The Spanish Health Service
I do not claim to know much about the Spanish health service. I do have some varied experience with the health facilities, though, here in the Balearic islands, and my […]
Smuggling and Contraband
The people of Mallorca foster a long tradition of smuggling and similar activities of concealment. For one, the island has a strategically important position not too far from the Strait […]
Xeremias and Xeremiers
Traditional Mallorcan music is unthinkable without the Xeremia (a bagpipe). Go to any village festa and you will hear them, together with small drums, flutes and tambours. The Mallorcan bagpipe is most likely […]
Wind and Weather
Those of us who are into boats and sailing will know about the importance of the winds and will know their Tramuntana (N), Mestral (NW), Ponent and Xaloc (SW). These are the […]
The Oratory de la Consolació
Santanyí in the south east of the island is a very particular Mallorcan pueblo, famous for artists like Cittadini, Sapere or Irueste, writers such as Blai Bonet, musicians like María […]
Merienda
Merienda is the name of a midmorning snack in Spain. Builders take a second breakfast, as do office people, factory girls, even pre-school children have a midmorning merienda break. ¡Bon […]
The Ariany Fountain of Good Water
The village of Ariany is proud of its Pou Bo, a fountain attributed to Islamic times. The Moors were particularly gifted about water conservation and irrigation, and some of their […]
A Tibetan Sand Mandala in The Making
An exhibition of Tibetan art from a Belgian collection, including some beautiful Thangka paintings, can be seen in Palma de Mallorca (Fundació Caixa), from now until February 8th, 2009. But […]
Grass Slippers
In Mallorca, a traditional craft of making sandals and shoes fashioned of grass, cane, raffia, palm leaves, sisal, bark, agave fibre, or any other odd plant material, strung, knotted, braided […]
The Teatro Lírico
Mallorca has a surprisingly high number of theatres. In Palma alone, there are the Teatro Principal, the Teatro Xesc Forteza, the Teatro Municipal, the Teatro del Mar, the Teatro Sanç and, […]
The Kaki Tree (Diospyros kaki)
The Kaki fruit, also known as Persimmon (Diospyros kaki), is now in season. A few days ago I saw the first ripe fruits locally on this tree; some local farmers’ markets have also […]
The Monasterio de la Victòria
The Ermita de la Victòria is a small monasterio in the north of Mallorca, near Alcúdia, dating from around 1400. The building was restored and fortified in ca. 1700. About ten […]
Triassic Park
Triassic Park is everywhere, including right here in Mallorca. The Balearic islands had a Triassic period, and a Jurassic one and a Cretaceous one, just the same. Bones and shells and […]
The Book of a Gentile and Three Wise Men
The Fundació “La Caixa” in Palma de Mallorca has done it again. CaixaForum Palma gives us a rather impressive exhibition of an extraordinary man, a great mind and a unique school […]
Counting the Pesetas
In the old days – make that ten years ago, or twenty, thirty or even forty – banks in this country had funny looking machines, archaically looking like the one […]
Mallorca’s First Fira de Sobrassada
Mallorca celebrates Fires for everything Mallorcan, from the Fira for honey to the Fira for olive oil, and from the Fira for melons to the Fira for herbs. Surprising then, that there […]
The Mallorca Photo Blog 