Well, I am now in Almería, so excuse the clichéd headline. Rafa & I are here for work and will tomorrow and over the weekend explore the area. Despite a drive through some rather spoilt coastline, and the generic commercialism of the Roquetas resort, where we are staying tonight, there was one highlight today. In the lobby of our hotel was Chenoa, 
a popular Spanish pop singer. Rafa of course lost no time to introduce himself and me, and also gave a couple of kisses! Click on her name above to get to her latest music video and hear and see her style.
Okay, now back to a bit of travel journal trivia. Almería boasts the only official desert in Europe. So similar is the landscape to New Mexico or Arizona, in the States, that many western movies have been made here. The famous "Spaghetti westerns"; Italian-financed, European produced movies of the western genre were made here. This weekend we hope to visit the studios left behind after nearly 30 years production. So more on this later I am sure. In fact I am quite excited, as I studied Westerns as part of my Film degree, and I love Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks. In fact I recall making my ex-partner crazy by compiling a special "westerns" music tape, ready to play as we drove through Monument Valley in the USA. So this is like a continuation of my pilgrimage!
Taking of driving, getting here was shocking – once leaving the pretty Costa Tropical, east of Malaga, one is greeted by kilometres and kilometres of plastic greenhouses, 
covering almost every square metre of the coast and foothills of the mountains. The area is known as El Ejido and is the source of employment for the thousands of tired and weary illegal immigrants that arriave each year from Africa; escaping poverty, war and famine, only to be greeted by working conditions said to be dangerous and totally unregulated. Is this the, social, aesthetic and ecological price of all-year fresh fruit and vegatables!
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