Tapp's Travels

On Monday, we decided to try and get a new water pump to replace our broken one.

There is an Adria agent in the South end of town – somewhere.  Might they have a Truma omni-thingy for sale?  Unlikely, but possible.  Just possible!  All we have to master is a whole new vocabulary.  Last week, it was pneumaticos and ruedas.  Now it’s all about a “bomba de agua de repuesto”!  Sounds easy until face to face with the engineer.  However, after a few minutes of general hand waving and a lot of “it’s b*****ed” gestures, he pulled a similar item from a drawer.  Similar, but not identical and only half of the thing.  Still, only half of the contraption was actually knackered.  On the plus side, it was attractively priced at less than a third of the cost of the whole thing back in Blighty!   On the down side, it became very clear after about 10 minutes back at base, that I didn’t have the tools needed to fit the new part.

So, on Tuesday morning we went back for a lot more arm waving and Google translations.  After the first, unproductive 20 minutes of negotiation with the elderly gentleman who appeared to be in sole charge of the workshop, said gentleman got in his car and drove away.  It transpired he was just another customer, and with his departure we were gifted the governorship of a campervan supply and repair business.  Fab, but where were the tools?

Glenda set a 20 minute deadline.  If nobody arrived, we would borrow a new pump from a van and scarper!  19 minutes later we were saved from having to commit nefarious activities by the arrival of the engineer who had sold us half a pump yesterday!  He then spent 30 minutes and got the part installed.  Good man!  He even refused payment!  Even better man!

Moving on in an optimistic mood…

Outside the trees are in full bloom by the way.  Very pretty against the blue sky.  Maybe we don’t need to go to Seville to see the flowering orange trees after all!

So, feeling confident, we headed back off to Malpartida de Caceres to check out the promised festival – the festival of the Patatera!

But first, a few glasses of vino tinto and lunch at a cafe on the edge of the industrial part of town.  Cafe Vargas.  Actually, the place was deserted when we arrived shortly after noon.  So we opted for coffees in the garden instead.  By 1.30, things were hotting up.  Four customers arrived, so we joined them in the dining room.  By 2.00 the place was packed, as was the garden area.  Three (very good) courses, plus bread, wine and water for 16€ was a bargain.  All was going swimmingly until it was pudding time.  Desserts were not listed anywhere but just rattled off by the waiter.  And on this occasion rattled off several times, each time more slowly.

And so to the festival.

Lots of people in mainly traditional dress.  And they all had baskets of cheeses, bread, cakes, chorizo or fruit.  And they were all very keen not to have to carry it home!  Everyone was very generous – even the boys, although they did say we would have to see their wives up the street! We could have saved 32€!

This lad was offering strawberries, grapes and other fruits!  (Between eating his wares!)

And these ladies interrupted their dancing to be photographed!

And, not to be outdone, here are the boys in town!

So what’s the celebration all about?  Patatera, of course!  Sausage like constructions made locally at this time of year from potatoes, pork and paprika and other spices.  Obviously!

There are more adventures and more disasters yet to befall…  see part 5.