Sun Family in Spain

Its only been two weeks and we are starting to settle in, but It feels like living on a movie set. Palm Trees, white washed villas, beautiful beach bars, exotic cars and designer dogs. Our Son’s school is in Puerto Banus which is where the rich and famous often dock their yachts while they shop at Chanel and Prada stores at the port and get their provisions of Jamon de Serrano. We pass a Ferrari dealer on our way to school every day, it is a three story building with red Ferrari’s of every model and era in windows and other colors behind those. At home there are exotic car dealers but they usually only have one or two of a specific make of a car instead of dozens.

We haven’t met any drivers of these cars yet, but we do live in a pretty exclusive zip code. We live in a very cute but basic condo but above our condo are huge mansions,. Its an adjustment from our humble house in Denver or our gritty little town of Trinidad.

In contrast to the excessive displays of wealth we see around us is a more humble Spain. We live a couple miles from a historic section of the town of San Pedro. I assume that before the Costa Del Sol became the Costa Del Golf and wealthy Arabs and Russians descended on this sea side area, this town was a working class village then became the town that provided the workers for the beach clubs in nearby Marbella. The streets of the old town are mostly closed to cars and are lined with hair salons, fruit shops, tapas bars and shops where you can buy mundane things for daily life. There are often a group of old men sitting on park benches watching the world go by. I can imagine these men have been sitting on the park benches outside their apartments in the same place for years. Talking to friends, fawning over babies, complaining about taxes, gossiping about the influx of the British onto their streets. Mothers pushing strollers, teenagers on first dates, everyone eating long lunches.

I like San Pedro. Although there are far too many British here it feels like a real town with real people. It isn’t glossed over, it isn’t trying to be the next big thing. Are there new apartment complexes and villas being built all around, yes, but they don’t feel like part of a master plan. Unfortunately I think that type of progress is inevitable. In the meantime I will by vegetables at the local Fruterìa and replace my batteries at the Bazaar shop on the corner while watching the old men watching the world go by.