Montejaque (Andalusia)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	Andalusia
Date:	05/11/06 (499 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely village

Disadvantages: none

MONTEJAQUE

Leave Ronda following signs for Sevilla. You soon join the bypass the C339 by a large roundabout where the railway passes overhead.
12 km from Ronda a minor road on the left hand side (MA 501 ) signposted Benoajan. Before reaching Benoajan, the old village of Montejaque is worth a visit, and is Benoajan’s closest neighbour.
The village centre can only be approached by its own short side road, having left the Cortes-Montecorto route at the edge of the pueblo.
As in all the pueblos blancos, Montejaque dates from the time of the Berber settlers (you can still see many signs of this, with their tiled houses etc) after the Moslem conquest. Located in a partially hidden bowl hidden by circular rocky outcrops, it overlooks a small fertile valley of olive groves. If coming from Benajoan, you turn the steep corner, before reaching there, and there you have it.....sitting on the mountains, and that is your first view of the beautiful Montejaque!

Montejaque has just over 1,000 people living there, but it’s ever growing tourist trade keeps the village's economy going. Over the years many of the younger generation have upped roots to find jobs on the vast Costa del Sol, or some just venture into Ronda, it’s nearest main town, just 15 minute drive away…… as this village offers no opportunities, employment wise.
In an effort to encourage tourism, many of the older properties have been renovated into holiday homes and various hotel annexes. Don’t be surprised if instead of being shown to your room, you are given a bunch of keys and directions down a number of narrow, winding streets until you find your accommodation. and not terrific if you are laden down with cases, so, leave the cases until you find your holiday home, then go back for them! Don’t look for a taxi either, there are none. and if driving, you may find you cannot get your car anywhere near your holiday home!!. The tiny streets beyond the Plaza are very steep, sitting on rocks, and very narrow, so take good practical shoes here! Chickens, goats and donkeys are still very much part of this village life and you can still see the older Spaniards walk up the cobbled streets with their working donkeys. You can spend a few hours, just wandering round this village, taking in the Cemetry too with it’s pictures of family members adorning the crypt wall………Then sitting for a well earned rest at one of the outside Tavernas, having a cold drink and maybe taste a couple of Tapas etc……wondering if you will ever be able to climb back up to your own little holiday home again?

Although it can be so quiet through the day, in the early hours of the morning, you are wakened with the cock’s frantic cocka doodle dooing , and it does not stop until it is happy that it has woke up the whole village! (still never found it's whereabouts, or I would have throttled it!) Then the donkey's joins in with their hee hawings! (because this village is nestled in mountains, every bit of noise is echoed!!!)

Now, this has brought me to a very scarey memory I have of Montejaque! I found myself being chased up one of the small narrow streets, by what else? A donkey! This normally friendly chappie had decided to tear down it's fenced enclosure, and go out into the village for a bit of fun! I heard it approaching from behind me, with it's hoofs making sufficient noise on the cobbles to make me turn round, and there I was, facing this grey, unhappy animal showing it's teeth to me! Well, I was not going to stick around to see if it was just wanting to say 'hello' or not, so I headed up that steep hill as fast as I could, with a donkey right at my heels, and the poor elderly owner in hot pursuit of his donkey! Thankfully, the owner caught up with his four legged friend, before it caught up with me! The poor elderly gentleman could not stop apologising, and offered us Tapas and drinks in his son's bar thereafter, so not a bad deal, I thought (at my expense!)! Needless to say, my family had never laughed so much at my frantic attempts to run with a lunatic donkey in tow and it is often the subject of many a joke within my family even now! Oh village life!

If you stay right in the village centre, The Plaza and nearby, you will also experience the loud early morning chattering by the women going about their daily business….and I can assure you they do not chatter quietly! It is busy with local life very early in the mornings!

Parking is not easy and I would suggest dumping your car soon after entering the village, in the broader road leading up to the main Centre, as you will enter a dead end once you reach the Plaza Constitution, and it is highly amusing to the elderly residents to watch tourists try to negotiate the 3 point turn, trying to escape this busy little Plaza, after realising there are no parking spaces left!

The Plaza is a wonderful little place, where all the older residents sit outside their local bar, just watching the world go by. They are very friendly, but don’t expect a lot of them to speak English, like down on the coast ! They don’t see any reason to learn any language either, as this is Spain, so they expect you to try and do the communicating, which is the ‘fun’ part of these little villages, in my opinion! It is wonderful to sit outside these pavement bars, and just take in Spanish village life, what with their whitewashed houses and the women out every morning washing their doorsteps etc! Even better late on at night, when all the locals come out after the sun has cooled down, and the Plaza really comes to life!
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The Plaza itself is dominated by the Parish Church of Santiago El Mayor built on the foundations of the mosque. Remodelled by Don Pedro Diaz de Palacios, the architect of Malaga Cathedral in 1604, the church did not remain untouched, as it was once again enlarged and re-dedicated in 1773. It has a large central nave and was built in the late Gothic style, with a vaulted roof covering the presbytery.’
Now, ask any resident, and they will tell you it is haunted by a lady who visits quite regularly though I cannot personally confirm that, so perhaps she was on holiday when I visited?

