{"id":2926,"date":"2022-03-03T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2022-03-03T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T19:00:09","slug":"spain-4-potatoes-pork-paprika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2926","title":{"rendered":"SPAIN 4. POTATOES, PORK & PAPRIKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, we decided to try and get a new water pump to replace our broken one.<\/p>\n

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There is an Adria agent in the South end of town – somewhere.\u00a0 Might they have a Truma omni-thingy for sale?\u00a0 Unlikely, but possible.\u00a0 Just possible!\u00a0 All we have to master is a whole new vocabulary.\u00a0 Last week, it was pneumaticos and ruedas.\u00a0 Now it’s all about a “bomba de agua de repuesto”!\u00a0 Sounds easy until face to face with the engineer.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Similar, but not identical and only half of the thing.\u00a0 Still, only half of the contraption was actually knackered.\u00a0 On the plus side, it was attractively priced at less than a third of the cost of the whole thing back in Blighty!\u00a0 \u00a0On 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.<\/p>\n

So, on Tuesday morning we went back for a lot more arm waving and Google translations.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It transpired he was just another customer, and with his departure we were gifted the governorship of a campervan supply and repair business.\u00a0 Fab, but where were the tools?<\/p>\n

Glenda set a 20 minute deadline.\u00a0 If nobody arrived, we would borrow a new pump from a van and scarper!\u00a0 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!\u00a0 He then spent 30 minutes and got the part installed.\u00a0 Good man!\u00a0 He even refused payment!\u00a0 Even better man!<\/p>\n

Moving on in an optimistic mood…<\/p>\n

Outside the trees are in full bloom by the way.\u00a0 Very pretty against the blue sky.\u00a0 Maybe we don’t need to go to Seville to see the flowering orange trees after all!<\/p>\n

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So, feeling confident, we headed back off to Malpartida de Caceres to check out the promised festival – the festival of the Patatera!<\/p>\n

But first, a few glasses of vino tinto and lunch at a cafe on the edge of the industrial part of town.\u00a0 Cafe Vargas.\u00a0 Actually, the place was deserted when we arrived shortly after noon.\u00a0 So we opted for coffees in the garden instead.\u00a0 By 1.30, things were hotting up.\u00a0 Four customers arrived, so we joined them in the dining room.\u00a0 By 2.00 the place was packed, as was the garden area.\u00a0 Three (very good) courses, plus bread, wine and water for 16\u20ac was a bargain.\u00a0 All was going swimmingly until it was pudding time.\u00a0 Desserts were not listed anywhere but just rattled off by the waiter.\u00a0 And on this occasion rattled off several times, each time more slowly.<\/p>\n

And so to the festival.<\/p>\n

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Lots of people in mainly traditional dress.\u00a0 And they all had baskets of cheeses, bread, cakes, chorizo or fruit.\u00a0 And they were all very keen not to have to carry it home!\u00a0 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\u20ac!<\/p>\n

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This lad was offering strawberries, grapes and other fruits!\u00a0 (Between eating his wares!)<\/p>\n

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And these ladies interrupted their dancing to be photographed!<\/p>\n

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And, not to be outdone, here are the boys in town!<\/p>\n

So what’s the celebration all about?\u00a0 Patatera, of course!\u00a0 Sausage like constructions made locally at this time of year from potatoes, pork and paprika and other spices.\u00a0 Obviously!<\/p>\n

There are more adventures and more disasters yet to befall…\u00a0 see part 5.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Might they have a Truma omni-thingy for sale?\u00a0 Unlikely, but… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-22","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2941,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}