Summer in Puerto de Mazarron
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Thu 9 Sep 2010 08:11
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Summer in Puerto de Mazarron
'Sleepy' Mazarron transforms into a bustling holiday town
when the Spanish tourists mainly from Madrid take their holidays here in July
and August.
For most of the year the beach has only a handful of
people sitting on it or swimming in the sea but in high season it is possible to
walk from one end of the beach to the other under the shade of a long line of
parasols.
The 'paseo'/ seafront walkway which is normally
quite sparsely populated becomes a hub of activity,particularly on an
evening when local people and visitors gather together to watch the
artists draw portraits, craftspeople make bracelets and plait hair and more
importantly to sit, eat and people watch.
The noise level increases with the wonderful hum of
Spanish being spoken. Families gesture and chat over numerous plates of food
,usually fish. There is a great frenetic atmosphere when Spanish
people communicate.
We haven't posted a blog for a while due to staying
in one location. However, we were privileged to be in Spain for the football
world cup. It is not a sport that Tony and myself are really interested
in, but the atmosphere was electric.
Puerto de Mazarron has a residential area of apartments,
mostly 4 and 5 storey's high. The public areas of the town were almost
empty when Spain played football. Groups of people gathered in bars and
restaurants, but mainly in their own homes to watch television. It was really
interesting to walk around the town at this time. The echoes of 'oohs' and
arhh's which came from inside the apartments like Chinese whispers
flooding out into the empty squares whenever Spain had a 'near
miss'.
You can imagine the atmosphere when Spain scored a
goal---cheers, hooters and explosive firework bangs, set off from
rooftops.
So picture the scene when the final came
?----------------------
The tension and excitement was electric with all the
unseen voices and hooters screaming around the town and into the empty public
spaces. We spent the evening in a restaurant with 4 televisions and all local
Spanish people.It was great, only made better by the cup being won by
Spain.
The streets afterwards were amazing. People drove round
and round the town with horns blaring, people cheering and many huge flags being
waved.
We have some great photos which capture the evening (see
below).
We had another interesting time spent on the hard standing
in the marina. We needed to paint the hull of the boat with anti- foul and also
to carry out some repairs. The hard standing area is used mainly for large local
fishing boats.
It was great spending eight days listening and
attempting to speak Spanish. The fishermen bring in their catch every evening to
be auctioned to the awaiting representatives from local restaurants and
supermarkets. From our elevated position ashore we felt we had been transported
to a different place away from the normal marina and into 'real' life sea faring
fishermen.
We watched as large 60-80 ft boats were hauled out of the
water and temporarily chocked/supported whilst local men seemed to
crudely hack away rotten pieces of timber. One fella chipped pieces away as
his 4 year old boy sat in a supermarket trolley beneath him---- watching and
learning the skill for the future. With great skill the men carefully
replaced great chunks of new wood into position adding corking into the joints
with a kind of plant fibre. One man told me it would swell in the water between
the wooden planking and would make the repair watertight. A few hours later
the 37 year old boat was back in the water and the next day continued its daily
graft of deep water fishing/trawling.
It has been an interesting summer and our continuous
efforts to speak Spanish has allowed us glimpses into the local culture and
community here.
An interesting fact which perhaps someone can explain to
us------how are we receiving BBC South East on our boat TV ??? A little fuzzy
but what a signal !!!!
Today we are saying goodbye to Mazarron as we start to
head East------towards Greece. We are heading for Formentera, Ibiza
and Mallorca first before hopping across to Sardinia, Sicily and finally
Malta.
For those of you who sailed both Atlantic trips with us,
you will know a certain name-----Thindra boys and yes they will meet us in
Formentera----can our livers take the strain !!!
So far this is the furthest East we have been and it is
the beginning of another adventure. We hope to 'see it, touch it, feel it ' and
hopefully share descriptions of it all with family and
friends.
All our love
Tina and Tony x x
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