Sitting in the Plaza is the three star hotel Palacete de Marara. During the 17th century, this Hotel was the seat of power for the Conde de Benavente and was used when he visited his domain to collect taxes and hunt on the then wooded mountain slopes. The family arms, now decayed, can still be seen outside the main door of the building. I believe it was shockingly turned into a sausage factory for some years. This closed in 1995, thankfully! At the end of 1998, the noble’s palace was converted into a three star hotel, with a very good restaurant serving local dishes. A bit more expensive than the little bars that litter Montejaque but a lovely meal….. and their lamb dish is excellent at a cost of approximately 25 Euros! Nice ambience, and a must for maybe one romantic night out! They speak English in here too, which was nice, not having to stumble through your ‘not so adequate’ Spanish!

On one of my visits to Montejaque, we stayed in accommodation directly below the bell tower, which is home to many pigeons and of course our balcony was covered in their feathers and poop! We decided, as soon as we arrived to wash it all down……unaware there was drought on,….hmmmmmm…….I think we must have brought the whole village out to see what these maniac Brits were doing, and a few of the Spaniards, after a few over-dramatic rants soon put us straight ! In the following days, we realised that the water was cut off at certain times of the day to save what little water they had! This was an exceptionally hot August, and the water situation was dire, so you can imagine we weren’t too popular to start with!

If you walk up to the Plaza, it is lined by a number of simple shops, some of them literally the front room of homes, with their TVs and armchairs at the back of the counter. The local bakery is a small house situated in the main street, and you can buy ‘fresh out of the oven’ rolls and loaves. It makes traditional muffins "Molletes" and traditional tarts "Tortas de Chicharrones" in a firewood oven, but order a day before, as they are very popular, and you might find they have sold out! They are delicious and I had to have them every day!
Walk another few yards up and you have a mini market, selling most of what you will need to go self catering in your cottage or apartment.
Then walk further up still (towards the Plaza), you will get a local corner ‘house/shop’ crammed floor to ceiling with most of your ever day food, sweets, ciggies etc….

Further in the village on the way in, ( but you must look for this in amongst the winding streets!) is the small hotel and holiday Centre of Casitas Sierra where they have Reception and restaurant, with 27 different homes available on the same terms as a hotel room. A British holiday firm specialising in rural holidays has linked up with the local firm and many homes are taken up for two-week holidays, good news for the tourist and village alike . They have pretty gardens leading down to the pool area, and their holiday accommodations range from the older type properties (renovated) to newer versions, and are scattered all around the village starting from around 52 Euros for a 1 bed per night. http://www.casitasdelasierra.com
Most of their 'Casa's', have their own little patio's so there is nothing more relaxing than sitting out on them at night with your own bottle of wine, which can be bought cheaply enough in the local shop (go into Ronda though, to the Cala Supermarket and you can stock up on everything you need for the duration of your holiday)!

The village celebrate The Virgen de la Concepción (Virgin of the Conception) and the fiestas take place from 15 to 17 May and also from 13 to 16 August, and the usually quiet and still village turns into a massive celebration, attracting neighbouring villagers from miles around.

There are competitions, verbenas (traditional street parties), and the procession of the Virgin. They spare no expense and have stalls, Flamenco dancing, festival parades, with all the little girls and boys dressed up in their traditional Spanish costumes! It is a fabulous array of colours! Bands are playing through the streets, and the biggest attraction is a centre massive bandstand in the middle of the Plaza, hosting well known Spanish groups, who stomp out their modern music till about 6am!!
Now if you really do want to have a relaxing holiday here, do not go when the festivals are on, as this village is alive and noisy throughout the nights for at least 3 nights on the trot! Montejaque goes from one extreme to the other! I found this a fantastic time and the open air bars are erected for this fun festival, but be warned, stay away from the Plaza accommodation if you want a nights sleep, during these Fiestas!

Montejaque was relatively unknown until perhaps 20 years ago, then it started building a small tourist trade, and along came with it, visitors who came year after year after that, and eventually decided to buy their own little piece of paradise here…..so back then you could buy an old run down cottage for less than a couple of thousand pounds, renovate it for another 2, and hey presto, you have a lovely holiday home! Now, more and more people are staying away from the Coast and venturing inland, hence resulting in more people eventually retiring in these little white villages! The only downside of this is, it could be changing a lovely innocent old fashioned village into another ‘Ex Pats’ paradise, and it somehow takes the initial appeal away!

Who could resist Montejaque with it’s laid back attitude and the ‘Manana’ approach of many of the these villages! By the way, if you want something done, hope you have loads of patience, as Manana means tomorrow, next day, next week, next month, whenever!

Montejaque is beautiful, with it’s tiny little white washed, steep cobbled streets………….it’s bars and eating places, and of course their excellent Tapas!
It is not expensive either, and if you want to still catch a little of the ‘Real Spain’ then come here! I would advise anyone, as we always rent one, to have a car and make Montejaque your base, and that way you can travel round all the ‘White Villages of Andalucia’ all of them beautiful in their own ways, (Sentinel being one of my favourites with it's houses being carved out of rock), and all of them deserving their own reviews! The scenery way up here in the Mountains is breathtaking, and you can still see mountain goats nestling way up on sheer rocks! It is a Birdwatchers paradise too, with Eagles quite regularly seen hovering over the village!

Cueva de la Pileta (Limestone caves) is only 5 minutes away from Montejaque, so this is worth a visit too
but that too deserves it’s own review!

I hope you enjoy reading this as I am quite biased towards Montejaque, but think anyone who visits, will fall in love with the place, and the people!

Summary: Beautiful white village of Andalucia!