.

WALKABOUT: Prince Edward and wife Sophie joke with wheelchair user while (left) Prince with Minister Picardo

foundation stone for the Di-amond Jubilee Monument.On Tuesday they visited the British Forces HQ, the Up-per Rock and attended the Queen’s Birthday Parade, before finishing with a tour of the new airport terminal on Wednesday morning. The visit has caused tension between Britain and Spain, with the current fishing dis-pute showing no signs of being resolved. “I said from the outset that this visit was deeply unfortunate,” reiter-ated Spain’s foreign min-ister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.Algeciras mayor Jose Igna-cio Landaluce, added: “This land is ours and it’s a tense situation. It is a most inop-portune moment for them to come.”

23www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

Arty winners

24 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 LETTERS

POTTED POINTERS

ANDALUCIA RESERVOIRLEVELSThis week: 71.77 per cent full - Same week last year:89.55 per cent - Same week in 2002: 61.28 per cent

AIRPORTSGibraltar -00350 22073026Granada-Jaen -958 245 200Jerez - 956 150 000Malaga - 952 048 844**For English press 9 Sevilla - 954 449 000

EMERGENCIESPolice 091Guardia Civil 062Medical service 061Fire 080

EURO EXCHANGE RATES 1 euro is worth1.2468 American Dollars0.8079 British Pounds1.2894 Canadian Dollars7.4319 Danish Kroner9.6723 H Kong Dollars7.5995 Norwegian Kroner1.6043 Singapore Dollars

Letters should be posted to Urb. Cayetano Arroyo, Buzon 13, Arriate 29350, Malaga or emailed to letters@theolivepress.esThe writer’s name and address should be provided. Published opinions are not necessarily those of the Editor.

PLEASEWRITE

Why leave?Dear Olive Press

Regarding the article ‘I’d rather sleep on the beach than go back to the UK’ (issue 136).As a pensioner why would I want to leave Spain?The cost of living is much cheaper and my pen-sion has increased by 20 per cent in the last few months.There is very little crime here, people are SO friend-ly and drinks are cheap!

Lojaman, via the Olive Press website

Keeping up appearancesRegarding the article ‘I’d rather sleep on the beach than go back to the UK’ (issue 136).As with the majority of ex-pats in Spain; no-one would say to their neighbours or even friends they are think-ing of leaving.There is a massive falseness on the Costa del Sol.But I suspect that the fig-ure of 30 per cent is true and that people just want

to keep up appearances and don’t want to admit they want to leave.

Gareth, via the Olive Press website

Miscarriage of justiceI refer to the article ‘Pen-sioner faces prison over blaze’ (issue 136).My partner and I read it with dismay but, sadly, we were not surprised to hear about yet another miscar-riage of justice in Spain. This breaches just about every European directive on human rights. It looks as though she was forced to sign some sort of statement without proper representa-tion.It cannot be right that her fine was not means tested and that she was forced to pay €220 per month on an income of €350.There could also be a le-gal question with regard to sending a woman of that age to prison for that type of crime - usually it has to be something much more seri-ous to justify such a severe punishment.The article closes with ‘guilty until proven inno-

cent’ but this woman didn’t even get the chance to try and prove herself innocent despite the eyewitness ac-counts and the testimony from Endesa which was conveniently found to be ‘inadmissible’.SOHA are already planning to take Spain to the Europe-an Court of Human Rights - let’s hope this poor woman does as well.

Jane Garrett and Robert Chilton, Axarquia

A big thanksMy wife and I would like to thank all those who at-tended and helped make the inauguration party of the Instituto Andaluz de Reiki in Estepona a great success.A special thanks to the Olive Press team, whose contin-ued support has helped turn my wife’s dream of having a Reiki treatment centre - where she can treat both animals and people under one roof - into a reality.

Eddie Taylor, Instituto Andaluz de Reiki

SuccessThe newspaper has been a success! People here love it! Thanks so much!

Golden Poppy English Centre, Jaen

Renewed vowsI write regarding the article ‘Wedding out the Rogues’. This originates from a dis-gruntled client of mine who is looking to damage my reputation.

A solution has been reached on the matter which has been approved by my lawyer and as far as I am concerned the matter is fully settled and closed.Many thanks for your help and co-operation in this matter.

Alan Malcolm McLean

No health problemsTo clear things up on health-care, I have been under the Spanish health care system since turning 60 and my husband on turning 65 also joined the Spanish system.For both of us it was straight-forward. We received our E121 (in my case) and S1 (in my husband’s case), took them to our local so-cial security office with our

Olive Press is a hit with ‘Google’This doggie is called Google. He is a fan of the Olive Press and never fails to bring it home. I’m French but I love reading it!

Liliane, Tarifa

www.elgastor.co.ukHeavy Equipment Electrical Maintenance TechnicianPT AsiaRep is South East Asia’s Largest Heavy Equipment Electrical Preventative Maintenance Systems Manufacturer and Service Provider.

We are searching for Certified Automotive Electricians to join our team. Your role will be specific to Heavy Equipment Air Conditioning and Electrical Preventative Maintenance focusing on:

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residencia and were given a number which enabled us to sign on with the local doctor straight away.Our social security cards were later received through the post and I do not re-member this taking very long.There is no reason for any expat who is residencia and receives state pension not to enter the Spanish health care system.Many expats do not take up residencia fearing that they will pay more in tax. This is not the case as the agree-ment between our two coun-tries is that double taxation is avoided. As an ex civil ser-vant I had no option but to pay tax at source in the UK.My husband was able to choose and chose to stay with the Inland Revenue, now HMCE.

Joan Josey, Chiclana De La Frontera

25www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

ll about ojacarM AJune 14, 2012 A 16-page Olive Press special supplement

25

The Corner of Enchantment

Long-time resident Lenox Napier (left)recalls the good old days of Mojacar when his dad played checkers with Orson Welles and kicked a young Dennis Hopper up the backside

IN the early 1960s, a local politician hit on the idea of attracting new residents – wealthy ones would be nice – to boost the economy of the then dirt poor village of Mojacar.

No doubt spurred on by events to the west in Torremolinos and Marbella, the offer was simple enough: we’ll give you a ruined house or a chunk of land if you are prepared to invest locally. Several people took the bait and the sleepy spot found it-self with some new, and much needed, blood. The first arrivals were mostly artists, who founded an art movement named after the local totem the Indalo, calling themselves the ‘Indalianos’. But by the end of this project, around 1965, many well known characters had joined the fray; including famous bullfighter Antonio Bienvenida, diplomat Sir Michael Ad-eane, actor Charles Baxter and concert pianist Enrique Arias. It was into this exciting mix that my parents arrived in the town in 1966, when they bought themselves a two-storey house for the equivalent of just €540.Then, a callow 13-year-old, bobbing backwards and for-wards from my boarding school in the UK, I soon began to realise where my future lay.Weighed down with the tradition and rigidity of public school life or enjoying the excitement in the refreshing re-

Turn to Page 26

FAMOUS FACES: Robert Shaw, Anita Ekburg and Dennis Hopper have hung out in Mojacar, while filming movies

SUNSET: Watching the sundown from a res-taurant terrace in Mojacar village

26 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

Mojacar special26

gion of Almeria?Of course, I chose the lat-ter, fleeing school with just a handful of O-levels and join-ing my mother and father, who - worried by the lack of late evening activities - had built a bar (La Sarten: which is still with us today). Other oddballs had soon set up shop; mainly a succession of serial drinkers thanks to the three-cent-a-glass brandy available in those days.But there was also glamour – and a small, but interna-tionally renowned bohemian colony sprung up – much helped by the decision of the tourist board to build a state-run Parador in the town.I remember clamouring to watch film stars hang out on the beach - such as Robert

Shaw, Anita Ekburg and di-rector Mike Lester and his film-star son Mark, the young

Oliver in the famous musical.There was also what turned out to be the appropriately

named Dennis Hopper, who was kicked up the backside by my father in a rare bar-room brawl somewhere in the village. Then there was the other time that my father played ‘checkers’ with Orson Welles. The story goes that the fa-mous actor/director enjoyed a game of draughts. His ver-sion, honed on the nearby beaches between takes of his film Treasure Island, in-volved playing with 12 small glasses of liquor each, one player choosing brandy while the other went with anis. You ‘took’ a piece, you drank it.

The player who could still see the board at the end of a game being declared the winner. My dad reckoned he had won hands down.It was just as the region be-came famous for it’s film in-dustry.Indeed, Spa-ghetti Western films came from the area and were at their zenith then, when vari-ous purpose-built cowboy

towns sprung up, several of which are still standing. Clint Eastwood, Charles Bron-son, Lee van Cleef and direc-tor Sergio Leone frequently spent time in Mojacar, when staying at the nearby Gran Hotel in Almeria, or out on set in Tabernas. Us expats were often cast as extras to help water down the number of gypsy ‘bandidos’ in these cheap and cheerful productions.It all makes perfect sense then, that Mojacar these days is known for its magic: but whether it comes from the witches that used to plague the town with their love phil-tres or the heavy scent of jasmine in the narrow white-washed streets is up for de-bate.Or could it be to do with the light? While there’s not much

to interfere be-tween the top of the town and the sky high above, Mojacar has its own micro-climate. With acceptable av-erage season-al tempera-tures and lots of sunny days,

it’s never too hot or too cold.Either way, the town and its 17 kilometres of fabulous

AFTER the Romans had found some gold and silver in the hills of Almeria, it fell to British concerns in the 1880s in the hills around Bedar - mainly iron and copper - with some heavy strip mining further along in Cuevas. It led to a small community of Europeans to settle locally, and Garrucha – essentially the only way in or out, as there were no roads into the area – be-came the foreigners’ capital, port city and a rail head into the interior.

From Page 25

A kind of magic

The expat minersBy 1930, there were even Dutch, German and Brit-ish consuls in the town.Mojacar passed much of this by, although in 1915, a local Briton, connected to the mines, bought and piped much of Mojacar’s fresh water over to Garrucha, where he sold it to the towns-folk on a twenty year licence. He apparently also makes the history books for owning the first op-erative vehicle in the province, a lorry with AL-1 as its number-plate.

PICTURE PERFECT: View of Mojacar pueblo from the beach at sunset

It all makes perfect sense

then that Mojacar is known for its

magic

27www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

Mojacar special27

MOJACAR comes from the Arab name ‘Muxacra’, which comes from the Ro-man name ‘Mons Sacra’. This ‘sacred mountain’ re-fers to a pyramid shaped hill (pictured) just below the town. The hill, now known as Old Mojacar, has an Arab water deposit on its summit, innumerable ruins at its base and the dry river Aguas to its rear. The current location of Mojacar however - at the foot of the Sierra Filabres – is a more defen-sible site with available water and retreat routes. Sitting at 400 metres above sea level and a kilometre inland, it has always been a safe haven from the Barbary pirates and corsairs. Settlements here can be traced back to the beginning of history, and include Phoeni-cians, Greeks, Trojans and the Icini (the original ‘Beaker People’). Mojacar was a fortified town in the Moorish era, and fell to the Christian Kings – Isabel and Ferdinand – in 1488. Everyone was promptly slaughtered. Or left in peace, if you believe the plaque located at the Moorish fountain. The town regained its strength during the following centuries, after being re-populated with Christians from nearby Lorca, and became the local capital dur-ing the following centuries. While the population in 1910 sat at 6,000 souls – not far off today’s numbers – by 1960, the population had dwindled to just 600.The Civil War had taken its toll, Mojacar being enthusiastically ‘Red’, leading to most of the locals being obliged to take off for foreign climes after the Nationalist victory. Indeed by 1960 the only real farming was some tomato plantations on the beach, and little else. Land then was a peseta for 10 metres square. We stayed firm. It would never go up in value…

beaches are the final steps in a tumble of hills that began their descent in the high Sierra Ne-vada mountains in Granada. Cubist in appearance, the town sits perched on an uncomfort-able-looking hill, almost tum-bling down to pray to the east.It is by far the best known town in what is known as the ‘Alme-rian Levante’, which includes the market town of Vera, the moun-tain eyrie that is Bedar, Turre with its restaurants, the port of Garrucha and Cuevas del Alman-zora and its gypsy caves. By Mediterranean standards, the area is quiet, relatively un-spoilt and generally offers lower prices in everything from proper-ty to accommodation and leisure activities. Compared to resorts like Bena-lmadena and Marbella it is cer-tainly a minnow. It counts just 8,000 full time

The little man keeping evil at bayWALKING around Mojacar, it is virtually impossible not to notice the town’s sym-bol, a matchstick figure with outstretched arms and arc over its head.While the origin of the indalo is unknown, fascinatingly it appeared in 6,000-year old cave paintings in nearby Velez Blanco. It was traditionally painted above door-ways to ward off evil and named by artists in Mojacar in 1955.Experts believe it is the only case of a pre-historic symbol being passed down the millennia in a sole location.

