Discovering Antequera

Now we are settled in we went to discover more of this little town with a little over 40.000 people.
Walking through the town we saw many many churches so on the Sunday we went to one of the churches. Strange enough the service was very short and there were only very few people. After wards we went to visit the old Alcazaba castle up on the little mountain. From there we had a beautiful view of "the village". We could see our apartment, the library where we go to school and the 30 churches the small village has!

While eating lunch we heard a noise of loud music and we all ran outside. There were many, many, MANY people standing in our street looking at something. Steven and I jumped up to see what was in front of all the people and it was a statue of Maria carried by many men. It was a procession. There were many musicians who were playing drums, flute and trumpets! There was the Mayor and important people walking in front and there were small children holding candles and incense.... and of course Maria who was obviously very heavy so the 20 men holding HER were sweating like crazy in the hot sun!

We heard there was a special
Medieval market near the castle so we had to go and inspect this too. We were an hour too early so we ate Paella and Sangria (I only had a sip to taste) made in the traditional way. Later the many little stalls opened up and the market became more busy. They were selling regional cheeses, wine, crude ham and there was a stall which only had cakes and pies. Also a Maroccan stall (Marocco is not far from here) sold tea, water pipes and kebab.

Some Spanish hippies from the age of my parents were selling products like buddha statues, books and hand made lamps. There was also a lady who was dancing traditional dances, musicians who were making Spanish music and two men who pretended to be a bull fighter and a bull. They went all around the market putting atmosphere in the market. Look at video!

During the week we met many kind people and were invited to chat with them. The first friends were Marie Paz and Pepe who are our neighbors of the 5th floor in the apartment. Their son is working in Cape Town at the moment on a project to build a fast train. The same fast and beautiful train that Spain has and which they call 'Ave'. It was nice to talk and explain about South Africa to Pepe and Marie Paz and they told us everything about Antequera, the village they are bprn and lived in. They gave us suggestions about the cafes and good shops and restaurants, which was the best church and what special days there are over the next 3 months. We invited them to come over for dinner and  tried to make a Dutch-South African dinner. At the end it became an Indonesian dish, because the weather was too hot for the Dutch " stamppot" and the South African butternut-soup looked like a green Gazpacho. It became a rice table with a lot of different dishes and we found it very cozy, also because they brought very delicious wine and my parent's Spanish improved quickly.

Last week we also had an official bank holiday.....it was Columbus Day. Most shops were closed, the library was closed, so we had to do school in bar " Casino" also the second house of Pepe and Marie Paz. In the bar we met a lot of locals and heard again several stories about life in Antequera.

In the weekend we had a very relaxing afternoon with Miguel, his wife Rocia and their children Candela and Marja (the family who organised our apartment rental). They were very hospitable and we ended up with their whole family; the brother and sister in law, the cousins, the grand-father and grand-mother. The grandpa used to be a famous bull fighter and the ladies and kids were trying to dance the Flamingo in the kitchen. We danced & laughed. It was so much fun that we came home around 1:00 at night.
So we seen that Antquera is not only a nice town, but also the people are very friendly and interesting.

Hasta la proximo semana!

Louisa