Majorca

This Month in Majorca (March):

Shopping: Selling exclusive leather jackets, bags and other accessories, Munper offers style, elegance and quality, all at very reasonable prices (Carretera Palma-Alcudia, Exits 27 & 30, Inca, tel: 971 881 000, munper.com).

Sightseeing: For all you petrolheads out there, the annual Majorca Classic Car Rally is held around the third weekend of this month. About 40 teams set off each day from the centre of Palma and cover almost 600km of Majorca's twisting country roads. Last year the event was filmed by Top Gear, so who knows who'll be there this year.

Key areas: Passeig d'es Born, an historic tree-lined promenade known locally as "El Born", is a smaller version of Barcelona's Rambla, and boasts the same charm and flair.

Day trips: The Cami del Correu Trail is a breathtaking hike that follows the old post office road from Esporles to Banyalbufar. This well-marked two-hour walk will take you from the church in Esporles through a magnificent oak forest, delivering you to the stunning cliff-side village of Banyalbufar.

Majorca News & Gossip

Majorca Soap Star: Lluqui Herrero...

Feuding families in Majorca's vineyards make up the drama of Llágrima de Sang (meaning "Tear of Blood"). The twice-weekly soap, which is filmed in Catalan rather than Spanish, has racked up a following of 661,000 viewers since its debut on the Balearic Island TV station IB3 last September. Lluqui Herrero plays 34-year-old Laura Pons, head of the Pons family winery Casa Son Gregal. Recently, Laura found her husband Miquel (Salvador Oliva) has been having an affair with her best friend Virginia (Tita Planells). She's also faced the appearance of the long-lost sister she never knew she had (Queralt Albinyana). All this, and the commercial threat posed by rivals in the trade. At least she's well placed to have a drink to cope with the drama!

Describe your character:
Hard-working, temperamental, distrustful, persevering.

What was your first job?
I worked in the café at the Teatro Sans Theatre in Palma's Old Town, perfect for the Mallorca arts scene.

What makes Llágrima de Sang so popular?
It's a fast-moving TV series, which evokes a real rollercoaster of emotions in every episode, with added mystery and intrigue. What's the biggest challenge playing the role of Laura Pons? Because we film several episodes in one day, it's often the case we're filming winter scenes in late hot summer months. It's difficult to look cool wearing a coat and scarf when it's 28ºC and sunny!

Does the show accurately portray life in Majorca?
Of course. Our storylines mirror the effect the economic crisis is having on the wine industry.

What storyline has got the most people talking?
The disappearance of one of the younger characters, Claudia Sintes (Ariadna Cánoves), who Laura was looking after at the time of her disappearance. But did she have anything to do with it, and why?

What's the best thing that has happened to you as a result of being on the show?
We film at some of the island's best wineries, including Santa Catarina near Andratx and Macia Batle, and it's an honour to get to meet the local wine growers. The guild of wine makers in Binisalem presented us with an award for the recognition we have given to Majorca's wine industry.

What do you want to do after Llágrima de Sang?
More theatre - either appearing on the stage or teaching, which are both things I do in my free time. After the summer break, filming will resume on Llágrima de Sang which I'm very excited about.

What is your worst habit?
Lack of patience and a tendency to explode!

What is your favourite website?
I love www.tiu.cat Tiu are one of my favourite Majorcan bands. They cook up a blend of self-styled musica-gastonomia, a fusion of samba, jazz and lots of references to the local food in their lyrics.

Which actor or director would you most like to work with?
I'd love to work with David Lynch who is, in my opinion, one of the industry's most innovative, inspiring and creative filmmakers.

Name your three favourite places to hang out in Palma/Majorca.
The beaches south of Santanyí, including the white sands and turquoise seas of Es Trenc beach, and the bars in the Santa Catalina area of Palma, especially in quieter winter months. I love to escape to the Majorcan hill towns, like Valldemossa. The views from Es Petit Hotel de Valldemossa (www.espetithotel-valldemossa.com) are possibly my favourite.

ON LOCATION

Majorca Wine Tour runs small and personalised tours to the island's best bodegas (wineries) including bodegas Santa Catarina and Macia Batle, where Llágrima de Sang is filmed. From €98 per person, it includes wine tasting and lunch with wine. Tel: +34 971 495 422, www.majorcawinetour.com. Or you could hire a car and visit the wineries yourself. Pick up one of the limited edition souvenir bottles of vino tinto (red), specially dedicated to Llágrim de Sang. They're available at the Santa Catarina and Macia Batle wineries; each bottle is €12.50. www.santa-catarina.com, www.maciabatle.com

Majorca Trivia

• March: It would appear that the Majorcan town of Manacor has a habit of producing top sportsmen. Albert Riera, the Liverpool FC winger, hails from the town, as does top tennis star Rafael Nadal.

• February: When the King of Catalonia, Jaume I, arrived on Majorca in 1229, he stopped for lunch with his troops on his way to Palma. He enjoyed his lunch so much that the town he ate in was named Bendinat, which in Mallorquin means "I ate well".

• January: The population of Mallorca is 702,000, and more than 300,000 of those live in Palma. However, in tourist season the locals get massively outnumbered by the 5m tourists who visit every year.

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