ONE of Spain’s better known pop groups, stretching back to the days of vinyl plugged into jukeboxes, must be Los Teddy Boys. The Almeria band has been playing its own kind of music for a heady 50 years. Despite a list of songs and mi-nor hits, the band was always best known by its followers for its concerts. ‘We play covers of things from Los Beatles, Pink Floyd and Spanish acts like Los Brincos’, says Chipo Marti-nez, one of the original group, which is about to tour Almeria later this month. Dress: op-tional, but blue suede shoes a must.

inhabitants, with per-haps another 15,000 visitors arriving in the summer.This small popula-tion has meant the village largely re-mains attractive and unspoilt by mass develop-ment, with nar-row Moorish streets and charming buildings.Down on the coast, Mojacar Pla-ya, as it is known, is where the buzz can be found. Broadly it’s a long stretch of hotels, restaurants and bars stretching from Garrucha to the east and as far along as the Ho-tel Best Indalo to the west.Thankfully a long-observed rule to keep buildings down to just two storeys has helped to keep the area special. The beaches, including three Blue Flag beach-

HEYDAY: Orson Welles in Treasure Island and (below) scenes from Mojacar

es, have full service, including a number of colourful beach-bars. It gets even nicer: beyond the built-up area there’s an exten-sion of pristine, empty coves and playas, leading towards Cabo de Gata.While Mojácar is the lodestone for the Levante de Almeria, oth-er nearby towns and villages are attractive, with Bedar and the communities of Cortijo Grande and Cortijo Cabrera (both in Turre) standing out as the best of them. My advice: Come and see it for yourself...I’ve been here for 47 years and there is no way I’m moving anywhere else.

Lenox Napier set up the Enter-tainer newspaper which later became the Euro Weekly News. He now runs the website www.theentertaineronline.com.

Mystic mount

28 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

29www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

Mojacar special29

Living it up on the Levante

Take a visit to buzzing GarruchaLast, but not least, it is worth popping in to visit the lively sea-side town of Garrucha.While winning no prizes for beauty, it is a buzzing place, par-ticularly when the fishing fleet comes back to the port mid-afternoon.There is a lively fish auc-tion and some of the best fish can always be found in the popular port-side restaurant El Almejero.A great place to stay is Ho-tel Tikar, where American Sean has recently added a wine shop to compli-ment his excellent restau-rant.

Wendy Williams takes a ride up Almeria’s Levante coast

THE Costa Levante of Almeria is a popu-lar destination for holidaymakers and expats alike.It offers superb sandy beaches with

clear waters ideal for diving and snorkelling and boasts excellent all-year weather condi-tions.“We rarely get much more than around 150 litres of rainfall a year most of it spread over around 12 to 20 days,” explains architect Al-mudena Mateo-Sagasta, who lives in Cabo de Gata with her Italian husband Umberto.Much more than sun, sea and sand, the area

also offers excellent hiking, cycling, climbing and caving and it is well-known for its golf re-sorts.“You can have a really good holiday here,” remarks Bill White, 70, who has lived in Los Gallardos, near Mojacar, with his wife Jean for the last five years.“There are wonderful beaches, Mojacar is steeped in history, and just down the road is Almeria city, which has lots of museums and a castle.”Here the Olive Press shines a light on some of the other places of interest in the area…

The towers that created TurreThis small inland village is situated a few miles inland from Mo-jacar next to the river Aguas and the soaring Sierra Cabrera.Its Muslim origins are apparent from the whitewashed houses and flat roofs, and while it is not the most visually appealing town it has a lot of character, and a large gypsy influence.The main sights include the 16th century Hermitage of San Francisco and the Parish Church de la Purisima Concepcion.There is also a market on a Friday but the real draw is the his-tory.The town sprung up around 1488 after the Catholic Monarchs forced the inhabitants of Mojacar who did not want to flee to Africa to settle inland.Turre – which originates from the Latin word ‘turris’ meaning tower - was named after a watchtower built by the Moors dur-ing Nazari times to protect the people from continuous attacks by the Christians.The Moors of Turre were eventually taken to Cordoba during the War of the Alpujarras between 1568 and 1570 and the town was left deserted for several years until 43 families from Murcia moved in to repopulate it.In recent years the town has benefitted from an influx of tour-ists visiting the region.

Arrow that created modern VeraBigger than some of the surroundings villages, Vera offers six miles of stunning sandy beaches.The town, which was originally called Baria, is also steeped in history having been inhabited for thousands of years from Neolithic times right through to the Romans and Moors.Interestingly, the Arabs moved the town to the hill of Espiritu Santo but an earthquake destroyed it in 1518.Legend has it that after this, Queen Isabel climbed to the top of the hill, fired an arrow and ordered that Vera be built wherever it landed.The town as it stands today was built in the 16th century and enlarged in the 18th century.It is one of the most important commercial centres in the region and is a prosperous town with a variety of shops.There is also a keen artisan tradition with handicrafts includ-ing embroidery, esparto grass weaving and marble carving.A big street market is worth a visit on Saturdays.

Come to the cavesCuevas de Almanzora, an in-land town which lies in the fertile valley of the Almanzora River, is one of the oldest towns in the province.It was here that silver was discovered in the Sierra Al-magrera in the early 19th century which led to the town becoming flooded with min-ers looking to make their for-tune.In particular the town is known for the artificial caves that were once inhabited by the silver miners.Some of the caves are still lived in today and you can visit many of the dwellings.Meanwhile, the silver rush also led the town to prosper with a lot of grand old houses springing up.These too can still be seen to-day, particularly around Plaza de la Constitucion and the town hall.The Castillo de Cuevas del Almanzora, a 16th century palace/fortress is also well worth a visit and the Cas-tillo de Marques de los Velez houses an important art col-lection.“It is a nice place to live,” said John Crellin, 59, from Black-pool.“I think a lot of Brits came originally as it was cheap but now they have made their home here.”

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T IM Desmond was ex-tremely surprised when his small inland estate agent got a call out of the

blue from popular property pro-

Wendy Williams discovers why the popular British TV programme has recently been filming in the Mojacar area

gramme A Place in the Sun last month.“We thought they usually went for the more mainstream places and the bigger agents,” explains

the British agent, who moved to the small inland village of Be-dar, near Mojacar, with his wife Joanne, after leaving the navy seven years ago.“But I guess our agency is doing a good job promoting quality places and it is certainly a unique spot with wonderful views to the sea and the Sierra Cabrera moun-tains.”After he and Joanne spent a few days rushing around entertaining the film crew and meeting the ‘househunters’, he is not con-vinced they are going to buy.“The pair are like chalk and cheese and while the wife loved the property we showed them, her husband was not as sure. “But just the fact the programme is focussing on Bedar is great,” adds Tim whose company Ol-ive Properties has a range of excellent properties with an average price of just under €200,000 and starting from €80,000.The only agency in Bedar, his portfolio of over 200 properties currently stretches from here to Antas, Sorbas and Lubrin, where he is opening a second branch.“In recent years Bedar has be-come an attraction for both art-ists and painters,” he continues. “It is just a short drive from the coastal town of Mojacar and owes its presence to the mining of iron ore in the 18th century.“It boasts all the charm of a tra-ditional Spanish white washed village with small squares and winding streets, and the locals are friendly and welcoming.”Over the years Mojacar and the surrounding area has attracted a lot of expats also looking for their place in the sun.And no matter what you are search-ing for – whether it be a secluded

villa, a charming town house or a modern duplex - there seems to be something that fits the bill.Moreover, according to the experts, prices are now at the lowest they have ever been and ‘there has never been a better time to buy’.So why do people come to Mojacar?

“Apart from the excel-lent weather, Mojacar is different. Its village is historical and has a very colourful and eventful past,” ex-plains Daphne Price, from Price Brown, the first British profession-ally qualified agent to establish offices in the area.“There is no high-rise

building allowed, so when one is walk-ing or driving along the sea front, the sea views are not restricted.“It has an excel-lent beach line, a magnificent backdrop of mountains and is a very friendly place.“Overall it has a beckoning finger, it is beautiful, and its heart is Spanish,” she adds. Meanwhile fellow German expat Karen Schroter, from Mojacar Es-tates, which has been serving the area for 30 years,

believes it is one of the last villages in the area that has not been ‘spoilt by the boom’.She explains: “Mojacar started in the 1970s as a place where you could find artists, musicians and writers,” she ex-plains.“It was really a little hippy village. Little by little it has grown but it has remained rus-tic and quiet and kept its charms.“Initially there were a lot of Americans here as the US ambassador fell in love with the place, but today there are 75 na-tionalities living here which is a nice mix.”She continues: “It has always been much cheaper than the Costa del Sol and far less developed.”On top of this, she believes now is per-haps the best time to buy with prices having dropped by half over the last few years. “It is difficult to give a general fig-ure but I would guess it is around 45 to 55 per cent.... and people who want to sell are quite flexible.”

AFTER falling in love and moving to Mo-jacar a decade ago, we began to look for a challenge. Thankfully we spotted one when we realised that – despite being dozens of estate agents – there was no-one specialising exclusively in long term rentals.We believed that an agency unfettered by competing aims and able to deliver proper care and service to its clients, would do extremely well. Now, nine years later and our company Mojacar Long Term Rentals has over 70 properties to let around Mojacar.In total, we have helped hundreds of clients relocate to the area, giving them all the advice they need to settle in and find their way around the system. We have purposely kept the company small so that we can offer a personal service which enables us to build up a good relationship with both property owners and clients. Also we are very careful with the properties we take on and the clients that we deal with. If we do not feel 100 per cent confident that the deal is right for both parties we would rather turn the business away than risk our reputation. We also differ from many agents in that we do not take any fees up front, neither from the owners, nor prospective tenants. This gives us an incentive to collect the rent monthly and keep the clients happy and settled for the long term. Initially, for the first few months, we prefer to collect the rent in person which gives us the opportunity to make sure that the prop-erty is being cared for and that the new tenant is happy and feels valued.For more info visit http://www.mojacarlongtermrentals.com/

We’re here for the long termPatrick Bennett on how he and his wife spotted a gap in the market running a long term rentals business in Mojacar

According to the experts, prices are now at the

lowest they have ever been

The perfect Place in the Sun

CHARACTER: An old property in Mojacar while (inset) agents Daphne (top) and Karen and (left) view of Bedar

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A former Arabic town - with roots going back to Phoenician times - Mojacar village is, unsurprisingly, full of historic corners and buildings. One of its original arches (left) is still intact, while around the village you will find a succession of arches, some admittedly installed over the last few decades.

