The vultures are feeding on the living. Does that sound like something out of a post apocalyptic horror film? The reason for it is simple though: any animal corpses left exposed on the Sierra are being buried. The vultures must have been pretty hungry to start swooping down on new born calves the way they’ve been doing.

(more…)

Although my mother always said that one should never talk about politics when abroad; during a general election campaign it seems rather a waste not to mention this most ticklish of subjects.  The first thing one notices about both sides of the political spectrum (if you can call two colours a spectrum) is their similarity to those of England; which are in turn of course strikingly similar to each other. How one is supposed to decide who to vote for is beyond me – considering that all we have to go on are sound bites and platitudes. Perhaps it’s just my poor Spanish, but don’t the slogans, “clear ideas” and “we’re more” tell us absolutely nothing?  During Salamanca’s wild days politics used to be really dangerous. (more…)

Salamanca seems star struck at the moment, what with the recent royal visit and that of Forest Whittaker and co.  There are, however, other visitors that don’t seem as welcome. You may have noticed that the local press prints something almost every week about the rising level of immigrants and foreigners. Normally such articles aren’t overtly negative, but the constant presence of graphs and pie charts demonstrating the ever decreasing percentage of Castellanos in Salamanca is sufficient to create a sense of unease in the most liberal of Salmantinos. Of course immigration is a complex issue; it’s just our responses to it that sink into caricature. Not that I’ve personally experienced any negative aspects to being a foreigner here. (more…)

You must have had that trying experience of being in the toilet when the Light and the hand dryer simultaneously turn off. Naturally, the dryer will have simply cooled your hands a little, leaving them dripping wet – just right in fact to make the task of fumbling with the light switch that bit more interesting.  Life’s like that: the main ingredients of ones existence, job, health, family, and friends  are all in place and seemingly constant, dependable factors. However, they are in fact on a timer. Eventually they all “blink off”. If you’re lucky they don’t all go at once. It doesn’t actually take that much to put anyone in the gutter: the loss of a job, the death of a husband or wife, mental illness.  These terrible blows are hard enough to deal with individually, which is of course how they usually arise. Now and again though someone’s unfortunate enough to experience a dual or multiple “blink” – and the security, comfort and joy of life can disappear in an instant. (more…)

The fact that Salamanca might not get a high speed AVE rail connection has been a cause of much sulkiness and foot stamping in the local press these last couple of weeks. Why would such a connection be good for Salamanca? Well, obviously it would increase levels of tourism and provide a boost for certain businesses. “Growth” is naturally seen as the magic ingredient in “progress”. But is it really? If we measure success by sheer volume in other areas, the arts for instance - then this model seems ridiculous. Using this principle Andrew Lloyd Weber would be one of the greatest composers of all time. The thing is, cities aren’t simple economic equations any more than artworks. (more…)