"Ronda - Home For A Week, May 04 -... " a Ronda Travel Page by scotlandscotour

Happy Memories!!!
This place served us well - but was fine because we haggled the price down by email before booking. Facilities struggled, broke and limped to the end of our week.

Our first two nights coincided with a local Fiesta - which provided trumpets, loudspeakers and fire crackers until 4am. We could only laugh - too tired to move or join in.

The remaining nights were quieter, allowing the many barking dogs and howling motor scooters to shatter the tranquility. Its not so much a case of "the Spanish know how to party" - more they don't seem to like being quiet.

This was the only building brightly painted - all else is white. We chose it for its location, availability last minute, booking over the internet - and we liked it having a wood stove! We found the wood stove blocked - sending smoke into the room 'til we resembled the local ham - and then there was no source of firewood - and the only bits I picked up turned out to be cork oak. Cork doesn't burn - its a great insulator!!! The portable gas heater would go out more often than a teenager - and it was cold at night - colder than Scotland, oddly.

The swimming pool was blocked with leaves - too early in the season, I guess, and the barbecue overgrown. A hire car was essential - distances are exacerbated by no pavements, a lot of fast traffic and a lot of small hills.

And the bed! - creaked and threatened collapse - I didn't dare fart - but was glad of the noises outside. The whole week my hearing aid must have been turned "full up".

But I had my wife, Rachel with me - and nothing else mattered.

The countryside around Ronda is beautiful, wild, rough and scattered with crumbling buildings (going up as well as down). Spring time meant a riot of colour with wild flowers everywhere - in between cacti, olive orchards, and orderly farmed plots.

The rural houses looked to fear burglars and fences littered the roadsides - metal fences more suited to a city centre - and open ended - so their purpose eluded us.

Houses have windows barred by black metal grids - even modern ones - a characteristic left over from the Civil war (1930's) - and possibly good for ventilation with security.

The over all effect of fences, barbed wire, rubbish and concrete, high revving motorbikes and dogs, is to give the feeling of a rural area colonised by nervous, paranoid city dwellers, not at one with the country. I don't know the true reason.

Property seemed expensive near Ronda - and many Estate Agents were targeting English Speakers. Few locals spoke english which was refreshing - adding to the sense of "take it or leave it" tourism.

The Costa del Sol, 50 km away beside the sea looked very gaudy, insensitive and sunk under a tide of golf courses, hotels and ugliness. But thats a very precious 50 kms. Ronda hides behind mountains of pine and rock - and though the access road is vastly upgraded it remains a riculously windy route. Thankfully. May it long remain so. One week in Ronda soon passed - and we ventured back to Malaga airport - too soon.