IT has become perhaps Mojacar’s flag-ship event.Involving much pomp, colour and noise the annual Moors and Chris-

tians festival in June is one not to be missed.Taking place this year from June 15 to 17, the celebrations will see seven different armies marching through the town.The armies, known as kabilas, will man their fortresses in the village; with music, bars, food and costumes. It’s loud, colour-ful and fun. There are some exhibitions and activities on the playa, but the main bash, including a medieval market in the main square, is in the village where the bedlam continues with fresh explosions, bangs, firecrackers, music, live bands,

The Moors and Christians

COLOUR: The joy of the Moors and Christians festival

Archways to paradise

BEAUTIFUL BEDAR NO trip to

the Mojacar area would be complete without tak-ing the 20 minute ride up to the s t u n n i n g m o u n t a i n town of Be-dar.The stunning white town is full of pretty nooks and crannies and understand-ably popular as a place for expats to buy properties.

Mojacar special 33

Signs of the times

A popular haunt for artists since the 1960s, Mojacar village certainly maintains a connection to its creative roots through its street signs.Colourfully painted - mostly by hand - they offer a distinct flavour of days gone by.Take a stroll around the narrow, shady streets and you will find a number of artists studios and shops selling a large range of artisanal products.

A former Arabic town - with roots going back to Phoenician times - Mojacar village is, unsurprisingly, full of historic corners and buildings. One of its original arches (left) is still intact, while around the village you will find a succession of arches, some admittedly installed over the last few decades.

IT has become perhaps Mojacar’s flag-ship event.Involving much pomp, colour and noise the annual Moors and Chris-

tians festival in June is one not to be missed.Taking place this year from June 15 to 17, the celebrations will see seven different armies marching through the town.The armies, known as kabilas, will man their fortresses in the village; with music, bars, food and costumes. It’s loud, colour-ful and fun. There are some exhibitions and activities on the playa, but the main bash, including a medieval market in the main square, is in the village where the bedlam continues with fresh explosions, bangs, firecrackers, music, live bands,

The Moors and Christiansthunder-flashes and musketry. The slightly deafened soldiers and courtesans will finally be participating in the most extraor-dinary parade on Sunday eve-ning with gorgeous costumes, interspaced with large brass bands and horse riders.The Moors and Christians event celebrates the story of Mojacar’s defeat in 1488 and how the two sides managed to turn the battle into a companionable ‘draw’.The Christian Kings, as they are known in Spain, were camped on the doorstep of the fortified town. They had broken through the Moorish lines and sacked the next door town of Vera. The Moorish captain of Mojacar sued for peace by saying ‘we are as Spanish as you’. The romantic ver-sion has it that his argument fell on fertile ground and there’s an old plaque at the Mo-jacar fountain to prove it.

COLOUR: The joy of the Moors and Christians festival

For the second time the poster for the Moors and Christians event has been designed by British artist Jill Bennett, who has lived in the town for nine years.Having studied and taught art in the UK, she moved to Almeria, where she is inspired by the scenery and colourful characters.A former illustrator and interior designer, her art shows great movement and colour.

Expat with an amazing eye

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Blood Wedding, nudist beaches and Mojito Joe!

GROWING up, there was one place in Europe that I knew I could always get

away from it all and enjoy pretty-much guaranteed sun.Cabo de Gata is one of Spain’s last remaining coast-al regions not yet sacrificed to developers and consumer-ism.Coupling hauntingly beauti-ful landscape with stunning unspoilt beaches, the natu-ral park region has the most amazing relaxed vibe.Conjuring up a true sense of wilderness, it is no surprise that many a Western film was shot here, nor that Garcia Lor-ca’s tragedy Blood Wedding, was based on a true story set at the now-ruined atmospher-ic Cortijo de los Frailes.Rolling hills of elephant grass, pock-marked with lines of agave and low-rise, flat roofed white farmhouses, this is a photographer or film-maker’s dream.The walks are wonderful, ei-ther inland, or along the un-

Cabo de Gata is Andalucia’s best place to chill out and relax, reckons Olive Press editor Jon Clarkedulating coastline, and the mix of restaurants and hotels excellent.But most of you are probably interested in the beaches and there are few places in the world that can compete with Playa de los Genoveses, Pla-ya de los Muertos, or La Cala de San Pedro, which until re-cently could only be reached via a stiff hour-long stroll from Las Negras. While Genoveses is part na-turist on one side, it is the perfect family beach, as long as the kids don’t mind a short walk across the dunes.For those looking for some-

thing more convenient, hole up in Agua Amarga, often thought to be one of Spain’s most exclusive resorts, albeit in the most low-key sort of way.It was here where the film Sexy Beast was shot and where Spain’s leading cap-tains of industry come to un-wind.We spent five days at Christ-mas here and literally had the beach to ourselves.But what nailed the area for me was when I interviewed former Clash lead singer Joe Strummer, who told me he had a home in San Jose and visited frequently.As the owner of local restau-rant La Gallineta explained: “Joe tipified the kind of visi-tors we get to the region. He was fun, thoughtful and intel-ligent. “He spoke Spanish and would always turn up at my restau-rant shouting for a Mojito with a big smile on his face.“We gave him the nickname ‘Mojito Joe’ and were all devastated when he passed away so young.”There is no way Joe went Straight to Hell, to coin the name of a film he starred in and shot in Cabo de Gata in the 1980s.

TRANQUIL: Agua Amarga beach

MEET THE LOCALS: Cabo de Gata is a long way from the Costa del Sol and (top) Joe Strummer in film Straight to Hell, which was shot there

Top Kip: Looking for somewhere different to stay, head to stunning Cortijo la Tenada, a stylish carbon neutral retreat a few min-utes inland in a breathtaking valley

Top Tucker: Keep your eyes peeled for La Gallineta in El Pozo de los Frailes, which is romantically-lit and has a fabulously fresh, original menu

HAUNTING: Blood Wedding ‘setting’ at Cortijo Fraile and poster for the film

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Where to eat

Where to stay

IT is sometimes suggested in gentle criticism that there is more to eat in Mo-jacar than ajo colorado,

gachas, pelotas and migas. But now the town has its own ‘Tapas Guide’ and a promo-tional event ‘Eat Mojacar: Gastronomic Events’ taking place between June 28 and July 8.The area, including Cabo de Gata, Garrucha and Vera, ac-tually has a lot of good places to eat.As the sun slips behind the hills, where better to sit than on the roof terrace of the Ai-res del Sur, in Mojacar pueb-lo, ordering cous cous and a fabulous bottle of chilled rose.Formerly known as Eliza-beth’s this friendly joint, owned by Miguel from Melilla, is a true family affair with his wife and daughter all helping out.Also in his family is the equal-ly stunning Pulcinella, just across the square, where Abel’s pizzas featured re-cently in the European Pizza Championships for two years running. On the beach, there are vari-

Mojacar Munchies

Sweet Dreamsous restaurants, including, in particular, the simple and honest food at the Beach-

THE Mojacar region has a wealth of decent places to stay from the top end Parador to the charming hostel Arco Plaza in the heart of the old town.

This brilliant, good value spot, can be as cheap as €35, and you are literally right in the heart of town in pole position for exploring.Up the coast in Garrucha, you will be treated like a King at Spain’s ‘smallest hotel’ Hotel Tikar, which has just six suites, and one of the best restaurants in the region (see Where to eat).Inland you must certainly look out for the fantastic Cortijo el Saltador in Lucainena de las Torres.This beautiful hideout sits in the most stunning val-ley with amazing views and space.Perfect for a slow holiday, you will love the sound of silence, apart from when on various weekends the place comes alive with flamenco shows.There are also a string of different courses taking place throughout the year, including yoga, cookery and art.And for the next few months the main part of the cortijo is full of original art from a string of celebrat-ed artists from around the region.Nearby you can also stay at Venta el Museo, which boasts perfectly comfortable rooms and the added

attraction of having a great restaurant.Over in Cabo de Gata you should definitely con-sider the stunning, carbon neutral retreat Cortijo la Tenada.Run by a charming architect/designer couple from Italy and Spain, they have worked hard to make this eco-retreat both stylish and with a low impact on sustainability terms.

comber. The owner, John, a personable chap, has been serving good food in Spain

at a great price for 25 years, formerly in Ibiza, and he is the perfect person to ask about

f i s h i n g trips. The most f a m o u s b e a c h -style chir-i n g u i t o is Tito’s b e a c h bar, which is located down to-wards the southern end of the playa. It’s a fun place, fa-mous for its Sunday lunch, which also puts on Thai food evenings and plenty of live music.Over in the fishing port of Gar-rucha, famous for its fresh red gambas, you should head to Sean’s fantastic Hotel Ti-kar for one of the coast’s best restaurants.Long recommended in the Michelin guide, the food is extremely good value and changes by the season. Af-terwards, (or during the meal for a small corkage fee) make sure to buy a bottle of wine from his new wine store... and

if you have got any sense stay in a room upstairs. Over in Cabo de Gata there are plenty of good places to eat but – without a doubt- the best place must be La Galli-neta, in El Pozo de los Frailes, a stylish place, with an entic-ing, original menu.A long time haunt for celeb-rities and film stars, it was Clash lead singer Joe Strum-mer’s favourite restaurant be-fore his untimely death.Last, but certainly not least, the fabulous inland restau-rant of Venta el Museo, in Lucainena de las Torres, has one of Almeria’s top chefs Stephan Streifinger at the helm.

The talented German has

travelled around the province and

knows about food

This talented German has travelled around the province for a decade and knows a lot about food. Make sure to come and spend a night at the attached hotel and get blown away by his fresh and exciting tapas dishes.Finally, just up the road is an excellent olive oil factory Oro del Desierto, where you can try some of southern Spain’s best award-winning olive oil and also conveniently sit down for lunch.

Using hemp bricks, solar panels and a clever sys-tem of rainwater run-off, the place is worth a poke about even if you are not staying.Finally for campers, you should pitch your tent or bring your caravan to Los Gallardos campsite, which has been open for more than 20 years and now counts a fully-functioning restaurant and shop, sev-en days a week, as well as its very own bowling club.

VIEWS: Aires terrace and next door Hostel Arco plaza while (right) stunning Gallineta

ARTY: Saltador, Tenada and Hotel Tikar

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IT is slowly becoming one of inland Andalucia’s most exciting places to visit.

And the best way to get to Lucainena de las Torres is by bike, enjoying the fabulous via verde that takes cyclists up to the mountain town from the coast.Actually, you will probably have to take your car, wind-ing up to the village on one of the charming lanes from the main motorway, via Nijar or Polopos.You will soon find yourself lost in a stunning area of rolling hills and nature.Sitting at just over 500 me-tres at the foot of the Sierra Alhamilla, Lucainena is great for hiking and watching birds.The town was founded in the 19th century after a string of iron ore mines were opened.Taking the ore via a railway line to Agua Amarga in Cabo de Gata, some of it now the via verde, the mines brought considerable wealth to the area and saw the town ex-pand to 7,000 residents in its heyday.Today just 700 souls live in the town, an attractive, well looked after place, with a pretty church and fantastic scenery.It gets its name after the string of towers which sit at

Towering Internal

But Lucainena de las Torres is also a great place to visit

for its history and food

By Jon Clarke

the edge of the old mines.You are guaranteed to have a lovely time spending a day or two in the area, as part of a trip to the region.And don’t forget if you want to get hold of some of the best olive

oil in Spain, take a short ride from here to the amazing ol-ive oil factory Oro del Desier-

to, near Tabernas.

Top Kip: There are some great places to stay, in particular at Cortijo el Saltador, a well established country retreat, a few miles outside town. Known for its art and yoga courses, it is ‘chill out’ guaranteed with your German host Claudia Scholler.

Top Tucker: Without a doubt one of Alme-ria’s best restaurants is Venta el Museo, run by German chef Stephan Streifinger and his trusty sous chef Pedro Enrique Mo-rales. A great selection of Almeria wines and some inventive tapas.

