May 6 - Málaga and Ronda

We arrived in Málaga just around sunrise.  Today was a long and extremely tiring day.  We walked about 6 miles, most of it on cobblestoned streets.  Let me tell you those are killers on the feet!

Sunrise over Málaga

Our tour today took us to the city of Ronda about 65 miles west and inland from Málaga.  Our guide was Nati (short for Natividad) and our driver was Pepe.  We drove along the coast for a bit past some of the Costa del Sol’s resort towns and then we headed into the mountains. After a drive through Spanish fir  and chestnut forests we arrived at the city of Ronda.

Ronda has a population of about 36,000 people and sits  2500 feet above sea level.  The Guadelevin River runs through the city cutting it in two and carving out the 350 foot canyon called El Tajo above which the city is perched.  The canyon is spanned by three bridges.  The newest, the Puente Nuevo, was built in the 18^th century.  As with other Spanish cities it has been under the rule of many different groups.  It was for a time a major city of one of the Moorish kings who ruled in Spain.  Following the reconquest it came to be a center for the Spanish Inquisition.

 

El Tajo canyon

Puente Nuevo

Ronda was a favorite place for writers like Hemingway.  In one of the  chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls he describes Fascist sympathizers being thrown off a cliff in a fictional village and it’s thought he based his description on the cliffs in Ronda.  The city was a favorite of Orson Welles and according to Nati, Welles specified in his will that he be buried in Ronda.  He was cremated and his ashes were interred there.

 

Cafe Hemingway (it seems he was everywhere!)

For Spaniards the city is especially famous for bullfighting.  A family named Romero beginning in the 17^th century began the tradition of modern bullfighting.  Pedro Romero in the mid-19^th century transformed it from just a prelude to killing a bull to an art form with the use of the cape.  Ronda has the oldest bullring in Spain.

The oldest bullring in Spain

 

Al & Ordoñez (one of the most famous modern bullfighters)  Al needs a cape not a walking stick.

We visited the cathedral which was built on the site of a mosque (the bell tower incorporates the old minaret).  The cathedral is built in two styles, baroque and late Renaissance, because portions were destroyed in an earthquake.  There are two large central altars.  One is made completely of hand-wrought pure silver.  The other is covered completely in gold.

 

Silver altar

Gold altar

After a lot of walking we had a nice lunch at a restaurant across the street from the bullring and named for Pedro Romero.  A brief visit into the bullring ended our stay in Ronda.  Our ride back to Málaga was on a different route which took us past thousands of olive trees and orange and lemon groves.  It was a nice day but we were exhausted!  The cobblestones did us in.