The Caves of Nerja

“We had taken torches to illuminate the cave though we didn’t know what we would find if we continued going down, we were more anxious to discover the hidden wonders that were waiting for us more than anything in the world. The same day we found all the rooms of the cave that are visited nowadays.

And we also named them with the current names. In the ‘Room of the Ghosts’ we found three skeletons that were later dated to 7000 years old. We took part of them with us and continued walking down the cave until we found a place where there were nearly 200 more skeletons, which had been thrown in there without being buried. We took some of those too.  

When we returned to Nerja later that same day the  Guardia Civil took the bones to the cemetery. Someone told me that the remains belongs to the ‘maquis’, (rebel guerilla fighters against the Franco regime), who had hidden in the mountains.

On the following day Padial displayed the photos he had taken of the Caves of Nerja in the window  of his small photo shop in Calle Granada, and it caused a real stir. Everyone wanted to see the photos including a journalist from the local newspaper, Diario Sur. He interviewed us, and the cave and the skeletons were front page news in the province by the following day. On the third day it was covered in the national press, and a day later it was a worldwide news story.”  

“The news was mainly interesting because of the archaeological remains rather than the cave itself. A week later, speleologists from all over the world began arriving in Nerja. The first one came from Australia.

The Mayor asked Padial and I to enter the cave with him so that he could see the place where the remains had been found.

Then, someone else came from the USA and a month later Professor Luis Pellecir arrived from the University of Barcelona who told our Mayor that he had seen many caves all around the world but very few like this. [Photo right and below from the Fundacion Cueva de Nerja YouTube video about the Nerja caves – here. N.b. This video is in Spanish, for the version in English see here].

The council realised that it would be a good tourist attraction and they began to consider the possibilities of opening a door. The entrance we used at that time was a sort of tunnel which began at about 15 metres deep and its walls were made of limestone. Blasting the stone was not a good idea because the whole cave could collapse. We had found a pine root on the ceiling of one of the tunnels so we speculated that the surface might not be far.

One day, some technicians from Málaga came and we all entered the cave once more. When I reached the pine root I hit on the area and they heard me from above. It was just thirty centimetres from the surface and it was the first gateway to the cave to be opened.

By this time we had just entered the new galleries where there were large cave paintings, and many stalactites and stalagmites still in formation. I remember we used to put the torches on top of them to admire the splendour of the rooms. 

Then a group of archaeologists from Málaga began coming on weekends. So, on hearing their conversation we began to learn a lot regarding the different stages in earth development, the Neolithic Period, Upper Palaeolithic, the Man of Cro-Magnon…

A boy like me with no studies at all, who had always worked in manual work had the unique opportunity of getting to know in practise what others had learned from books. Every day when I had finished making the esparto ropes I ran to the caves and I didn’t get out until 10.00 or 11.00 at night. I was young, strong, an amateur athlete full of passion… I was living the best time of my life.

Despite difficulties, every afternoon I used to take a different group to the caves and there were many turns on Sundays. I started my day at 7.00  and when we got to the surface it was about 11.00, where there was a second group waiting to be guided into the cave. After a year the cave was illuminated and the paths were built so that everybody could get in on their own and I began losing interest in the cave.”

Ayo and the hit TV series ‘Verano Azul’

While Ayo is speaking I think of this still good looking man who told me before that he has been married twice. First to a “beautiful Swedish woman who had to learn Spanish to communicate with me since I’ve always been terribly clumsy at languages”. From that marriage he has a 22 year old daughter. Then seven years ago he had a second child with a French woman who also learnt Spanish. 

It was precisely the image of this beautiful Swedish woman together with the wooden chiringuito on the beach covered in a colourful bourgainvillea and this sun tanned and quaint pony tailed character leaning on a huge paella pan that caught the attention of Antonio Mercero, a TV director who in 1979 was looking for settings for a series along the Mediterranean.

That was how Ayo became part of the production of one of the best known TV series in Spain ‘Verano Azul’ which was shot in Nerja at the beginning of the 1980’s.

Ayo, riding his white mare, appeared as an improvised actor in two chapters of the series. 

“When they proposed it to me I naively asked how much I had to pay. None they said, rather you’ll be paid for it. So, as the series was a real success in many Spanish speaking countries I’ve been receiving a cheque for myself and the mare for many years.”

From an article by Betty Luna, originally published in Insight Magazine, July 2002.