Flamenco Fiesta

Blipping this on Saturday morning and despite two very lovely cups of coffee am still feeling, in the words of Carl, over-fiesta'd and under-siesta'd. Friday was a pretty full-on day as far as holiday days go. A windy day meant the morning beach trip involved a lot of wave activity amongst the sand castle building, bat and ball'ing and small amounts of reading. Well, I tried to do some of the latter but there was far too much people-watching to be done for me to concentrate on my book. Lunch was a slightly thrown together (ie empty the fridge of leftovers, jamon and tortilla) picnic but did the job nicely.

Back home for proper siestas so we could enjoy a late night trip to Venta Luciano, our local flamenco place. The evening starts with a lot of food and drink - most of which is cooked for you, spit-roasted chickens, lamb chops, pork loins - and sausages which you get to barbecue yourself. Wine and beer are literally on tap and as it turns out the kids are now tall enough and eager enough to use the taps and serve us beer we hardly had to move at all. I predict once they can do the barbecuing themselves and drive us around we'll end up like the folks in Wall-E, totally unable to move under our own steam.

Outdoor entertainment came in the form of wandering minstrel style musicians with, we think, a mandolin and guitar and singing. They serenaded all the tables with a mix of traditional Spanish tunes, some crowd pleasing numbers (think Viva Espana and Those Were the Days) and a more European mix - Godfather and O Solo Mia made an appearance. Then inside for the serious entertainment. And judging by their expressions the first half was very serious. We have mixed views on whether the distress was caused by the revolution, heartbreak or standing too near bull-poo. Must learn more Spanish!

This is part of the final dance which featured a sort-of "flamenco-off" and all round much more jolliness. I didn't manage to get a picture of the amazing guitarist who not only did an incredible solo, according to my guitar expert (Carl) spent the evening playing both bass and lead on the same instrument.

We went to the same place, the same night in August two years ago and the place was rammed. Last night I would say there was only about the third of the number there which I hope is an anomaly and not a sign of anything more ominous. If you did find yourself in the Almunecar area on a Friday night I would highly recommend it as a night out.

Lesley x