This postpartum family bonding adventure has been Sabrina’s dream for the past six years. Our little gang consisted of different personalities, mobility challenges, complete time switch for Ellie, in-laws and new parents but it all worked out beautifully! The trip was everything, and more, that Sabrina (and the rest of us) hoped it would be! We laughed until our stomachs hurt (playing with munchkin), made forever memories hiking through countless mesmerizing hikes. And through it all, Ellie was pure joy.

The Nerja Caves are a renowned massive cave system that were occupied in the Upper Palaeolithic Era. There are hundreds of prehistoric drawings (that we were unable to see due to preservation challenges). It was the only ‘tourist sight’ we saw and it was impressive.

Sabrina, Ben, Ellie, Jen and Fraser fly out of Madrid and are making their way northward as I write. They dropped me off at the Malaga airport where I am waiting to board my flight to Dublin. I’m going to squish in whatever Irish adventures I can in my 30 hour layover. And I just realized that the boarding line I have been keeping track of is going to Turkey. It is intermingled with my now very short boarding line. I’ve gotta go!!

Historical story about the Cortijo del Fraile Hermitage (copied and pasted from the internet).

BLOOD WEDDING

On 22 July 1928 the “Crimen de Nijar” (Crime of Nijar) took place at the cortijo, which inspired Federico Garcia Lorca to write his famous play Blood Wedding, and Carmen de Burgos to pen the novel Puñal de Claveles.

Francisca Cañadas Morales was born in Nijar in 1908 and lived in Cortijo los Frailes. She was known as Paquita La Coja (Paquita the Lame) because of her gammy leg. Some attribute this to polio, others to a hip dislocation when her father smacked her bottom too hard as a baby to stop her crying. Her father arranged for her to marry Casimiro Perez Pino, who lived near the cortijo.

The wedding party met at the Cortijo del Fraile in the evening for the nighttime wedding (traditional in those days) and guests noticed the bride was missing. Then they realised that her cousin Francisco Montes Cañadas was also missing and they worked out that she had eloped with the man she had been close to from a young age. The guest began searching and found Paquita a mile away, with her clothes torn and a bloody neck, claiming to have been strangled by masked robbers.

Francisco’s body was found 8km away at Cañada Honda Serrata (later marked by an impromptu cairn of small stones and a wooden cross) on the track to Los Pipaces, shot three times. José Pérez, the brother of the abandoned groom, handed himself in. He claimed at the trial that he had not pulled the trigger, but would not say who did. Perez was found guilty and given a seven year prison term, but only served three, and died shortly after of typhus. Francisca’s attempted murderers were Carmen Glen, her own sister and wife of José Perez. The killers were hooded and Francisca claimed to recognize the voices but refused to reveal the identities. Carmen was found guilty of attempted murder and served a 15-month jail sentence.

The groom Casimiro was found to be innocent of any connection with the murder. He never spoke to Francisca again and later married Josefa Segura. They lived in the fishing village of San José with their two children and he died in 1990. Francisca lived quietly as a recluse at El Hualix near the Cortijo, cared for by a niece. She never married, and refused to tell her story, despite petitions from journalist all over the world. She only met Carmen once again – when Francesca was very ill, Carmen came to the bedside and apologized. Francisca forgave her, but did not want to talk. Francisca died in 1987 and was buried in Nijar cemetery, not far from her murdered cousin.