By the time my husband and I had got everyone out of the flat, into the car and headed for Benalmadena Pueblo it was nearly one o’clock! Tired of having a big Sunday lunch, then lazing around and watching T.V., taking a lethargic walk along the promenade or of visiting the Paloma park, we had decided to do something different with our children. Parking is not easy there, so after looking around underneath the church and passing through the village centre, we went back to the entrance on the Arroyo side and parked nearer to the museum.

Don Felipe Orlando García-Murciano, an anthropologist and artist, had inherited a collection of Pre-Columbian artefacts from his grandfather. He donated his collection, promising to enlarge it and act as director and curator for the rest of his life and the Town Council agreed to build the museum. The Pre-Columbian collection increased over time by donations, loans and acquisitions from Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Peru made by the Town Council. After Felipe Orlando’s death in 2001, the museum closed for updating and enlargement. On the 26th of April 2005 the museum reopened to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the centre. The artefacts are from Middle America (ancient Mexico) and the Central Andes (ancient Peru), as well as the Intermediate Area between these two civilisations. The collection includes sculptures, weapons, crockery for domestic or ritual uses, stamps, headdresses, necklaces and amulets, spondylus shells, musical instruments and funeral masks. The oldest artefacts date from approximately 2000 years before Christ. The exhibition is well thought out and organised with large explanatory panels and labels in Spanish, and plastic dossiers containing translations in French, German and English are given to foreign visitors, and provides a wide view of the cultures which had developed before the discovery and conquest of America. There are conveniently placed mirrors so that you can see the parts behind the whistles or the ornate painted patterns underneath ceramic tripod pots. The entrance is free and this wonderful museum is well worth seeing. However, the sight of my youngest daughter performing acrobatics on the railings reminded me that, for smaller children, making clay pots beats looking at them, so I could not stay much longer.

After that, we walked through the typical Andalucian architecture of white-washed houses, narrow streets and flower-bearing balconies of Benalmadena Pueblo and we looked with slight envy at the visitors relaxing in the shady plazas and enjoying tapas in the bars. We went past the Plaza de España and its fountain with the bronze statue of the little girl by the sculptor Jaime Pimentel and now the symbol of Benalmadena. Communion parties - little girls in puffy white dresses, boys in their more austere sailor suits and women in painful high-heels – having already forgotten about the religious rites of the church, moved briskly along the narrow street towards their restaurant arrangements. We passed by the hotel, restaurant and culinary school of La Fonda and, peering inside for a moment, dreamt of the wonderful things that could be eaten in the beautiful Andalusian courtyard with its little fountain decorated with Arabesque tiles. My children began to clamour for food and drink, too.

Reaching the gardens at the end, we marvelled at the panorama of the wooded and mountainous areas of Benalmadena, the coastline and the sea. Los Jardines del Muro, designed and created by landscape artist Cesar Manrique, spills downhill and provides the ideal setting for the church. The church of Santo Domingo Guzmán, although stripped of much of its historical interest having been overly renovated in the 1960’s, still has great charm due to being perched on the crest of the hill and surrounded by magnificent gardens and views. A bench under a tree, just behind the building, served as the perfect place for lunch, to enjoy the scenery and look at the ants. My eldest girl and I talked about typical Spanish dishes such as “Migas Manchegas” while we ate our picnic lunch (of bread and grapes but no chorizo!).
Fed and watered, we made our way back to the car. My family moved forwards quickly, absorbed with reading the names on the roadside election posters, and so I did not stop to read the plaque next to a bronze statue of a man in 16th century dress. Then we drove past the tourists at their road-side terrace cafes and on through the village. It only took a couple of minutes to get to the Stupa of the Enlightenment. I thought we could have walked there if it had not been for hot, whinging children. We gazed at the sea, at the Stupa’s golden cone and at the flags with prayers printed upon them fluttering vertically in the wind. We went up some steps and entered the meditation room. Two men had taken off their shoes and were meditating, oblivious to sight-seers. We peered through a protective glass cover at an ornate picture made entirely with sand and left coins on a small dish holding a beautiful bell made with layers of rice encrusted in the metal underneath the golden Buddha. We tried to understand the story of Buddha Sakyamuni’s life depicted in a mural by Himalayan artists. The exhibition of Tibetan culture and art in the basement costs 2€ to get in. Unfortunately for me, my husband declared that he had had enough of museums. The girls, curiosity undiminished, rang the little bells, unfolded the lucky silk scarves and touched the incense holders in the gift shop outside the Stupa.

After that, we passed by the new hockey pitch, the Costa Kinder Care nursery and downhill to the crazy, yet impressive, Castillo de Colomares. The entrance fee is 2 € for adults and 1.30€ for children and senior citizens and allows you to see the outside of this “castle” which is dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America. Esteban Martín, with the help of two local workmen, designed and built it employing every possible architectural style and cleverly sculpturing the figures from a mixture of powdered rock with cement. These three men carried out most of the work between 1987 and 1994 although they are still adding to it a little today. The inside of the building, which houses the museum, has not been opened because they are waiting for a license from the local authorities. My husband and the girls clambered up to the “bows” of the representations of boats and towers and looked out at the views of the coast and of the Jardines del Muro. They pointed out the funny sculptured figures of iguanas and peered in through the beautiful coloured-glass windows. My girls evidently enjoyed exploring the castle. They discovered a dead pigeon in one of the fountains and met an old dog which wagged its tail and smiled at us politely even though we had interrupted its Sunday siesta. It was a truly educated dog.