Ronda, Spain, Spanish, Themes, and Everything Else

Ronda is well known for having Spain's oldest bullring, and of course, the fantastic Puente Neuvo bridge across El Tajo. Perhaps a little less well known is the role Ronda played in shaping the modern region of Andalucia.

Back in 1918, Blas Infante, a hero in Andalucia, convened the very first Andalucian regional assembly in Ronda, which ultimately led a few years ago to the recognition of Andalucia as an historic nation within Spain, and which put it firmly on equal standing with other historic nations such as the Basque country, Galicia, and Catalonia.

Sadly, Blas Infante was summarily executed (murdered?) by Franco's forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and it wasn't until 2007 that Ronda finally erected a statue in his honour, although the park where the statue stands was dedicated to Andalucismo on Blas Infante Avenue (Paseo Blas Infante) many many years before. Read More

Technically Zahara de le Sierra is in Cadiz province, however our Spanish neighbors assure me the Serrania de Ronda includes most of North East Cadiz province, and anyway, Zahara is only 25 minutes from Ronda so it's definitely within the vicinity. The square castle on the hill was built in the 13th century to give advance warning of an attack by Christian Spain into the territory of the Moors.

Did anyone watch the Wimbledon mens final last night? If you didn't let me fill you in on our evening. Around 9pm we put the TV on, not sure why, maybe just habit, anyway I was flicking channels trying to find something to watch, while at the same time updating my iPod, so I settled for having the Nadal/Federer match on in the background.

Now and again I lifted my eyes to the TV but in truth I didn't even notice the fifth and final set was playing. Anyway, around 9.45pm I was brought sharply back to reality when the entire village seemed to shake with a unanimous cry of joy.

Yup, Nadal had just won. We were kind of surprised by this, I hadn't seen any great buildup here, nobody was talking about Wimbledon or Tennis yet our entire village must have been watching, and when I looked at the TV I saw Nadal lying flat on his back on court one, but then he jumped up and dashed into the stands climbing all over the place to be with his family.

Then the unthinkable happened, he rushed over to the Royal Box and shook hands with Juan Carlos. That's the second time in a week that I've seen Spanish sport stars initiate contact with the king. First it was the captain of the Spanish football team, Iker Casillas, who kissed the queen and hugged the king, and now Nadal has broken protocol and shaken hands with the king without first cleaning himself up.

I'm not sure how Juan Carlos feels about younger Spaniards treating him this way but it definitely makes him look more approachable and I think sends a subtle message to people watching TV that the monarchy are not the distant lords of old, but are in fact real supporters of Spanish sporting prowess.

Sport is taken very seriously in Spain, armchair experts abound, and every major sporting final where a Spaniard is playing gets prime time coverage. Actually it isn't just restricted to sport, Eurovision got the same treatment. With Eurovision and Euro 2008 the various TV channels put together their own uplifting ads that were played ad nauseam. I assume the same thing happened with Wimbledon but I didn't notice it.

Anyway, the upshot is that Juan Carlos seems to be getting a lot of airtime with young Spaniards eagerly shaking his hand (or hugging him) when they win a major international event. Politically I think this strengthens the idea of being Spanish especially within the parts of Spain that are Castillian. As Europe moves towards a federal union I think people like Juan Carlos can be important figureheads for people despite the political leader being a president.

I love this little roundabout in Spain. It's in a small village known as Benaojan about 15minutes drive from Ronda and while the fountain is often working, the other day was the first time I had my camera handy to get this great shot of the water gurgling away.

Now in case you're wondering, Spanish roundabouts aren't all surrounded by flowers, although there is an effort being made here to beautify parts of the villages, but in this case the powerlines still haven't been put underground and that's a slow process in these parts.

The hills you see in the background are limestone mountains filled with caves, in fact the one on the right has a cave entrance behind it that forms an underground river which resurfaces about 4 kilometers later at a cave entrance known as Cueva del Gato.

The bar to the left of the roundabout is the local everything, yes its a bar, and at night the locals go there for a beer, but during the day it also seems to be the village hangout spot and a cup of coffee is not impossible. One of the most amusing things that happens in small Spanish villages also happens every day in Benaojan, and the fountain is the focal point.

Years ago, way back in Franco's day and before, jobs weren't guaranteed and the local employers or foremen would turn up in the village and select the men they wanted for that day who would all hang around here chatting and smoking cigarettes. Well those days are gone but the old men still congregate every day right there.