Another week in Los Llanos

and yet another busy one. Meetings with developer, 3 quizes and a local guided walk together with the normal shopping, Spanish lessons and housekeeping (which unfortunately still has to be done).

6 weeks have now passed since we left the UK but we feel as if we have been here for longer. The weather has cooled slightly over the past 2 days although the days are warm enough to sit in tshirt and shorts, the evenings are cooler and require long sleeves and even a cardigan when venturing out. The thermometer shows the temperature at 16.8 outside at the moment so its still not cold.

Wednesday saw us taking part in a new venture - a guided walk. We have been for many walks in the local vicinity but have tended to go where the tracks and roads take us but thought it would be an idea to join in a group walk and find some new places to visit. It also acts as a social gathering which is its main function. We started in the newer part of La Alfoquia and circumnavigated the village and walked across the rambla to the adjacent village of Zurgena after which the municipality is named. Everybody stopped for coffee here - except us as we thought that if we stopped we may not get going again so we continued and returned to La Alfoquia via the main road which runs across the rambla via a lengthy bridge. At the end of the bridge we stopped to watch a local farmer and 2 helpers stripping the olives off the trees into nets which had been layed on the ground around the trees.

We have found that much of Spain still sets store by labour intensive methods. In fact the main trunk road which passes nearby is being upgraded at the moment and there are many individuals being utilised as crossing guards where the works traffic has to cross the public road. Another example of this is a young man who has been pruning the local trees. In many places around here the main streets are lined with palm trees and as they grow up they have to be trimmed as the trunks become quite rough. Over the past few weeks as we have passed through La Alfoquia we have watched a young man painstakingly trim trunks. He doesn't have many of the main street in Alfoquia left to do but I'm sure he will work on some of the other streets when these ones are finished.

Out here the local unemployed people are put to work on local projects - we have seen a team of people in Arboleas restoring the local church helped by a group of youngsters who have not got jobs so they 'earn' their benefits. So there is always much of this type of work going on - at the same time they are working alongside specialist people and picking up skills which they would otherwise have missed. Alot to be said for the experience and discipline of earning rather than just being given. ( Sorry will now get off the old soapbox).