GREEN ESCAPE: Take a ride along the Via Verde to (top) the towers of Lucainena

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what’s on

Villanueva de Algaidas June 22,

19:30 at La Bodeguita de Enmedio, Barriada La Atalaya. La Vid y La Vida present Music for a Summer Evening - 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Songs by Ivor Novello, Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver, the Beatles and many more, with WW2 and 60s favourites for YOU to join in. Collection in aid of La Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer

Malaga, June 15, Saxo Jazz,

international jazz stars Greg Osby and MarcCopland will perform for the first time in Andalucia at the Auditorio delMuseo Picasso.

Los Marcelinos (between Albox and

Taberno). 22-24 June. Three-day Folk Festival in aid of animal rescue charities. A weekend of music, arts and crafts, set-up and maintenance clinic for acoustic stringed instruments. Free admission. Further info: www.almeriastrings.org

Jimera de Libar. June 23 - 13:00h,

Camping Jimera de Libar, ‘Mini Woodstock of the Guadiaro Valley’. Artists include Markus, Biagra, The Beerbellys, The Silverbeats and more. Tickets €5. Tel: 671 501 054

Spanish baroness hopes to raise €30 million from sale of The Lock, which she cannot afford to keep

A SPANISH woman who inspired a character in Er-nest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls has died aged 91.Maria Sans met the Ameri-can writer while working as a volunteer nurse tending wounded members of the International Brigades dur-ing the Spanish Civil War.Hemingway depicts the character of Maria as a beautiful, selfless and help-ful young woman in love with his American protago-

AN im-pressive selection of snaps by top US p h o t o g -r a p h e r L a r r y Fink is currently on show in Alme-ria.B o d y and Soul covers a wide range of subjects such as Donatella Versace partying in New York, the Por-tuguese grape harvest and intimate mo-ments shared by boxers in Philadelphia.The free exhibition runs until July 15 at the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia.

Hemingway musedies

A SNAPPY EXHIBITION

A CASH-STRAPPED Spanish baroness is to sell a €30 million painting by British artist John Consta-ble after claiming ‘I need the money’.Carmen Thyssen said she had decided to auction The Lock after struggling with

Thyssen says adios to Constable

the huge expense of main-taining her €100 million collection, part of which is on display in Malaga.The Baroness bought the masterpiece for €13.3 mil-lion in 1990, at the time a world record price for any British work of art.

The painting - which de-picts a man operating a wooden canal lock - will be auctioned at Christie’s in London on July 3 after previous attempts to sell it failed.“I need the money, I really need it, I have no liquid-ity,” Thyssen said.“I am very austere with my life, but to maintain the collection requires lots of costs.

Pain“I have had €790 million of art work lent for free to the Spanish state over the last 13 years.“I did not want to sell this. “It has given me a lot of pain to lose this painting that myself and my hus-band bought at an auction in 1990, but if God chooses I will not have to sell any more,” she added.The Lock was finished in 1824 and is the last of The Stour Series, which in-cludes Constable’s famous work The Hay Wain.

LEGACY: Maria Sans

nist Robert Jordan.Sans had kept her acquain-tance with Hemingway qui-et until a Catalan researcher established the link in 1996.

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WHEN the Catalan government let Google Translate loose on its web-

site last month, the results produced in English were hi-larious.As reported in the Olive Press, and to the delight of Spain’s national press, current presi-dent Artur Mas – who ironi-cally is fluent in English – ap-peared as ‘President More’.Former president Josep Tar-radellas puzzlingly became ‘George Washington’, and ag-riculture minister Josep Ma-ria Pelegri was side-splittingly introduced as ‘Joseph and Mary Pilgrim’.The Catalan government was quick to justify its actions.It said Google’s automatic translation was only provided as an interim measure while the funds were gathered to translate the government’s new websites properly. “In the meantime we thought it would be useful to provide a link to Google Translate,” a spokesman told the Olive Press. “None of the errors were hosted on the government’s servers, nor had they been translated by the government itself,” he continues, adding that the pages were removed as soon as the errors became apparent.But the damage had been done, with one commentator

LOST IN TRANSLATIONEloise Horsfield looks at the perils of making mistakes in a foreign language and why it pays to get a translation right…

suggesting it was ‘pathetic’ that a public body should use a free online translation service such as Google Trans-late.So, how does this automatic translator work and is it use-ful?“Google Translate works with-out the intervention of human translators, using state-of-the-art technology instead,” explains a Google spokes-man. “It looks for patterns in hun-dreds of millions of docu-ments to help decide on the best translation. “Since the translations are generated by machines, not all translations will be perfect and sometimes there will be mistakes.” This is a bit of an understate-ment really, as will be testi-fied by most people who have used the service. “Japan’s imperial family, and benevolent Prince died on the 6th,” starts an English Google translation of a random ar-ticle on World Journal, a Chi-nese news website. “He is a cousin of Emperor Akihito, close to the people the image of Japanese na-

tionals praise, because the bodily functions of cancer failure and died at the age of 66,” it continues confusingly.So while Google Translate may be useful for getting the

gist of a text in an unfamiliar language, to rely on it would be a little foolish to say the least.As Aine O’Connell, a Mijas-based translator from Ire-

land, says: “If Google Trans-late (or any other statistically-based machine translation service for that matter) had any hope of translating a text accurately, why would anyone

spend four or five years study-ing to become a professional translator?”O’Connell, 32, who translates from French and Spanish into her native English, says that no matter how hi-tech they seem, machines will never be able to replace human trans-lators.“To translate well you need to know the context and the tone,” she explains. “Furthermore, look at how many homographs (words that are written the same but have several different mean-ings) we have in the English language. “A machine could never pos-sibly detect the individual meanings for all these cor-rectly.”Which is why, thankfully, most reputable bodies and compa-nies are aware of the need to pay to get the job done prop-erly.And it seems it is big busi-ness – with translation com-panies like O’Connell’s, AOD Translation Group, charging anything between four and 13 cents per word depending on the type of text.Indeed, the European Union’s

WHICH LANGUAGE?: Unicaja bank certainly fails to speak English properly

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A hefty readA BOOKSHOP that prices second-hand books accord-ing to their weight has been opened by a group of friends in Madrid.The store - run from an old poultry stall in San Fernando market - sells the tomes at €10 a kilo, focusing on the value of the materials rather than the content.We looked around, and saw that in Spain there was nothing else like this,” said bookseller Raquel Olozaga.

Worldly WomenA NEW exhibition charting the role of women in Spain’s conquest of the New World has opened in Madrid.They Didn’t Go Alone - at the National Naval Museum un-til September 30 - includes information about the coun-try’s first female admiral, Isabel Barreto, appointed by King Phillip II.Women are thought to have been on two of Christopher Columbus’ journeys to the New World in 1493 and 1497, while an estimated 14,000 women crossed the Atlantic during the colonisation period.

LOST IN TRANSLATION annual translation bill is a whopping €1.4 billion, which takes in a colossal 1.3 mil-lion pages of text and 11,000 meetings.Interestingly though, when the UK National Health Ser-vice (NHS) was criticised for spending €73,000 a day on translation earlier this year, think-tank 2020 Health rec-ommended they use free in-ternet translation software in order to cut costs.But, as the Catalan govern-ment can testify, this would be asking for trouble – espe-cially when you consider the sorts of texts the NHS needs to translate. It might be a matter of life or death!

A sign on a Malaga motorway

can be seen advertising ‘locals

for sale or rent’.

For less serious texts though, it may seem unnecessary to spend so much money on translation.Tourism literature, for exam-ple, is unlikely to be technical jargon or complicated medi-cal terms. But sadly, this attitude means that many documents pub-lished in Spain aimed at English tourists have got ‘I’ve been translated by a Span-iard’ written all over them, with tell-tale mile-long sen-tences and baffling descrip-tions aplenty.As it says on the sports sec-

tion of the Junta website, andalucia.org: “The follow-ing list of sporting events are mostly considered to be of a great importance because they represent abroad the Andalusia Tourism Brand, economically invigorate the Community and also encour-age sport practice.” It struggles on: “Besides, they have a great capacity to attract tourism, as well as a wide national and interna-tional media coverage. Thus it is considered to be of great interest their publication and dissemination in Andalusia Tourist community.”The Olive Press has a hunch this may have been written by a non-native English speaker.Which begs the question – are Spaniards under the false

belief that, with a little Eng-lish, they are capable of deliv-ering a satisfactory version of their native Castilian?“It’s a case of someone say-ing, ‘my cousin can do that – he speaks English because he spent three months in Ox-ford’,” says Lenox Napier, a journalist based in Mojacar who was left bewildered when he received correspon-dence from his bank, Uni-caja, proudly stating: ‘Now we speak the same language yours’. “They never think to get a proper translator in,” he adds.Another example can be seen on a sign on a Malaga motorway advertising ‘locals for sale or rent’ – leaving the reader wondering what exact-ly the services on offer are.As O’Connell confirms, the only way of getting the job done properly is to get a na-tive speaker to carry out the translation. “It is probably the MOST im-portant requirement. “A non-native, no matter how fluent and immersed in the target language they are, can never truly write like a native. “Even if a sentence is gram-matically correct, a native simply knows when it doesn’t sound right.”

Book exchangeBOOKS4SPAIN has joined forc-es with the Instituto Cervantes in London.The online bookshop will be working to promote the Institute and will be offering members reg-ular discounts and special offers.“Like the Instituto Cervantes, Books4Spain is committed to pro-moting Spain, its culture, history, literature and language via books and eBooks and we are looking forward to working with the Instituto Cervantes London on a number of ini-tiatives,” said owner Rod Younger.

LINGUISTS: Translator Aine O’Connell, Catalan president Artur Mas and journalist Lenox Napier and (top) a bizarre translation seen on the Costa del Sol

44 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012la cultura44

A TRIO of men has succeed-ed in smashing negative ste-reotypes about Andalucians – at least on the Spanish version of Google.The region has long been associated with laziness and backwards thinking, per-haps due to its rural lifestyle and scorching tempera-tures.But in April this year, three Marbella-born men decided they were tired of it.The team, who all work in advertising, found when they typed in the words los andaluces son (Andalucians are…), the search engine’s autocomplete function sug-gested words such as ‘lazy’, ‘stupid’, ‘illiterate’ and ‘false’.As these adjectives are se-lected automatically de-pending on previous search-es, Habacuc Rodriguez, Fer-nando Munoz and Antonio Cabello decided to launch a website to help change the results of future searches.“Our challenge is to clean up the online reputation of An-dalucians,” Rodriguez, 31, told the Olive Press.L o s a n d a l u c e s s o n . c o m works by encouraging visi-tors to click on an icon that triggers a fresh Google search saying Andalucians are, for example, ‘hardwork-ing’, ‘incredible’, ‘creative’, ‘sporty’, ‘strong’, ‘special’,

Are Andalucians lazy and stupid?

Three Marbella men launch campaign

to replace negative adjectives in Google

with more positive ones – but admit there is still work to be done

‘original’ and ‘the best’.These searches all go into Google’s memory bank, meaning subsequent searches will produce more positive results.And the results have been impressive.Within a week 30,000 peo-ple had contributed, and in

a month the figure had risen to 150,000 with contribu-tors as far away as Ghana and Australia defending An-dalucians’ name.Just two months after the launch, the Olive Press can confirm that the words ‘cre-ative’ ‘happy’ and ‘original’ are now appearing on at

least the Spanish version of Google.“We have managed to change Google.es 100 per cent, but Google.com is not quite there yet,” said Rodri-guez.He admitted that their ef-forts are just a small step in the fight to combat the

negative image the region has across the world.“For this we would need another type of campaign which targets all those mov-ers and shakers who spout out completely unfounded negative comments and generalisations about Anda-lucians,” he said.

