‘BLOOD AND LOVE IN THE SIERRA'

Vina Cristina

Saturday 18th October - We had a truly memorable night! We were invited to Judith’s for dinner at her enchanting cottage ‘Vina Christina’ set in the mountains close to Grazalema, along with our friends Nigel and Ginny, Caroline and Robert, Pam and Chris, Kevin and Yvonne, Michael (our Spanish teacher) and Ed, who is currently over from the UK and staying with us for a while.

Judith lives in London for the most part, so her beautiful cottage is available for rental whilst she is in the UK at very competitive rates. Visit her website for further details - http://www.spanishmountaincottage.co.uk

A view of 'Acinipo' a Roman Amphitheatre

Robert & Caroline at the dinner party

After dinner we all went into Grazalema where they were recreating a weekend of the time of the bandits from the early nineteenth century, which they named ‘Blood and Love in the Sierra’ Probably the most famous bandit of them all was José Maria Hinojosa Cabacho better known as 'El Tempranillo'

He is believed to have killed his first man at the age of thirteen, possibly because of an attack on his family, possibly because of a slight against his mother. He acquired a Robin Hood-like reputation, redistributing his ill-gotten wealth among the poor. Not all bandits were so gallant, but El Tempranillo became a cult figure throughout Andalucía and beyond.

He married a young woman, María Gerónima Francés, from the village of Torre Alháquime in Cádiz region, but she died in childbirth in 1831.

El Tempranillo scandalised the authorities when, with the aid of fifty other horsemen, he rode into the mountain village of Grazalema to baptise their son in the village's Nuestra Señora de la Aurora church, thus the celebrations!

El Tempranillo?

Nearly five hundred residents of Grazalema and Benamahoma took part in this extravaganza all dressed in clothing in the style of 1832.....

A camp of the bandits set of this period of the nineteenth century was reproduced in the plaza and included taverns, shops, farmyards and chapels of the era. The evening finished with us all sitting around a camp fire and being spell bound by performances of flamenco and traditional music.