DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 7

DREAMING OF ISTÁN Now it is near nightfall. On a weeknight, Istán’s few restaurants are not so full. But look up into the wrought iron-ornamented windows and quaint balconies of the apartments and townhouses. Families are sitting down to a traditional home-cooked Andalusian meal at the traditionally later than any American visitor can imagine hour. The odds are 10-to-1 that whatever they are eating is more simple, authentic and flavorful than anything you will taste from the most exclusive restaurant. Wander around in quietude listening to those delightful fountains that comforted Istán inhabitants for centuries. Happen upon a hub of activity. It’s a little well-lit joint with a few barstools and a couple tables. The specialty is piping hot pizza with local olives, chorizo, and peppers. Maybe a pizza joint seems out of place in a centuries-old village Spanish village founded by Muslims, but the shop fits in with Istán like cheese and tomato sauce on a six-slice pie. With stars twinkling over the mountains and valleys, make one last sweep through a village of colorful potted plants hanging everywhere and very fortunate Istán inhabitants readying for bed under southern Spain’s enchanted moonlight. Wright is based in Miami. Contact him at stevewright64@yahoo.com

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 6

DREAMING OF ISTÁN

Walk up the steep streets. Notice so many old people walking that the early evening hours look like a retirement village outing. Or maybe there are so many healthy seniors out and about because they stay fit walking instead of driving, downing fresh mountain water instead of high fructose corn syrup sodas. Look up at the Sierra Blanca Mountains or out across the Rio Verde valley. Watch how different the greens and purples and other hues become as the sun softens after 7 p.m. Marvel at that Andalusian sun. In late May/early June, it trades midday intensity for a warm, glowing, photographer’s dream light from sevenish till total sundown about 10 p.m. Wonder along the streets. They are now full of children, families. Many are gathered around the little kiosk selling snacks by the beloved Mirador del Peñón, a lookout point. The air is cool, crisp, fresh and more pure than the auto exhaust fume-choked winds off the sea below. Walk back up the hill and a cathedral bell rings. It’s the real thing, coming from the beautiful Baroque-steepled Iglesia de San Miguel – a parish church built in the 16th century on orders of the archbishop of Sevilla and named for the village’s patron saint (not the popular on-tap cerveza of the same name).

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 5

DREAMING OF ISTÁN Back at the bar, have a little piece of bread with some meat and cheese. Rejoice in the fact that the no-name place has just a few tapas to offer. A Chinese menu-length list of offerings would be suspect, no? Settle up with the barkeep and walk over to Fuente y Lavadero El Chorro, an historic water fountain and washing area that has become the emblem of Istán. Study the large number of irrigation channels that flow through the town. They date back to the ingenious Moors who used them as a watering system for domestic and agricultural use. Stop and look everywhere you go. The terraced nature of the Andalusian hillside village means that there often is a street one level above you and more on the levels below. Gaze up at the rooftops. There is laundry hanging on a line and it isn’t something from a movie set, it’s the real deal. Check out all those TV antennas. Look the other direction, at the street overhead. Kids are playing some kind of game created on the spot that involves a soccer ball and apartment walls in a sunlit crook of a dead end street.

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 4

DREAMING OF ISTÁN Leave the rental car at the informal car park where route MA-427 deposits motorists near the center of town. Walk in late in the afternoon and join the villagers in a meandering pilgrimage to one of the handful of small bares (bars). The summer sun is still hot, so seek comfort in a little corner place that serves delightful cañas – little six ounce beers – of the ever-present Cruzcampo or the equally popular San Miguel. If you want to visit the post office, or buy some dry goods or visit a bakery – do so early. Nearly all the shops and services in Istán shut down at a very early and civilized hour. While the strip mall and ‘round the clock convenience store world predominates less than a half hour’s drive away, Istán remains magically insulated from the modern-day horrors of traffic jams leading in and out of soulless places. If there is a store, restaurant or service connected with any national or multinational brand, it must have hidden itself well – because Istán is a small scale place where mom and pop shops rule the roost.

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 3

DREAMING OF ISTÁN There is a nice inn on the outskirts of town, a few named restaurants within, a 500-year-old church and some famous fountains all about – but Istán isn’t the kind of place with “must see” sights. For those who like to explore via checklist, who like to pinball from Point A to Point Z with a set itinerary of famous places and memorized addresses, Istán isn’t worth the 15 kilometer drive from the N-340 main road. If tapas bars with printed menus – in English – are a must, head to Mijas – a beautiful place nearly destroyed by hundreds of look-alike souvenir shops, restaurants shamefully serving British grub instead of local seafood and the endless roar of custom coaches disgorging hordes of folks on guided tour holiday. Istán is for people who see streets too narrow for cars and jump for joy. Istán is for those who stroll into town with barely a toddler’s command of Spanish and look forward to a short conversation with the local’s en español. Istán is for those who like steep hills and dead end streets and the thrill of getting lost – though you can’t lose your way for very long in a town with only a few dozen streets.

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 2

DREAMING OF ISTAN After a mid-16th century rebellion by the Moriscos – Muslim converts to Christianity – was quashed by the Castille Crown, King Felipe II repopulated Istán with settlers from Murcia who spoke the panocho dialect. Inhabitants of Istán are still known as panochos. While leaving the sprawling and overpopulated greater Marbella, the curving road to Istán passes farm too many cranes building far too many English-designed, yet supposedly Spanish-style villas. Eventually, the twisting ribbon of roadway outdistances urbanization and gives way to the open spaces that characterize the entranceway to the Sierra de las Nieves natural park. The pristine park serves as both a Spain-designated hunting reserve and a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve. Tension eases and blood pressure calms as your pocket-sized European rental car makes its final spiraling journey into Istán and its stunning vistas. Everywhere in the city, the sound of soothing water can be heard. Translators of languages used in pre-Roman times say the word Istán meant “spring,” or “pass of the waters.” Natural springs feed the city and fountains flow with ice cold, pure mountain water all about. Even with a nearby reservoir supplying modern-era piped in water, many locals can be seen filling up water jugs at public fountains adorned in colorful Andalusian tiles.

DREAMING OF ISTÁN -- part 1

DREAMING OF ISTÁN

By Steve Wright

Your friends will not believe you. You will tell them that there is an unspoiled piece of Andalusian charm left in the Malaga province. They will scoff. Costa del Sol has been ruined by gray apartment towers, ex-pat pubs, retailed-to-death roads and faux villas on every terraced hillside, they will tell you. The coast has been corrupted and even the famed whitewashed villages in the hills have traded tradition for tour buses, they will remind you. But there is a place where old people still gather to watch the sun set over the mountains. There is a village that proudly has a population well under 2,000. There is a village where locals still outnumber tourists by a large margin, where the taverns don’t even have signs, where the streets are so narrow that nearly all the cars are parked on the outskirts. Istán is the last holdout of tranquility in an area ridiculed for pompous Puerto Banus and paunchy, over the hill Marbella. Founded in the 1448 by Muslims taking refuge from a defeat at the hands of a Christian Army, Istán still boasts whitewashed houses, Arabic roof tiling and narrow streets of its beginnings more than 500 years ago.