Starlite-studded

SPANISH crooner Julio Iglesias and British co-median Hugh Laurie are among the top interna-tional stars set to perform at the Starlite Festival in Marbella. Last week Iglesias (above) spoke of his undying motivation to make music after 43 years, saying he will rest in 30 years’ time when he is ‘on the other side’.“If I didn’t sing, what would I do?” the 68-year-old said in Marbella. “I don’t know how to do anything else.”George Benson, Simple Minds, Paul Anka, Tony Bennett and Roger Hodg-son from Supertramp will also appear at La Cantera de Naguales from July 13 to August 14. Tickets from €40 avail-able from Ticketmaster and El Corte Ingles.

45www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012la cultura 45

“AH, the beautiful senora Twead,” said the Mayor. He lifted my

hand and brushed it with his lips. “I am most contented to see you here. And your hus-band?”“Er, Joe’s very sorry not to be here, he’s busy tonight.”“No pasa nada,” he said, and then leaned in close. “You, Veectoria, are a spe-cial guest, very special. And I have gifts for you.” He felt in a pocket and drew out a party political lighter and pen. He pressed them into my hand and closed my fingers around them, one by one.“Thank you very much,” I said, thoroughly uncomfortable. “Er, please call me Vicky.”“Ah, Veeky… Such a beautiful name…” He had the Andalu-cian’s usual problem with the letter ‘v’, so my name sound-ed more like ‘Beaky’. “Is that you, Vicky?” shouted a voice. Never had I been more pleased to hear Judith’s sten-torian voice.“Judith, how lovely to see you here!” I meant it from the bot-tom of my heart. My relief was palpable.“Pancho, you old devil!” roared Judith, joining us. “Put Vicky down, and tell me, how’s that lovely wife of yours? And those strapping sons? Lord! How many grand-children have you got now?”The Mayor released my hand as though it had become red hot, turned on his heel and melted away. “Ghastly old sleaze-bag, isn’t he?” said Judith.“Are you going to vote for Pan-cho?” I asked, curious.“Bless you, m’dear! Pancho Pinochet? Of course not! He’s made a bloody pig’s ear of his last term of office. Shan’t be voting for him again.”“Well, he seems to have a lot of supporters here tonight,” I said, looking around at the milling crowd.“Good Lord, dear. They’re

A vote of confidenceVictoria Twead gets to grips with small town Spanish politics in the latest extract from her book Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools…

not here to support Pancho! They’re here for the free food and drink.”The time had come. Pancho stepped up onto a wooden box, cleared his throat and launched into his election speech.I understood very little of the meaning, but the tone and cadence were familiar. It could have been a political speech delivered anywhere in the world - the same rheto-ric, the same repetitions, the same delivery. I allowed Pancho’s words to wash over me, just picking out a few key words now and then. Did I hear him mention that old promise of a proper sewage disposal plant? “Beaky? You understand what I am saying?” The Mayor had broken into English and was addressing me over the crowd.I jumped; appalled that he was singling me out. One hundred heads swivelled in my direction. I nodded franti-cally, and Pancho continued with his speech, satisfied that I appreciated the finer points of Sewage Management. I tried to shrink myself, but I was taller than most of the Spanish present. “Beaky, you agree with my point?” Pancho’s thunderous voice assailed me again. My face glowed crimson. Again, a hundred pairs of eyes turned and bored into me. Again, I nodded like a pis-ton, willing him to leave me alone.Judith saved me this time. In Spanish, she shouted, “Pancho, never mind all that! What about the swimming pool you promised us three years ago? Still waiting, you know!” The resulting buzz of assent deflected the crowd’s inter-

est away from me for just long enough. There were four ornamental trees planted in the square, and I slid behind the near-est. The crowd had settled down again, and Pancho re-launched, his voice echoing around the square. All too soon, I heard him break into English again.“Beaky? BEAKY?” Alas, there was no escape. “Beaky, it is important to keep the roads into both villages mended, no?” I poked my burning face out from behind the tree and nodded furiously.Mercifully, the speech ended soon after. Pancho gathered himself up and delivered his final punch line, a rousing question that I understood and rang in all the listeners’ ears.“So, would YOU trust the oth-er Party to make these CRU-CIAL decisions?” Silence. Then Uncle Felix’s mule, who was tethered nearby, lifted her head and brayed, perfectly on cue.The crowd erupted, united in laughter. Pancho gave up and stepped off his box. The Smart Ladies took this as a signal and whisked off the covers from plates of tapas laid out on tables. Politics already forgotten, the villagers surged to the tables, chattering happily among themselves.

VOICE OF DISSENT: Uncle Felix’s mule

46 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

47www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012T Dop ollar47

SPANISH farmers are abandon-ing their olive groves as super-markets and competition from other countries has forced pric-es down to a 10-year low. Bumper olive harvests in the last two years and cash-strapped consumers switching to cheaper vegetable and sunflower oils have also contributed to a 50 per cent drop in market value.At the same time, the EU lifted import tariffs on Moroccan ol-ive oil in February, putting it in direct competition with Spain,

which relies on olive oil produc-tion as one of its biggest indus-tries.Andalucia is particularly badly af-fected, with Jaen alone account-ing for a third of Spain’s olive oil output and 15 per cent of world production.“We can’t compete with emerging countries such as China, India, Latin America and Morocco,” said Luis Carlos Valero, an olive grow-ers’ representative in Jaen.“There are many sellers but few buyers. “If you’re unemployed you

Olive producers feel the squeeze

have no money, but in the olive oil business it costs you money to be poor.”Andalucia produced 1.3 million

A GROUP of British homebuy-ers have won a landmark ruling against a bank, which failed to re-turn their deposits.

Victory for investorsBenchmark ruling sees Cam Bank ordered to return down payments for unbuilt homes

By Lenox Napier

The 47 off-plan buyers are now to get their investments back in full, plus interest and damages.

The judge in Hellin, Murcia, de-clared that 55 sales contracts should be terminated due to ‘se-

rious breaches’ by the developer, who failed to build the homes.He ordered that a total of €1.5m, currently being held by the CAM bank, should be returned imme-diately.The group had invested in the de-

funct Finca Parcs development in Agramon – getting so-called ‘bank guarantees’ from the CAM bank.The ruling requires CAM and de-veloper Cleyton GES, to return deposits to the members of the ‘Finca Parcs Action Group’.The judge noted that the delay had already reached up to seven years and completion should not be left to the ‘discretion’ of the developer indefinitely.A spokesman for the group in-sisted the ruling set an important precedent for similar cases across Spain.

JusticeHe described it as ‘good for the im-age of Spain, its justice system and even the financial system.’He added: “It is good to convey the message that the system in Spain works and issues, like this, can be solved fairly”.One buyer Keith Rule, who put down €53,000 in 2006, added: “This is a great judgment and a credit to the work and determina-tion of all those involved.“The wider significance should not be underestimated.”

tonnes of Spain’s bumper 1.56 mil-lion-tonne 2011-12 harvest, but the wholesale price of extra virgin oil is now worth less than half the €4,800 a tonne it fetched at its peak.

THREATENED: Olive groves are endangered by recession

48 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 Top DollarTop Dollar 4840

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AGONY ANT YOUR LEGAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED

ASK ANTLet Antonio answer your queries

WHEN the world’s fourth biggest investment bank collapsed it hit

the headlines in a spec-tacular fashion and sent the world, including Spain, into financial turmoil.The large scale global effect has been widely reported.However, little is known about what happened to the private investors of generally modest sums, who, having followed the advice of their branch managers, also lost out with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The following are a selection of case studies obtained from court rulings:

Case One: An investor with a professional profileIn one of the most notorious cases, which went through the Marbella courts, the court actually ruled against the claimant finding Swiss Bank UBS was not to blame for the loss of €12 million, despite having recommended the buyer to acquire the soon-to-be defunct stock.So what went wrong with this mega-rich land owner? The Marbella court found that:• The investor had a profes-

sional profile, as opposed to a retail investor.

• UBS was not administering his funds nor providing ad-vice, but was a mere inter-mediary.

• At all times, he had been

properly informed to make a sound decision.

Case Two: A savvy investor addicted to emailThis case was mainly decided on the basis of substantial email correspondence be-tween Bankinter and the in-vestor who happened to be a partner at Accenture, a mul-tinational management con-sulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Again, the courts ruled against the investor.In this case, because: • Lehman going bust fell be-

tween the probable and the possible, and thus was deemed an associated risk.

• The emails stated ‘I have substantial structured prod-ucts with Telefonica’, ‘Iber-drola is not a stock share I am comfortable with’ and ‘in this particular moment I would be inclined to go for a three-year BBVA account’ which were not consistent with that of a curious or ru-dimentary investor.

Case Three: A trusting conservative investorConversely, many rulings have been favourable to the investor and have disputed the bank’s allegations it act-ed appropriately. In this case in particular, the courts pounded Banco Espiri-to Santo by concluding that:• The investor was conserva-

tive in his approach to risk-taking and always went with

the advice of Banco Espirito Santo.

• In August 2007, when the investment was formalised, Lehman Brothers was al-ready being questioned due to the advent of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the USA.

• The information in the con-tracts was obscure, insuffi-cient and worded in a man-ner that only made sense to professionals belonging to the world of complex invest-ments.

Case Four: Retail investors deemed incapable of making informed decisions on financial investmentsIn a further case instigated by eight investors, who lost everything through bad ad-vice by Bankpyme, the courts found that:• All claimants were ‘retail

investors’, and the recom-mended products did not fit their profile.

• As a result of the above, and their lack of compre-hension, the investors could not have made an informed decision about the product.

• According to the Spanish regulator’s (CNMV) report, the whole process revealed a catalogue of bad financial practices which dismissed crucial aspects such as the profiling of clients, informa-tion about the products and lack of diversification of in-vestment.

The rulings that have now been analysed (around 35) help conclude that the inves-tor profile is nearly always cru-cial for the courts to decide who wins.Other determining factors in-clude compliance with bank-ing and investment regula-tions, the quality of the infor-mation supplied, the content of the contracts, events oc-curring prior, during and after exchange, the real intentions of the parties as shown dur-ing the negotiation process and whether the bank was asked to provide investment advice or just to provide infor-mation (albeit correct, trans-parent and clear).

Q. I disagree with what someone wrote about me on a public forum. Can I file a denuncia?

A. Denuncias are formal complaints that are lodged with the police or the courts to inform the authori-

ties of an event that has penal relevance, irrespective of whether one has been the victim or not. Unfortunately, their use is abused over and over again by people who have private disputes for which civil jurisdiction is the more appropriate course of action. If the denuncia has been filed to put pressure on someone who owes you money, the authorities will close the case. But if the statement made is untrue, then the complainant can get into trouble. In your case, you can only file a criminal complaint if the comments are libellous.

What happens when you follow bad advice?Antonio Flores looks at what happened to the private investors caught up in the Lehman Brothers collapse and why some were more successful than others in pursuing their claims…

49www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

Richard Alexander Financial Planning Limited is an appointed representative of L J Financial Planning Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the UK. Contact him at Richard@ra-fp.com

As the number of people in retirement outnumbers the working population Richard Alexander considers where their pensions will come from…

What will thebaby-boomers do?

