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Message:: [QUOTE="expat, post: 24730257, member: 111067"]Today, on a visit to the town of Nijar, about 50minutes drive away, I saw my first ever machine in South Spain for elongating a coin. It was outside a pottery shop. In this case it took a 5 Euro cent piece and there were 4 designs to choose from. I chose a gecko which you see all the time here. I don´t know where they got the machine, but it impresses the word Salamander on it,[ATTACH=full]1582057[/ATTACH]Next was the symbol for Almeria, the province in which I live and work. It is called the Indalo, after the rock painting discovered inside a cave and was dated to the late Paleothlithic era, 12,000 BC. [ATTACH=full]1582058[/ATTACH]Lastly, a Pita tree. The spiky green branches at the base were for many uses. Up until 100 or so years ago, Almeria had a plantation of 30,000 acres of these, which only take 10 years to mature. They seed themselves so they were a continuous supply. First the leaves were squeezed for the liquid to make Tequila. Secondly, the leaves are fibrous and when separated into strands form what is called sisal. When dried and weaved together, they supplied the shipping industry for all the ropes. The pulp of the left over skin of the leaves was boiled and the resulting liquid was sweet to the taste and used as a sweetening agent.[ATTACH=full]1582059[/ATTACH]Thanks for looking and reading[/QUOTE]