Los Llanos is a 2 storey complex of just over 30 units built around the four sides of a large swimming pool. Graham and Myriam's apartment has 2 bedrooms and access to a roof area with views of the surrounding hills. Myriam had prepared supper and it was extremely pleasant to eat out in the open as the sun went down.
Steve joined us - he is one of the handful of owners who live permanently at the complex and looks after its well being. He had visited G&M earlier in the year in South Africa so we had met when we played golf at Irene and Wingate. In Los Lobos he is a great source of local knowledge and language.
On Saturday Graham drove us to Aguilas where there was due to be a large market. However much to Myriam's disappointment there were no signs of the market and we had to make do with a couple of supermarkets. We returned home for a lunch of glorious Spanish ham and salads on the small balcony overlooking the pool. Afterwards Myriam and I walked in the nearby Rambla which is a river valley.
Note Myriam's pink outfit which later became notorious for colouring the entire wash!
In the dry summer months the river is not much more than a trickle and we hoped to see terrapins basking on the rocks. We did see a frog and a rabbit and there were plenty of birds. There are low growing cypress trees and aromatic herbs.
We passed a field with a ripe golden crop which we thought might be wheat.
One of the features of the Los Lobos landscape is the abandoned building on top of the hill which overlooks the village. It was intended to be a Farmer's Market. It looks to me as if a little more erosion could cause it to topple into the Rambla.
In the evening we were due to go to the bar to listen to local group Los Gringos. As we walked down the road we were transported back to the late sixties as a couple of Cream numbers blasted down the road. The band were amazing and performed rock numbers for 3 hours or so. It made me think of Nico, my MD at Tongaat who loved rock and used to have a guitar in his office. The lead singer is a talented seventeen year old who Myriam insisted on posing with. I think she is hoping to sell the photo when the band becomes world famous.
It was almost midnight and still warm when we strolled the couple of hundred metres back to Los Llanos.
Late nights are followed by late mornings. Myriam's shopping bag on wheels was straining at the bit to find a market that was open so we drove to Villaricos. A South African braai was planned for the evening, with more than a dozen fellow Los Llanos residents invited. Myriam was to purchase the salads whilst Graham and I went to the supermarket in Garrucha for tinfoil, mayonnaise and bread. After living in South Africa for so long it seemed strange for us to find that the supermarkets were closed on Sundays. Do they only open in peak season? Our shopping mission was a failure and when Graham pulled up outside a hotel and asked me to run in and buy him a newspaper I didn't suspect any subterfuge. As I crossed the foyer to the shop I glimpsed what appeared to be naked men in the reflection of a mirror across the wall. I thought it was a picture and looked again. There was a bar over to the left populated entirely by naked old men and then I recalled that Myriam had recounted the tale of how Graham had duped her into going into the same nudist hotel last year. As I walked back to the car I was heading directly towards a naked eighty year old who was walking into the door of the hotel from THE STREET.
Graham smiled sweetly as I opened the car door and said that he hadn't been able to resist playing the same trick on me.
We returned to Villaricos to find Myriam with a full shopping bag but not yet finished at the market. She took me on an initiation course of negotiation in pigeon Spanish round the remainder of the stalls where she haggled for clothes for the grandchildren, friends, bridge partners, god daughters, brothers, son, in fact the entire world could benefit from a Myriam shopping expedition. She just loves shopping in the Spanish markets and her generosity is legendary amongst her friends and family.
Graham waited at the cafe in the square and eventually we joined him for aqua con gas and an ice cream. I was fascinated by the trucks which parked at the market whose sides rolled up to reveal that they were giant chicken roasting stalls.
The European Cup had started and there were English as well as Spanish flags on display.
We strolled back to the car and ate lunch in a restaurant owned by English people. Then it was back home to prepare the salads for the evening braai.
The guests seemed to enjoy the tasters of boerewors and dry wors followed by beef fillet, kudu and ostrich meat. But most of all they enjoyed the Dom Pedro's that followed, made from ice cream and Baileys and sipped through a straw.
Another late night......
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Location:South Eastern Spain
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