The Pantomime Mule Of Manacor

The mule has its own place in Mallorca's story. Along with the donkey, it was a prime source of energy for mills and wells. Blindfolded, in order to prevent sickness, the mule or the donkey would be harnessed and walk in a circle to extract water or grind wheat - mills were even used to grind salt and clay. The mule was not the only source of power. Man was as well: slaves. When the slave trade came to an end, the mule reassumed greater duties, unless there was sufficient wind to do its job for it. The mills driven by mules, donkeys and humans were known as "molinos de sangre": mills of blood.

In 1891 the town hall in Palma was approached with a request to create the city's first public transport system. On 20 September of that year, this system was inaugurated. It went to Porto Pi and was 4.4 kilometres long. It was a tram, but more specifically a "tram of blood": it was driven by mules.

The first mule trams were known as ripers, rippers, riperts or ripperts. They existed in other cities - Barcelona and Madrid, for example - and the inconsistency in spelling may be purely down to local usage. They all had a common root, though, and that was one Monsieur Ripert, a carriage-maker from Marseille. He came up with the design, others stole it but used his name, and so emerged the riperts (or whatever they were called). In truth, they weren't really trams at all but a forerunner of the bus, but they were around for a good number of years after the first journey in 1891: the proper, electrified tram line to Porto Pi wasn't to start until 1916. Nevertheless, there were mule-drawn riperts heading out to what were still suburbs in the 1920s, such as El Terreno.

Elsewhere on the island, the mule was being affected by the arrival of technology. While much of Mallorca remained stuck in the nineteenth century, the first bicycle had appeared in the 1860s, the train had arrived by the final quarter of the 1800s and then the car and real buses came along in the first quarter of the 1900s. The Sóller train, went it opened in 1912, was to cut the journey time from Palma from four hours to one hour: it was also a lot more comfortable and a lot less hairy (the journey, that is, as opposed to the mule).

Eventually of course, the mule was to lose its transport source of employment, though for the mule population there were still the mills, the wells and the hard labour of the countryside. Nowadays, it would be hard to place a figure on how many mules there are in Mallorca; it is easier to place a price on the mule, if adverts on the internet are anything to go by. There is one available for 600 euros; three others for 250 euros each - urgent sales on account of the owner having to move away. 

In its different ways, therefore, the mule has its place in the Mallorcan story, one that is both urban and rural, but it is the countryside, or at least more rural areas, where the mule remains more honoured today. This said, Manacor is a fairly large urban area and long a centre of industry. Manacor has, however, acquired a mule. Not a real one but a pretend one. The "mulassa" of Manacor, which is basically like a pantomime horse with one playing the front, another playing the back, was revealed in front of 200 or so expectant citizens of Manacor last week. It danced, it cavorted, the folk musicians made music. The mulassa had arrived and its first big performance will come at this year's Sant Jaume fiestas.

Mallorca has its range of odd characters that take to the streets at fiesta time: the giants, the big heads, the dragons, the cavallets. And the Manacor mulassa, it might be said, falls into the general category of the latter: figures with a horsey theme. The artist Sebastià Riera Pocovi has been responsible for the mulassa, and the significance of the mule is that there was, in times gone by, a tradition of there being a raffle to win a mule on Sant Jaume day.

But there is more to the mulassa than this local tradition. The figure of a mule goes back centuries in Catalan fiesta tradition. La Mulassa de Barcelona, for example, can trace its history to 1601. It seemingly disappeared from the festivities' scene around 1812 but was revived in the late 1980s. It goes on tour, and it has appeared in Mancor de la Vall, while the Mulassa de Falset (in Catalonia) has turned up in Santa Maria del Cami. Now Manacor has one, maybe it will go on tour as well, though it's more likely that every town and village will want one.

A Streetcar Named ...

Picking up from yesterday's piece, a comment came in about the tram and the possibility of it going to Puerto Pollensa. I had actually heard some tell of precisely that, though the latest reports suggest otherwise. The enviro-fashionistas would rather like to close the road that runs by the coastline, and let nature reclaim the land, so I don't know if a tram would accord with such a desire; not that I can ever see it happening, but were there ever to be thought of a tram link to Puerto Pollensa, that would surely affect the thinking as to the siting of the train terminal. Or maybe it wouldn't; joined-up transport thought patterns are not necessarily the order of the day here. But were joined-up transport links to be held to be a "good thing", then what of the new terminal in the port for all those cruise ships that are due to be arriving some day, whenever? Maybe they should put the tram along the Calle Teodoro Canet, round the back of the Paseo Marítimo. This would be hugely entertaining. Space may be limited for a tram along the carretera, but along that particular road it would bring everything to a grinding halt. Bring it on.


Meanwhile, the hoteliers of Mallorca are starting to feel the heat of recession, predicting that profits will be down some 15% this season. Though numbers are likely to be in line with last year, it's that tourist spend that is exercising the minds of the hotel trade. I have said it before, in a different context, so one does get a sense of déjà vu, but when they made their optimistic forecasts and announcements coming into the season, there was a feeling of wishful thinking or even delusion. The hard-hit Spanish consumer and his British counterpart was bound to cause a slide in spend. The noises as the season got under way were the sound of whistling to keep up the spirits, when common sense suggested that, despite the numbers of tourists, the actual spend was inevitably going to go down. Anyway, the hoteliers have had a chat with Balearic boss, Francesc Antich. Not that they have asked him to bail them out, unlike the builders, but they are pressing the government to up its promotional spend for next year. And perhaps next year is what should be really worrying everyone, especially if the euro-pound situation continues.