AS the baby-boomers reach retirement, for the first time their genera-tion is set to experience

the down side of the post-war population explosion that they have benefited from for so long.Having been contributors to state funds throughout their work-ing lives they are now becoming beneficiaries and all of a sudden, things don’t look so rosy.While of course it is good news we are all living longer - thanks to improvements in modern medi-cine and generally improved life-styles – it also means that retire-ment income will be needed for a longer period.As we all know, state pension benefits operate on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis funded by National Insurance / Social Security con-tributions being paid today. As the working population de-clines in proportion to the retired population, the money will very quickly start to run out if we are not careful.Already, the retirement age has been increased to help ease the situation but more will need to be done in due course.And with state benefits already falling below a liveable wage for

many, additional occupational or private pension funds are all the more important. Sadly, in many cases these too may prove to be inadequate in the long run unless careful investment plan-ning is built in to offset the effects of inflation over what could easily be a 30 or 40 year period.You don’t need me to remind you that with such low interest rates and long term Bond & Gilt yields, generating sensible levels of in-come from invested capital is al-ready a huge challenge.We are seeing escalating protests in the public sector from people who are being asked to contribute more and wait longer for their pen-sions, but the demographic reality

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Top Dollar 49

Road to Riches,by Richard Alexander

is the same for them as well.If they don’t accept these changes, who do they think is going to meet the cost?The taxpayer of course; but many of those people are in the private sec-tor and are already having to save more and wait longer for their own pensions – should they really be made to wait even longer because they have to pay more for the public sector as well? Ideally the cost burden should be shared fairly – whatever that may entail!Meanwhile reverting to the need to generate sustainable income over the longer term, fund managers are now saying that retirees will have to invest more smartly to secure an

income throughout their lifetime. This in itself will need to allow for capital appreciation as well, if in-come is to increase in future.It will also need a much wider approach to investment, with a global perspective rather than the traditional approach of investing in single asset classes such as equities, property or bonds. While growing income can be achieved from high yield bonds or equities, this may well be at the expense of capital stability. Conversely, the capital stability of bonds may well mean sacrificing income growth. So what is the answer?A blend of assets in a managed portfolio may well prove to be the better solution, with multi asset investments on a global basis most likely to be able to achieve the long term goals of both sus-tainable and growing income.

Spain’s EU bailout

From Page 1

“The bailout is yet another sticking plaster on the euro-zone’s fractured edifice, for which there are still no long-term plans,” said Ruth Lea, eco-nomic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group.Anger at the lack of stringent measures imposed on Spain comes as it emerged Prime Minister Rajoy urged his fi-nance minister not to give in to pressure from EU leaders over the terms of the deal.In a text he wrote: “Resist, we are the 4th power of the EZ. Spain is not Uganda.”A follow-up message said: “We are powerful, and if they don’t give in, the whole thing will go down. It will cost Europe 500 billion if Spain goes bust, and then another 700 billion if Italy goes bust.” The financial markets initially responded positively to the bailout, but borrowing costs on 10-year Spanish bonds rose sharply to 6.5 per cent on Mon-day, while the euro slumped again against the pound. Rajoy has publicly acknowl-edged that the recession will continue to bite in Spain, de-spite the rescue fund easing the problems of a banking sector struggling with billions of eu-ros of debt related to the failed property sector.

50 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 Top Property50

A BRITISH expat whose home is at the centre of a legal battle over an alleged unpaid loan has described the situation as ‘farcical’.Mark Ogley, 50, is fighting an embargo placed on the sale of his home by Ger-man bank Sparkasse, which claims to be owed money by the previous owner.But the marine industry specialist, originally from Cheshire, insists the case has nothing to do with him and that he followed the cor-rect procedure when buying the €280,000 property, near San Pedro, in 2003.“I am stuck in limbo, it is a nonsensical situation that goes on and on and on and I can’t bring an end to it,” Og-ley told the Olive Press.

German occupationBritish expat faced with property embargo after being caught in the middle of dispute between foreign bank and previous owner

A GROWING trend for using cork as a building material is playing a key role in preserving the habitat of critically en-dangered species, including the Iberian Lynx.Increased usage in thermal insulation, upholstery covers and wallpaper, along with a resurgence in cork wine-stoppers, means cork forests are being saved.Farmers had been forced to replace the cork oaks with more viable alternatives such as olives after screw top bottles and cheap building materials threatened the industry.But cork’s return to popularity has meant the forests, which act as a home to the lynx and birds including the Iberian im-perial eagle, are now being preserved.“Cork was used quite extensively in the house-building industry until the ‘50s,

POPPING THE CORK

GREEN: Cork is back in vogue

Roman real estateAS far as garden ornaments go, it takes some beating.A 12th century cloister with Romanesque arches that borders the swimming pool of Swiss expat Kurt Englehorn on his 22-hectare estate in Gi-rona.The spectacular piece of architecture was pur-chased by the homeowner’s grandfather in the 1950s, but has only just been ‘discovered’ by ex-perts.Surprisingly, the structure - compared to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos - has no cultural protection and does not even fea-ture on the inventory for the property.

“They’ve tracked down the previous owner in Germany and asked him to appear in court in Estepona, but he is an old guy and isn’t going to travel back to Spain for that.“They are accusing me of knowing the previous owner and being in cahoots with him over the sale of the house, but they don’t have a shred of evidence to support that,” added Ogley, who shares the property with his partner and 14-year-old daughter.“It’s not like I met the guy in a bar, I went through the correct procedure with law-yers and took out a mort-gage. The problem is that lawyers can only check on borrowings against proper-ty in Spain, not money owed in other countries, so there is nothing to safeguard peo-ple from getting into this situation. It is farcical.”

when oil-based products out competed it on price,” said Allan Creaser, director of Cork Insulation.“It is coming back into vogue because it’s natural and is the only completely carbon negative building material.”

HIDDEN GEM: The 12th Century cloister

FARCICAL: Mark Ogley at his home near San Pedro

51www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 201251

Our African anguish

British couple among 300 investors still waiting for completion of Moroccan property five years after payng huge deposit

Top Property

A SCOTTISH couple is among 300 inves-tors still waiting for their dream home in Morocco five years after parting with a hefty deposit.Craig Menzies, 40, and wife Elaine, 42, handed over €35,000 in 2007 for an off-plan unit at Playa Vista, a large develop-ment on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast.The couple was told the new complex in Cabo Negro – boasting ocean views, a se-cluded beach and marina – would be ready at the end of 2008, with the remaining bal-ance of €44,800 due on completion.However in November that year they re-ceived a notice saying a ‘stop work order’ had been issued by the Moroccan govern-ment. “We understand this was due to the au-thorities being unhappy with the number of properties being built and pressures on water supply and other natural resources,” said Menzies, a software tester who lives in Alhaurin el Grande. “They confirmed they were holding meet-ings with Moroccan officials and they hoped to reach an agreement with them to

recommence construction,” he said.But with still no sign of any movement al-most five years after signing up, Menzies contacted the Olive Press.

Then, in May this year, Pla-ya Vista announced it had some ‘good news’, and that a start date had been con-firmed for July 30.But Menzies, from West Lothian, remains sceptical: “This is not the first time we have had notices like this. “We also received notifica-tion almost a month ago that we would receive indi-vidual packs outlining the details relating to our spe-cific circumstance but so far it has failed to materialise.”

ScamThe Olive Press has since received similar testimonies from several investors in Spain, France and the UK, including 52-year-old Kar-en Cleary from Hampshire who has failed to get her €48,000 deposit back.“I am of the opinion that this is a complete scam and that they should be arrested for keeping our money for so long,” she told the Olive Press. “It’s all lies.”Meanwhile other inves-tors accused Playa Vista of avoiding returning deposits to investors by ‘hiding be-hind an open clause in the contract’ and moving the completion date forward.When contacted by the Ol-ive Press, Playa Vista said there would be options for clients who wished for their deposits to be returned and admitted it could be more ‘efficient and effective’ in its communications.

UNHAPPY: Craig and Elaine Menzies are still waiting

52 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .n Buen aminoE52

A convoy of vehicles without human drivers has successfully completed a trial on a public road in Spain

READING magazines, catching up on emails or enjoying a leisurely lunch could soon become possible while at the wheel, following a successful test of self-drive

Self-drive technology hits top gear

WORLD FIRST: Self-drive vehicles on a road near Barcelona

vehicles in Spain.A convoy of three cars and a lorry followed a truck driven by a human along a 124-mile stretch of motorway in normal traffic, a world first

according to car manufac-turer Volvo.The vehicles travelled at 53mph with a gap of just six metres between them, using a wireless network of cam-eras, radar and laser sensors to ‘mimic’ the leader.The test - carried out on a public road near Barcelona - is part of an EU research project to improve traffic safety and reduce environ-mental impact.

Surprised“It is quite funny to see the passing vehicles. They were quite surprised seeing me not driving the car but read-ing a magazine,” project manager Linda Wahlstrom said.“People think that autono-mous driving is science fic-tion, but the fact is that the technology is already here.“From the purely concep-tual viewpoint, it works fine and the road train will be around in one form or another in the future,” she added.

CHANGES in traffic law will see parents fined if they don’t strap their children in properly be-fore taking the wheel.Under new legislation, drivers with unbelted

offspring will be fined €200 and lose three points off their licence.Under 14s will not be allowed to use pub-lic transport without wearing a seatbelt.The changes come after a recent study found that, of the 79 children who died on Spain’s roads in 2010, 18 per cent had been using their seatbelt incorrectly and 46 per cent had not been wearing one at all.

Belting up please

53www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012GIBRALTAR NEWS36

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .n Buen aminoCThe Olive Press’s monthly transport column

53

A BRITISH expat has de-nounced a car dealer over al-legations of fraud.Rodney Quinn, 59, a former Royal Marine, claims staff at the Sertesa concession in Malaga increased the final price and duped him into signing a blank loan agree-ment after buying a second-hand Land Rover Freelander last December.Quinn, who lives in Velez Malaga, claims he agreed a fi-nal sale price of €35,000 with a down payment of €10,000 and a loan of six per cent over five years.But when he questioned why he had to sign a blank loan agree-ment, he claims he was assured it was normal practice in Spain. “Six weeks later I received a copy of the financial agreement but the figures were not the same as we had agreed,” Quinn told the Olive Press.“The final price was €46,640, plus the registration number was not on it and the car was down as a new car.”Quinn later returned to the showroom to demand an ex-planation but claims the staff insulted him “They just said

Driven todespair

Police called in after expat accuses car dealer of fraud, claiming staff increased the price and made him sign a blank loan agreement

A DRIVER has been arrested after police spotted him snort-ing cocaine while travelling along a motorway.The man, who has not been named, was being followed by officers after they saw him driving erratically along a busy stretch of road between Alicante and Madrid.The driver tested positive for both cocaine and cannabis af-ter being observed snorting a line passed to him by a pas-senger.

BRITONS who dread having to drive on the ‘wrong side’ of the road while travelling between the UK and Spain are be-ing offered an innovative way of remembering.Stephen Ferrada, a car designer based in Ger-many, has developed a re-versible sign that attaches to the dashboard and uses the reflection in the win-dow to remind motorists which side they should be on.The Briton has used his experience working for firms including Porsche and Mercedes to develop his brand, Get-on-Side, which is available in sev-eral languages. “One third of the world drive on the left and the rest on the right, but nothing exists to help drivers safely adapt to opposite-side driving,” he said.“I use it to help me re-acclimatise when travel-ling between the UK and mainland Europe and it is great for the many expats and holidaymakers trav-elling to and from Spain.”

A good sign

Recession takes its tollA SPANISH toll road operator has reported a nine per cent drop in traffic as drivers look for ways to save money dur-ing the economic crisis.Abertis, one of Europe’s biggest road toll firms, announced the figures for the first quarter of 2012 just days after hav-ing its credit rating cut.Rating agency Standard & Poor’s predicted a fur-ther nine per cent drop in revenue by the end of

DRUG DRIVER

‘stupid English, you signed it’ and were very rude.“The salesman even argued he had done me a favour as they are not allowed to give a payment plan for second-hand cars and couldn’t see why I was annoyed.“But I am living off a war pension, I cannot afford to pay more than what we agreed on, and I am the vic-tim of fraud.”He continued: “Land Rover finance even admitted at one point they were wrong but said that I would have to pay to fix all the paperwork.“I am now being harassed by the staff. I am getting eight calls a day from them saying I am behaving badly and that I need to pay.“I just want my money back now. I will return the car.”

