Mercado al recinto ferial

There was a diversion on my usual route into the office this morning, and this led me to drive past the long open space, adjacent to the arroyo about half a mile from St Andrew's, labelled 'Recinto Ferial' on the town map, which translates into English as a fairground enclosure. It's the site of the Tuesday open air mercado. It's about three hundred yards wide and over half a mile in length, with three parallel roads servicing areas where stalls can be erected. Clothes, shoes, bags and accessories account for eighty per cent of the stalls, with once central section of about two hundred and fifty yards dedicated to a double row of fruit and veg stalls. I immediately abandoned the idea of going to Malaga, parked the car and walked back to visit the market. It was absolutely packed with people. This is the view back to the entrance from half way in.

It was a bright sunny day with a cold breeze. You could tell the Spaniards out shopping as they tended to wear more clothes - some with top coats, hats and scarves. The northern Europeans, Brits and Finns - there are a lot of Finns living or visiting this town - tend to be in Bermuda shorts, and maybe a pullover, more lightly dressed. The surface of the recinto is tarmacked smoothly, and this makes it easy for the considerable number of people using mobility scooters or wheelchairs. This is costa geriatrica as well as Costa del Sol. At the top end of the recinto there are a series of smallish buildings which serve as club houses for social and cultural organisations, several of them musical.

This, I believe is the place where last week's charity flamenco concert, which I couldn't get to, happened. At each intersection of service roads there were roundabouts containing iron-work sculptures with a musical or entertainment theme. This is clearly where it all happens.

I noticed the iron guitar had a broken top E string. I wondered if this was the result of exposure to the air or to vandals, or was it like this by artistic design? Top E strings break, not infrequently, when the instrument is being played loud and energetically. 

I love wondering around at markets like this, although I rarely look at stuff for sale. It's the abundance and variety of the food stalls that fascinate me. Here's just a couple of shots that gave me pleasure. First the olives, nuts and spices.

Then another to represent the scores of fruit 'n veg stalls.

After lunch I walked down the promenade to where the arroyo meets the sea, and the next stretch of beach begins - playa San Francisco aka los Pacos (Paco being the nickname for anyone called Francis in Spanish). A few days ago I noticed a family tiny birds picking insects from the sand, and wanted to see if I could get a decent enough photo to identify them. I didn't think much of the photo I got, but at least I was able to identify them as Dunlin in winter plumage.