Monday, December 26, 2016

Where the Sun Passes the Winter Season

You've seen those endless agony of pictures from the Tourist Office - wide empty beaches, narrow empty streets, the impossibly long empty promenade? Honestly, it's not as bad as that here. There may not be many people around in the winter (the village, frankly, is a mess), but the weather is warm and a few brave restaurants and bars have remained open for the residents.
So, how to promote Mojácar outside of the rather obvious sun, sea and cheap souvenir season?


Well, follow the advice of the old mayor Jacinto, who back in the sixties coined the phrase 'Mojácar, donde el sol pasa el invierno'.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

This Year: Next Year



An interesting year indeed. In Spain, we managed most of the year without a government, and then got the one we expected all along. Along the way, the PSOE collapsed into third place obscurity. In the UK, the appalling Brexit was voted by a small majority and in the USA, an eccentric anti-establishment candidate took the presidency. How does all of this have an impact on foreign residents and investors in Spain? Will the housing market be further affected and could tourist figures stagnate? Could the British living in Spain find themselves excluded from EU privileges? Perhaps more worrying still – could the USA go, in some unexpected way, rogue? We must wait for next year to find out: January 20th is Inauguration Day in the USA for President Trump (or his replacement) and the end of March seems to be the final date for the UK’s decision on leaving the EU. 
Sometimes, living in the land of the Lotus-Eaters, we hope that none of those earth-changing events happening elsewhere will affect us. Maybe the pound will go up or down a few cents, but we shall soldier on, enjoying (as is our right) a glass of wine on our terrace as the sun gently sets behind the mountains that, in some way, have protected us from the real world for so long.
Maybe things will stay sweet. Maybe if we don't know what's going on, then those things we don't know about won't threaten our way of life here. 
Maybe. 

Monday, December 12, 2016

Mojácar Village: Quiet (Noisily speaking)

I'm told by Blogger that you are now liable to see some rubbish about cookies when visiting this and other European sites. You can remove this superfluous notice from your visits across the Internet once and for good with an app (at least for Firefox) called 'I don't care about cookies' here.


Here is the view from below of what was (and will, by Easter, again be) the mirador, the viewpoint from Mojácar village. They are trying to get people to visit the pueblo this winter: Good Luck with that.