Euro 2008 watch: So Spain duly made it past the suddenly hyped-up and then equally suddenly useless Russians, and they didn't need the benefit of a cut in transmission to alter the result. A conspiracy theory raised on 6-0-6 was that UEFA couldn't bear the idea of Turkey, like Greece in 2004, progressing and actually winning the damn thing, so that so-called lightning strike was in fact a cover to disguise the real result - Turkey in fact won 5-2. Anyway, Spain it is, and with remarkably good or bad timing the final clashes with the climax of the San Pere fiesta in Alcúdia. One fancies that the old image of Peter may take a bit of a back-seat, quite literally perhaps, propped up in a wheelbarrow outside a bar while the locals turn their attention to the TVs. And if Spain win on Sunday? Mayhem. Last night's victory was met with much sounding of car horns hurtling past the house. And for your average Brit expat, a real dilemma. I am, I think, unique in actually wanting Spain to win. But as the opposition will be ... the Germans ... which side can your expat want to win less? Tricky.


QUIZ
Chain - Forgot yesterday. The Players Association featured one of jazz's finest saxophonists who formed part of what "brothers" outfit? Yesterday's title - "The Runaway Train", Michael Holliday, and here is a link to someone who goes by the moniker "Dimple Diamond" introducing and then doing that song. It's fair to say, I think, that Matt Lucas could well have dreamt him up. Anyway his youtube has had barely 300 visits, most of them mine, so I implore you all to look at this and elevate him to greatness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84DmeutIAr4). Today's title - ok, so fill in the missing word by reference to which mega group?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Came Down The Track And She Blew

The technical bods have deliberated long and hard and decided that the planned extension of the railway from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia will follow the route of the main road from the motorway. I wouldn't have thought that it would have needed much deliberation. The alternative was to go by Albufera, a route that would be far more complicated and could not really go any further than the old "Es Foguero" place by the roundabout from Sa Pobla, and a terminal there would make it almost Playa de Muro and not the "pueblo" of Alcúdia. A decision has yet to be made regarding the siting of that terminal and, though the report today ("Diario de Mallorca") refers to the fact that the railway line would then go on to link the "pueblo" (the town) to the port and Can Picafort by means of a new tram line, local opinion is that the train terminal would be most likely to be just outside the "pueblo", i.e. by the Horse Roundabout. It might just be feasible to run a line from the roundabout coming into Alcúdia across finca land to end at, say, the roundabout to Puerto Pollensa, but that would just have the effect of making more complicated the laying of the planned tram line, I would have thought.

If it does actually get built, the rail extension could well prove very popular, so much so that some consideration must surely also be given to the number of carriages that one train would carry. A train line from Alcúdia into the centre of Palma would have the distinct advantage for many, myself included, who shy away from driving into the centre of Palma as it is, frankly, something of a nightmare. It would take longer, but it would be considerably less stressful. But the capacity of the trains would be an issue, especially in summer. At present, tourists tend not to use the train (from Sa Pobla) in great numbers because of the obvious hassle with getting to Sa Pobla in the first place; this would all change with a terminal in Alcúdia.

Then there is the proposed tram. To connect with Can Picafort, there is only one way that it could go, and that would be along the main road (the carretera Artà). This would not be without difficulties, one of which would be how to deal with the bridge over the canal from Albufera in Playa de Muro. Short of widening the bridge (which would be no bad thing as it is currently quite dangerous anyway), there presumably would have to be a traffic light system to give the tram priority. In addition, there would be the new roundabouts along the carretera to negotiate; the one at the top of the Mile, which is tight already, should prove fun. Which does of course raise the question as to whether the new layout of the carretera from the Magic Roundabout all the way to Can Picafort was ever conceived with a tram in mind. I very much doubt it. All that development and all that cost, and they'll have to rip it up and start again. I guess that a tram could use the side roads, but there are breaks in these, so the simplest solution would be to go straight down the middle of the main road, which raises the question as to whether the space really exists. The tram line (or lines) by itself (themselves) could probably be accommodated, but then there are the platforms to be taken into account.

Whatever they decide, and God knows how long it would take to build the thing (if it gets done), the presence of a few trams hacking along the centre of the carretera is going to make using a car even more joyous than it already is. Cyclists, people on roller blades, trikes, tourists wandering in the middle of the road and now trams. Sounds like great fun.


And talking of fun. On the WHAT'S ON BLOG, I have added the events for the La Victoria fiesta that takes place on 1 and 2 July. This is one of the most traditional local fiestas, but it is a bit out of the way, and a taxi is advisable partly because of the amount of drinking that goes on on the night of 1 July.


QUIZ
Chain - Ohio to the Ohio Players to the Players Association and therefore "Turn The Music Up". Yesterday's title - Elvis Costello, "Shipbuilding", but here is Robert Wyatt's version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6T9qp9XbRY). Today's title - those who remember Uncle Mac should know this.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)