Villanueva del Rosario-Villanueva de Tapias.

Dear friends,
There's a lot of new towns in this part of the country, but none of them are what I'd call new. Villanueva del Cauche, for instance, looks like it has been there since the 13th century, and hasn't changed much in 700 years, apart from the motorway running 200yards from the end of the (only) street.
This part of the path is very odd. It describes a great loop running south, east, north and west from Antequera, and ending only about 25 miles north of the town. It seems to have been designed for the purpose of promoting rural tourism to these towns, which, from the tourist's point of view, don't seem to have much going for them. What's more, the route is badly designed so that you end up walking alongside main roads, as previously described, or along endless flat stretches of farm tracks between fields of cereals and broad beans (there's a lot of broad bean cultivation in this part of the world, for making habas con jamon). Today was long and tedious, but for one episode, which made me smile. I was looking at my map at a junction between to dirt roads. A car drove past and stopped, and a man my age got out and asked where I was going. He looked at my walking poles and asked to try one; he got me to talk to his son in English (to the latter's great embarassment), he asked me how old I was, and told me all kinds of things about himself. Five minutes l was in his brother-in-law's finca (a very stylish country house) with a beer in my hand being introduced to all the members of his family. I think they were as bemused as I was. The photo is of them outside the house.
I am currently in 'Los Tres Pollos' country hotel outside Villanueva de Tapia. I really don't understand the logic of prices for hotels in Spain. This one is 40€, for slightly worse accommodation (no soap, no shampoo) than last night (20€). They are playing opera downstairs though, so they're clearly aiming at a more discerning clientele. I will report on dinner tomorrow.
A wayfarer in Spain