Militarised hillocks and a champion's birth

 The only way is up! Baby! Well, a gradual saunter which will mean we end up 50m above sea level as we add towards Las Cabezas de San Juan. So, lets have the inevitable biopic.


Las Cabezas de San Juan has a light house and is in Puerto Rico….. Ah, wrong one.  I love a good translation and the one that says this is St John’s Hillocks does not really convey the magnificence of it all.  16,000 people live here and one of its favourite sons was Carlos Marchena, defensive midfielder and winner of two World Cups and two European Championships.  Depressingly, that is all English Wiki tells us.  https://www.lascabezasdesanjuan.es/es/  

History wise it has Carthaginians, who built towers, Romans, who built whatever they wanted and Arabs, who called the place Atalayas de Montufar. The current name owes its origins to the Knights of St John.   We are a bit early. The patronal festive period is next week. St John’s day, the 24th June, has the ‘Burning of Juan and Juana’ in the wee small hours of the start of the 24th, followed by a procession during the daylight hours.  Since 1989 it has been twined with the Asturian town of Tineo - which we went through and clings to the side of a hill.

In we go to the settlement and past the Meson Amador. It gets 3.7 stars, so let's find out why. Recent reviews seem to complain about the time it takes for the food to arrive.  Here are two.

Luz [3 months ago, 5 stars]. Honestly, the food there is amazing, the chef is a real expert, the breaded steak and the croquettes are fantastic, I highly recommend going.

Anonio [3 months, 1 star]. More than two hours waiting for food and the waitresses ignore you and bring you whatever they want because they don't have what you ordered, UNFORTUNATELY!

Cafeteria Pub Calusa may be an espresso bar. I am reminded of ‘The Pub’ in Luxembourg in the 1980s - where they had instructions of how to buy at the bar and pay their and then. I wonder if it works the same. It is LGBTQ+ friendly and gets 4.5 stars.   Andreas gave it four stars, three weeks ago.  They said ‘They have a good café con leche here.I can't comment on the food.’   You really don’t get much more in review terms.


We are on the way out of town, and why not.





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