The old road to Maro

This morning I walked into town and visited workers in the church shop. After lunch, I walked out to the pueblo de Maro along the old N340a road. Amazing to think this was the coastal trunk road until thirty years ago. The road has been straightened and modernised with roundabouts added outside Maro. I drive this way to reach the new N340/A7 autovia to get to Almuñecár on Sunday mornings. This week I saw a small cart drawn by a pair of heifers parked on the roundabout into the village. The past is never far away from modern life in this part of the world.

It's still possible to walk down a section of the old trunk road, now by-passed that winds down past ugly market garden polytunnels to the Barranco de Maro, a steep sided verdant cultivated valley dropping down to the sea. It is crossed by a magnificent brick built bridge dating from the 1930s, when this route was first 'modernised' under dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, predecessor of Franco.

You can see the new section of the N340a leading into the village behind. The behind that is the 19th century aqueduct that irrigated the abundant sugar cane fields which once covered the lower slopes between mountains and sea. Behind that again is the N340 autovia, the most recent 'high road'. In the cliffs to the right of the ravine there are cave dwellings, some of which are still lived in. It's an amazing reflection of the past hundred and forty years of development along this part of the coast.

This is Maro's main street, with a balcony view of the sea below to the east. On the left is the church of Nuesta Señora de ls Maravillas. I'll be conducting a wedding blessing there not long before I leave, which is good, as that's likely to be the only way I'll get to see inside. It was locked when I arrived, early evening.

It's a pleasant prosperous small village, part of Nerja municipality, tastefully developed in traditional style, still surrounded by agriculture, but making room for visitors and tourists. There are modern urbanizacions up behind the village, the other side of the N340 autovia, so it is contained and defined by the agricultural land in front and on both sides.

On the way back I stopped for a while near Nerja's stadium and sports centre, where there's a small part with a skateboard and BMX ramp. I handful of young lads were there practicing their remarkable moves - no helmets, no protective gear, but impressively skilful command of their tiny bikes.