FakeWhen the Olive Press called Sertesa a spokes-man claimed the allegations were false. “It is a lie that we asked him to sign a blank document; he signed it in front of me. This contract has everything it should. “He still needs to pay for the car, and the matter is now being dealt with by our law-yer.”Meanwhile a spokesman for Land Rover said it has noth-ing to do with the matter.Quinn confirmed that this week he had been to see the head of Malaga’s anti-cor-ruption department.“They are going to prosecute for falsification of docu-ments,” he said.

ANGRY: Rodney Quinn with Land Rover

DROP: Nine per cent

IDEA: Get-on-side

the year, stating that aver-age daily traffic fell by 24 per cent between 2007 and 2011.

54 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 In the swing of itTHE OLIVE PRESS’ MONTHLY GOLF SECTION

54

FOOTBALLERS David Bentley, Stephen Carr and Michael Brown were among the celebrities taking part in La Sala’s Summer Golf Classic last week.The amateur golf competition - held at Marbella Golf Club Resort - saw teams of four competing for the Sala Group Golf

From football to fairway

Classics trophy.Players enjoyed a prize giving ceremony be-fore heading off to Sala Beach to celebrate at a white & gold-themed party.The winning quartet were: Nicolas Cole, Johnny Lyons, David Mond and Charlie Walton

WINNERS: Nicolas Cole, Johnny Lyons, David Mond and Charlie Walton

55www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012In the swing of itSponsored by

DISCOUNT OUTLET

24 ISSUE 97 - JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2012

NEWS FROM SANTA MARIA

It is with great regret that we

have to announce that our

2011 Captain – Terry Wills –

lost his final battle with cancer

and passed away in the middle

of December.

A true fighter, a great Captain and

TERRY WILLS - RIPan enthusiastic golfer, Terry will

always be remembered by

everybody who had the honour of

knowing him.

Our thoughts and prayers are with

Chrissie and the family at this

difficult time.

WINNERS CUP

2011 CHARITY EVENT

Mid-December saw the

annual Christmas

Hamper tournament.

An individual stableford

competition, over 60 players

competed for the magnificent

hampers.

In first place for the men was

John Anderson with 45 points

off handicap 20 followed closely

by Herbert Raven with 44 points

off handicap 15.

Michele O’Sullivan triumphed for

the ladies with 33 points off

handicap 22 with Joy Champion

coming home second with 32

Christmas Hamper

The Santa Maria Annual

Charity Golf Event was

held on the 9th December.

The day involved an AM AM golf

competition played off the white

tees (best 2 scores count per

hole), closest to the pin prizes,

longest drive prizes, lunch, a raffle,

a grand auction and a prize giving

ceremony.

A full field of 21 four-man teams

made an early shotgun start before

being wined and dined in the main

clubhouse.

The overall team winners were

“The Caddymasters” with a

fantastic score of 101 points

(David Mosely, Mark Webber,

Fernando Ortega and Pepe Gago).

In second place were team “Siesta

Time” with 86 points (Chris Day,

Mike Smith, Tim Swift and Villen

Mehilenin).

Just beaten into third place were

team “Mixed Bag” with 85 points

(Dave Roberts, Andy Walker, Jason

Tucker and Kane Tucker).

Nearest the pin prizes were won

by Olav Maaland and David Mosely

and longest drives were won by

Andy Walker and Greg Peel.

The sponsors are too many to

mention but special thanks goes

to the Management of Santa Maria

Golf & Country Club who again

provided the complete golf course

and all the buggies for the event.

A total of €8,740 was raised for

The Butterfly Children Charity

(DEBRA).

Special thanks also goes to the

10 Santa Maria ladies – organised

by Pat Smith – who devoted their

whole day to making sure the men

did as they were told and were in

the right place at the right time!

Thanks again to ALL our sponsors

and we look forward to the 2012

Charity Event already.

The Winner’s Cup was held

early November. To qualify,

you had to have won either

a monthly Stableford, a monthly

Medal or an Honours Board

event in the last 12 months.

With nearly 60 players trying their

best, Herbert Raven (our current

Vice Captain) came home for the

men with 38 points off handicap

15 and Ali Easter for the ladies

with 33 points off handicap 12.

Well done Herbert and Ali!

points off handicap 23.

Thanks to Glenis Harley who

prepared the hampers and well

done to everybody!

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Pro Shop at Atalaya Golf ClubTelephone: 952 887 702.

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SPRING 2012

SPRING 2012

55

WINNERS: Nicolas Cole, Johnny Lyons, David Mond and Charlie Walton

FORMER US Open win-ner Graeme McDowell is in danger of losing his place in the 2012 Ryder Cup team after missing out again in Spain.The Northern Irishman is without a tournament win since December 2010, a run which continued with his recent defeat in the final of the Volvo World Match Play at Finca Corte-sin Golf Club near Casares.The world number 21 will hope to repeat his 2010 heroics in the US Open this week, knowing that his place in the European team is in the balance. Speaking after his defeat to Belgian Nicolas Col-saerts on the Costa del Sol,

European place in Ryder Cup in danger after new failure at Casares

PAIN IN SPAIN FOR McDOWELL

McDowell said: “I’m dis-appointed obviously, but I’m taking nothing away

from Nicolas, he played fantastic golf.“He’s got a great wind game (there were gusts of over 30mph) and he’s a fantastic talent - I got beat by the better man.“He really killed me off the tee box and flighted his irons fantastic.

Beaten“I would have preferred to get beat with birdies as opposed to pars, but that’s just the way the course was set up this week.“But he had to deal with the same elements I did and that’s life.”The tournament is the only match play event to be held in Europe this sea-son and featured 15 of the world’s top 60 players.

EUROPE’S market leader in Golf Sports-wear has launched a brand new range.Golfino, based in Soto-grande, now boasts a Black Label collection offering the best in premium casual wear.Capturing the latest trends it is sure to be a hit whether you play golf or not.

Fashion hole in one

THE former director of a Huelva golf course has been denounced over forgery al-legations.The businessman has been accused of forging docu-ments so he could take €300,000 in compensation if he lost his job.He has been denounced by Almonte Town Hall, in Huelva, which has now tak-en over the running of the course.It follows another complaint made against Asistencia In-tegral Matalascanas S.L. over an alleged breach of contract with the public company Ex-clusive Donana SL.

Bunkered by golf forgery

UNLUCKY: Graeme McDowell could lose out after poor showing

56 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 40

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57www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012COLUMNS

41

Disgruntled of Andalucia (formerly of Royal Tunbridge Wells)

Thought of the fortnightLAST week, Carlos ‘The Bugman’ told me that cockroaches leave behind a chemical trail telling others the best places to go, y’know, for food, warmth, shelter, etc. That’s like a 300-million-year old Trip Advisor solely for the insect world. Picture the scene: “Going anywhere nice this summer Alan?”“Erm, yeah. We’re going behind the bidet. Ken and Aileen went last week - and loved every second of it” :)

PUT quite simply, it didn’t oc-cur to me that there was such a proliferation of teachers’ unions in the DisUnited King-

dom.At the last count there were 14 sep-arate organisations representing chalk-face workers, though this num-ber may have increased by the time you read this column.But what puzzles me is: Why on earth don’t they amalgamate, cut the ad-ministration costs and swell the membership numbers to gain more clout when they negotiate with gov-ernment? Are they so ideologically opposed

that the Association of Headteach-ers and Deputies in Scotland (AHDS) cannot bear the thought of joining with School Leaders Scotland (SLS) to press their demands on the flaccid Alex Salmond?The numbers presuppose that the National Association of Head Teach-ers (NAHT) has already dismissed any thoughts about integrating AHDS and/or SLS into its ranks or that AHDS and/or SLS members would rather eat their own genitals than join the NAHT hegemony.The acronym for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is not especially at-tractive which might explain why the

IT’S 3pm and my well-groomed body is strapped inside a clapped-out work van. It’s 34ºC outside, and perspira-

tion is seeping from every pore. I look up and see my reflection in the Ray-Bans of a stocky, unkempt Spaniard, who is terrifying me with his god-awful driving. Jagged tools are everywhere including what appears to be a blood-stained spanner rest-ing against my freshly-polished brogues. What’s happening? Oh, that’s right; I was late for an interview and decided to hitchhike!In accepting a lift from a stranger, I’ve done what less than one per cent of Brits dare. But why? In a word FEAR! Movies like The Vanishing, Breakdown and Wolf Creek don’t exactly pro-mote ‘free-wheeling’, and who could forget Rutger Hauer’s steel-eyed maniac in The Hitcher?

Highway to Hell?

Learning difficulties

Association of Teachers and Lectur-ers (ATL) prefers to maintain its inde-pendence.On reflection, it would be impossible to combine the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Woman Teachers (NASUWT) with the NUT as members would spend most of their waking hours trying to come up with humorous anagrams from the com-bined acronyms.I guess that the Welsh Undeb Cened-laethol Athrawon Cymru (UCAC) rules itself out of any marriage with anoth-er teacher union on the grounds that no one else has the slightest idea what the hell it is talking about, let alone what its teachers are teaching the pupils.Despite some glaring differences, I have discovered the one thing that most of these teacher organisations have in common.After following the proceedings of the latest round of annual confer-ences, press conferences, interviews and appearances on various current affairs programmes, I have noticed that, in general, teachers are the scruffiest bunch of people one could ever encounter.Unshaven, unkempt hair and dishev-elled appearance appears to be the norm, and that is just the women.The days of the avuncular chap in ol-ive-green shirt, brown tie and leather-elbowed sports jacket are long gone.I know that there are fashions in edu-cational methods but these people are supposed to be role models for our children (grandchildren in my case).It would be a positive step if they strived to achieve some personal standards before appearing on televi-sion demanding the preservation of their generous pensions or the main-tenance of their payscales.It would be even better if they ap-peared in the classroom looking like they knew how to iron a shirt.

A close shave

In reality, roadside-killings are rare, but horrific when they do oc-cur. For example, take ‘The Alcasser Girls’ case in 1992 where three travelling teens were raped, tor-tured and murdered, in Valencia’s outback. Still, despite the risks, people tend to do desperate things in dire situ-ations.

In my case, I was en route to a teaching interview at a high-achieving school in the middle-of-nowhere. As there was no direct train-stop, I exited at a remote, rural station. Usually, I’m a methodical planner but on this occasion a quick glance at the ‘map’ turned my legs to jelly. How could I have entered the wilderness with instruc-tions like ‘walk diagonally across the woods?’ Even Bear Grylls would be up sh*t creek.Then I saw the van thunder-ing through a sandstorm and assumed it was a mi-rage. The sun had been boiling my brain for an hour and I was just about to put my tie around my head Ram-bo-style! It’s fair to say, I was close to cracking. Perhaps it was this temporary insanity that caused me to flag down the vehicle and accept the lift offered.Talk was minimal during the ride with plenty of awkward silences. After seeing pueblos replace pine-forests, my heart sank as we zipped past a sign for the school. In the movies, this is the part where some-one says: ‘Hey, you missed the turn’, only to be gagged by a chloroform hankie!In an effort to keep calm I recalled some reassuring facts; like how the majority of murderers are known to their victims and how cows kill more people annually than escaped lunatics (so screw you, veggies!)A sharp turn rocked me side-ways and we swapped open roads for dusty, dirt-tracks. As we passed by dilapidated farmhouses and bone-dry allotments, a posh private school seemed an eternity

away. Slyly, I rubbed a few shirt fibres on my seatbelt – like they do on CSI - and planned my ‘exit strategy’.However, before I could reach for my Lynx Java I spotted a couple of respect-able-looking white-washed villas. Moments later, I noticed leafy parks, packed cafes and finally the school.In a matter of seconds we’d gone from Deliverance to Dynasty! As I opened the door sun-light rushed in and revealed the ‘blood-spattered’ tool to be nothing more sinister than a touch of rust. Now I felt like the spanner!

