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As August draws to a close the tourists are returning to their normal
lives and things will once again settle down here on the Costa.
Next week we will be able to find a parking space in the
supermarket car park and we won’t have to leave early because the tortuous
one hour journey home will become 5 minutes again (and no longer will we
have to worry that the air conditioning unit might pack up).
Prices will return to normal and, after next week, we will have
to get used to the supermarkets and shops not opening on Sunday as is the
way in this strongly religious country. Despite this, however, I
doubt that the confessionals in the churches will be full of all the
local ‘businessmen’ who have been ripping us off these last 3 months.
I live in
the very British area of Benavista (no Spanish required) which is near the
holiday resort of Estepona.
In the little shopping centre opposite me we enjoy our English style
cafes serving instant coffee and PG Tips; we have Simpson’s Butchers,
Carols Card shop, The Gastro Pub, a beauty shop with no sun beds (I
wonder why?), Iceland, Vic’s British Store, an English bed and linen
shop, 5 Chinese restaurants, 3 curry houses, 2 chippies, an estate
agents, an insurance brokers, the all important electrical shop selling
Sky satellite systems and even a Barclays Bank, all under the unrelenting
rays of the sun….. I love it!
If I attempted to write anything about living here in modern Spain,
my attempt surely would be doomed to disaster. Rules,
regulations and EU laws all appear to be subject to the individual
interpretations of the local authorities, which are dominated by the
local mayors and their political parties. The customary way
of achieving anything out here used to include ‘paying off’ the officials
at the local “Ayutamiento” but with all the recent corruption scandals
even this has reverted to a red haze.
So, any advice I might have to persons thinking of a retirement
here would hardly fill a paragraph, (well, it already has Peter!).
Pack your bags in your car (no luggage restrictions apply!), wave
as the white cliffs disappear behind you and drive down here through Europe avoiding the toll roads if you are short of
a few Euros. Stop where the mood takes you and stay where you
find it most interesting. Rent somewhere, stay for a week, a
month or a year! Talk to the locals in the area you like and
then consider the ‘pros’ and the ‘cons’ because there will inevitably be
a few.
 Never, never just buy somewhere in Spain
just because you have previously enjoyed a holiday there. Living in
Spain
carries all the worries and hassles of living anywhere. What
you will save on heating you will spend on air conditioning (well, after
the first summer anyway). There’s not much difference in the
overall day to day living costs and, a bit like life at sea I suppose,
there are sharks to look out for, especially the smooth talking variety!
At the moment property prices here are very competitive; long
term investment opportunities are good but individual lifetime hopes are
just the same here as anywhere else on earth. So I can’t offer any advice and, as for
my literary skills, I now have time to read a lot; I notice that most
‘authors’ use many words when one word will do.
(Article submitted 2nd September
2010)
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