Sitting in re-ception, I imagined Ma-rio’s family hearing about some suited, sweat-soaked R a m b o - i m -p e r s o n a t o r stranded in the Spanish bush.

Heck, his wife probably thought he was mad for picking me up!With my faith in humanity restored, I breezed through the interview and landed the job. And to think, if it hadn’t been for Super Mario, the phantom van man, I’d still be in those woods!As a tribute, a poster of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road will be going up in my new class-room. Obviously, I won’t be encouraging students to ditch their Metro cards or loiter round lonely truck-stops. What I will tell them however is not to be too afraid of the big, bad world. Yes, evil exists, but most ‘moral panics’ in society (i.e. ‘stranger-danger’) are exag-gerated to scare people into buying newspapers. And if they don’t believe me I can share this Good Sa-maritan tale.

This is the part where you say:

‘Hey, you missed the turn’, only to be gagged by a

chloroform hankie

THERE was an interesting

article in a re-cent edition of The

Sunday Times which focussed on the enor-

mous mark-up that the Gillette razor blade com-

pany makes on its range of multi-blade shavers.

The ST alleged that it costs some-thing like 25 pence to manufacture

each of the disposable razor heads that are sold for pounds – many pounds.

These allegations, if correct, are outrageous and another example of the rip-offs that consum-

ers face every day.Personally, I am unaffected. For many years I have

used my Solingen steel, pearl handled cut-throat razor with no need to pour more money into the coffers of companies like Gillette. A few strokes on the leather strop and my razor is as sharp as…a razor!Nevertheless, as a concerned citizen, I have been thinking about lead-ing a protest campaign by the most obvious example of growing a beard. However, I abandoned this idea when I remembered that The Lady Bartie had beaten me to it.

58 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012

59www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012FOOD & DRINK with DINING SECRETS of ANDALUCIA.com 59

SPAIN and France have reeled in their bluefin tuna quotas in half the allotted time.Further fishing of the en-dangered species has now been halted this season in line with new international rules.

NETTED IN JUST 10 DAYS

Fishermen reach their bluefin tuna quota in record timeBy Wendy Williams It comes after concerns over

dwindling stocks have made bluefin, or red, tuna a prior-ity concern for many green groups.Scientists estimate the Atlantic bluefin popula-tion - which can sell for up to €80,000 per fish - has dropped by around 80 per cent since the 1970s.High-tech vessels using

echo-sounders – as well as spotter planes - have made the catching of the fish in huge ‘purse seine’ nets too easy.It means that the whole sea-son’s quota has now been filled in just 10 days. Environmentalists insist this is proof that Mediter-ranean fleets are well over capacity. They argue that the global quota remains too high to allow the recovery of over-exploited fish stocks. This year’s total global quo-ta was set at 12,900 metric tonnes with 5,756 metric tonnes allocated to the Eu-ropean Union.“It doesn’t make sense to allow them to fish in the spring anyway,” insists Mo-jacar-based fisherman John Beachcomber.“This is when the tuna are

coming into the Med to spawn and therefore killing them means less young are being born.“It would be far more sen-sible to have a larger quota in the autumn when they are leaving again to go back to the Atlantic.”

SushiOf the Mediterranean blue-fin tuna some 90 percent is exported to Japan where it is a prized ingredient in high-grade sushi.The rest is carefully doled out to hotels and restau-rants throughout Spain, in particular at various famous eateries on the Costa de la Luz, including La Brena and El Campero.Any boats now caught fish-ing for tuna can be scuttled for up to three years under new penalties.

Fresh fish cuts colon cancerEATING fresh fish could prevent colon cancer. A new study has shown that eating it at least once a week reduced the risk of colon and rectal cancer by an average of 12 per cent.Scientists in China found the risk reduction for rectal cancer was as much as 21 per cent, whereas the reduc-tion for colon cancer was four per cent.It follows previous research that shows countries with higher rates of fish consumption have lower levels of the cancer.

60 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012 FOOD & DRINK, with www.diningsecretsofandalucia.com60

FOR many amateur chefs, the issue of how to tackle the humble artichoke

can be a daunting one.While they may not like to admit it, there are plenty of people out there who are unsure as to how much of the curious vegetable is actually edible.But the artichoke should be celebrated not feared, espe-cially here in Spain, which is

FOOD FROM THE ART’ With the artichoke season well under way, James Bryce looks at how to tackle this curious vegetable

the second biggest produc-er in the world.The Mediterranean staple is thought to have originated in North Africa, but is now produced in countries in-cluding Latin America, the US and China.And with the peak season for artichoke harvesting in the spring, continuing throughout the summer, there is no better time to learn how to cook it.To prepare one, cut off the stalk and remove some of the outer leaves.

Cook it in boiling water with lemon juice. After 30 to 40 minutes, check to see if it is cooked - you should be able to pull out a leaf easily. Drain (upside down so the water runs out) and serve with melted butter or a mus-tard vinaigrette.To eat, remove the leaves one by one, eat the fleshy base of each, then take out the hairy choke in the mid-dle and eat the heart.Alternatively, try the recipe on the next page:

IN SEASON: You too can conquer the artichoke!

Dani Garcia flying highTOP Marbella chef Dani Gar-cia is to design the menus served to passengers flying business class with Iberia.The double Michelin-starred food genius is one of four chefs being employed by the airline in a new ini-tiative to bring the best of Spanish cuisine to its high-est-paying customers.Heavily inspired by Andalu-cian cuisine, Garcia’s menu will include raspberry gaz-pacho, peach salmorejo, Iberican pork cheeks, as-paragus and greens in sher-ry sauce.His restaurant Calima, in Marbella, received its sec-ond Michelin star last year, only the second such restau-rant to win the accolade in Andalucia.

Bullipedia to youWORLD renowned chef Ferran Adria is set to launch a gastronomic encyclopedia.The so-called Bullipedia aims to share Adria’s experi-ence in the kitchen and serve as an online resource for all things food-related.The project, which forms part of an agreement between the chef’s elBulli foundation and Telefonica, has been defined by the Catalan chef as ‘the digital home of every-thing we know about taste’.

61www.theolivepress.es the olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012FOOD & DRINK 61

8 globe artichokes juice of 2 lemons 100g (3½oz) white breadcrumbs 3 cloves garlic, chopped 10 anchovies, drained of oil and chopped 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley 2 tbsp chopped mint ¼ tsp dried chilli flakes 2 tbsp pine nuts 2½ tbsp raisins, plumped up in boiling water and drained 75ml (2¾fl oz) extra virgin olive oil 150ml (5fl oz) dry white wine

Cut the stalk off the artichoke 5cm (2in) below the base, then slice off the top, 5cm (2in) above the base. Pull off and discard the leaves one by one until you get down to the paler, yellow leaves and the heart. Take a teaspoon and gouge out the hairy choke (in the centre, under the pinky-purple leaves). Look into the hollow and scrape out any wispy bits. Using a sharp, small knife carefully peel the stalk and around the base of the heart to reveal the pale flesh. Halve them length-ways. As soon as each one is prepared place it into a bowl of cold water to which you’ve added the juice of one lemon (to stop the flesh discolouring). In a bowl mix together the breadcrumbs, garlic, anchovies, herbs, chilli, pine nuts

FOOD FROM THE ART’

and raisins. Moisten this with the juice of half of the remaining lemon and 4 tbsp of olive oil. Season, but watch the salt because of the anchovies. Take the artichokes out of the water and put them into a gratin dish in which they can sit snugly. Fill the heart of each one with the bread-crumb mix – use your hands – then scat-ter any remaining mixture on top. Make sure that the raisins are hidden or covered with crumbs otherwise they’ll burn before the artichokes are cooked. Drizzle with the rest of the oil and pour the wine around the artichokes. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 for 40 to 45 minutes. The hearts should be completely tender – test them with the tip of knife. Leave to cool before serving.

Roast Sicilian artichokes

62 www.theolivepress.esthe olive press - June 14 - 27, 2012the olive press

Onwards and upwards in 2012 with 152,000 papers (90,000 digital) and around 150,000 visits to the website

each month… The Olive Press just keeps growing!

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Telephone: 951 16 60 60 June 14 - 27, , 2012 www.theolivepress.es

No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the explicit permission of the publisher. While efforts are made to ensure the authenticity of advertisements and articles appearing in The Olive Press, the publisher does not accept any responsibility for claims made, nor do contributors’ opinions necessarily represent his own. Copyright Luke Stewart Media S.L 2012

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Record for Rafa?IT could be described as the ultimate expose and brings new meaning to the term ‘news package’.But a controversial scheme to hire naked journalists has unsurprisingly caused outrage among union lead-ers on the Costa del Sol. In an apparent publicity stunt reminiscent of Kelvin MacKenzie’s News Bunny in the 1990s, a Marbella-based media organisation is hiring hacks aged 18 to 40 with a ‘good presence’ to work in the nude.

AbuseThe work is believed to be for programming aimed at the adult leisure sector, but has been slammed by opponents of the scheme, who claim the requirement is an ‘abuse’. The Malaga Press Asso-ciation, which represents journalists in the province, is considering legal action after demanding the with-drawal of the advert from employment sites.A lawyer has filed a denun-cia against the unnamed firm on the grounds that the job offer - which re-quires no qualifications or experience - is an abuse.

HE may have scored the goal that secured the trophy for Spain in the last Euro-pean Championships.But the only highlights for Fernando Torres during Spain’s opening Euro 2012

match against Italy were in his hair.The hapless striker will hope to redeem himself on Thursday night against the Republic of Ireland after missing a string of chances during a woeful 16-minute cameo appearance. The match was a bad day all round for the Spanish, with players whining about the state of the pitch and fans accused of directing racist chants at Italy star Mario Balotelli.

THE new coach of football team Villarreal has died 24 hours after taking the job.Manuel Preciado, 54, suf-fered a heart attack just

TENNIS ace Rafa Nad-al has won his seventh French Open title – stripping Bjorn Borg of his record of six.The world number two beat world number one Novak Djokovic in four sets in a gripping final which had to be played over two days because of rain at Ro-land Garros.

By James Brycehours after agreeing to join the relegated side, known as the Yellow Submarine.

Newly appointed coach of relegated Villareal dies just one day into the job

The former Sporting Gijon coach had been out of work since his sacking in Janu-ary, following six years at the club.Preciado had suffered a double tragedy in the last decade after his wife died from cancer in 2002 and his 15-year-old son was killed in a car accident last year.One of the highlights of his time at Gijon came in April 2011, when his team ended Jose Mourinho’s nine-year unbeaten home league re-cord when they defeated Real Madrid.Mourinho was among the first to pay tribute to Pre-ciado, saying: “Manolo was always an honourable op-ponent, who I got to know well when he came to visit us in Madrid.

Openness“He had everything that I like in a person and in sportsmen: character, openness and the courage to fight against blows.“My memory of him will be heartfelt and permanent.”Former Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas added on Twit-ter: “I can’t believe the bad news I just woke up with. Hugs for the family of Manolo Preciado. RIP my friend.”

Torrid for Torres

Rafa gets record

Relegation disaster

MANOLO the octopus from Benalmadena Sea Life Centre predicted a Spanish win in their Euro 2012 opener, by dipping one of its eight arms in a jar showing the Spanish flag. Sadly it was not quite right – the world champions drew with Italy 1-1. He’ll make good calamari then.

CALAMITY CALAMARI

Buff broadcast

HomelessAn average of 159 people are being evicted every day in Spain as they cannot afford to pay their mortgage or rent. Of these 82 per cent are living with children.

End of termJavier Arenas, the leader of the Partido Popular in Andalucia, has announced he will not stand for re-election.

Please God80 per cent of Spaniards believe the church should pay property tax, according to a poll by Metroscopia.

Girls’ workWomen in Casarabonela have been learning electric and plumbing skills in a scheme to teach females traditionally male jobs to ‘change mentalities’.

Record for Rafa?

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