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Tinged with Regret
Monday, February 4, 2013 @ 11:26 AM
It was 2006 when the house prizes were at their height and the economy seemed to be thriving. We had paid off our mortgage years before and had accumulated savings over the years. We were in our 50s and both still working. Our children were married and we had nothing to spend our extra money on except holidays and luxuries. Like thousands of others I had watched “A Place in the Sun” on the television and thought it would be wonderful to have a holiday home abroad. I had seen the property exhibition advertised for days and yearned for just a look at what was available. It was in a venue not far from our home but my husband was away on business and there was no opportunity to go. Then I got a phone call from him to say he was getting an earlier flight home on the Friday evening and somehow I persuaded him to go to the exhibition.
It was run by MRI, a large property company and they were selling properties in various places abroad. We had a good look around. The photographs of the sun drenched beaches and the sophisticated apartments and villas were alluring. We were happy to look, pick up brochures and read.
One that did take our fancy read - “South-East Corner, Andalucia – Wedged between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, the Costa de Almeria was bypassed in the 1960s holiday boom because of poor road connections. As a result, it is less touristy than some of its neighbours. Expect white-washed buildings instead of high-rise hotels and some of the most relaxed beaches in Spain. Resorts enjoy spectacular settings as well as the hottest summers in the country. Almeria, the capital, offers impressive sights including the fortified Cathedral and is overlooked by a magnificent Moorish fortress, the Alcazaba. There is also a stunning 16th-century cathedral fortified to withstand attack from Barbary pirates. Fishing villages have developed into flourishing resorts. Mojacar and Roquetas De Mar are the most popular with fine beaches, palm-fringed promenades and seafronts lined with restaurants and lively bars. Landscapes inland are rocky and herby, while the almost lunar-like expanse of the Tabernas Desert have appeared in films, including Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones”.
We were just about to leave the exhibition hall when we were stopped by one of the representatives asking if he could help us further and offering a “free weekend” to view our favourite area. Before we knew it we were investigating one of the resorts on the Costa Almeria. The resort was Vera Playa in a developing area which was now accessible by good communications and travel networks. This appeared to be a great investment as it would appeal to those wanting a holiday without the concrete jungles, lager louts or fish and chip shops and it was anticipated that it would develop with new shopping centres, sports facilities, bars and restaurants.
We just had to pay a cheap flight to Alicante and MRI would pay the accommodation and arrange for someone to pick us up at the airport and show us around. I told myself that I really didn’t have any intention of buying a property. I just liked the thought of it, a bit like window shopping. I stupidly thought it would be a long weekend break in the sun, catching a few rays and enjoying the scenery.
We arrived in Alicante on a Thursday and were greeted by a tall dark handsome Spaniard called Carlos. It was in November and the sky was a perfect blue and the temperature was pleasant. His English was good, our Spanish was not. He drove us south for 2 hours quizzing us now and again about our desires and intentions. My stubborn streak was saying that I had no intention of buying, but I'd go along with it anyway. Maurice, my husband was in buoyant mood.
Carlos was taking us to our hotel, but on the way he decided to show us a golf resort, as we are both keen golfers, to see what we thought of a property there. It looked remote and far from anywhere. The apartment was nice, the golf course looked good and the adjoining hotel impressive enough, but it seemed isolated and a million miles from the beach and civilisation. Our first impressions were not good.
We checked in to our Mojacar hotel, unpacked and had a look around. It was a large tourist hotel and one of several similar hotels in that area. It was clean and adequate for the purpose and I felt more like I was on a sunshine break. We had a late lunch and waited for Carlos who was collecting us again for a 5 pm meeting at his offices on Mojacar Playa.
We arrived at the property office and were greeted hospitably by the staff. We were introduced to the financial adviser, the rentals expert and the after sales consultant. It was all too much information in a short space of time and we both felt somewhat overwhelmed. Carlos offered to take us into Garrucha, the nearby fishing village where we could have dinner. We were delighted when he told us he would collect us again later and that he wasn’t joining us to eat. I was beginning to wonder why I had persuaded Maurice to start out on this venture. We enjoyed locally caught prawns at an exorbitant price in a restaurant overlooking the harbour. It was good!
Bright and early the next morning Carlos greeted us in the hotel reception area. He drove us along Mojacar Playa bypassing Garrucha to the Vera Playa area to look at more complexes where the apartments were well priced and where the staff spoke English. Newly built apartments could be purchased at prices ranging from €180,000 to €195,000 and they came complete with a furniture package which included bed linen, towels, kitchen utensils, etc. They were small but adequate and we were not impressed.
Carlos was eager to show us more properties and took us to another complex which was in the hills, a good 20 minutes drive from the beach. It had a sports complex with gymnasium and sauna, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and restaurants on site. We weren’t impressed with that either.
Carlos suggested a snack lunch. The conversation at the café was stilted at times and I was itching to lie on a sunbed but that was not on the agenda. The nearest I got was when Carlos drove down to show us the beach – metres and metres of deserted golden sand with wooden walkways stretching from the promenade almost to the sea enticing the sun-worshipper to spend time there.
We admired the apartments close to the beach so Carlos made a few telephone calls and arranged for us to see a front line property which had been sold some time before but the sale had fallen through. It was a well presented gated complex called Los Jardines de Nuevo Vera but the apartment looked unloved and neglected probably because no one had lived in it. The door knobs were rusting, the small garden was overgrown, there was only one bathroom and we thought it was over priced at €230,000.
I really thought that Carlos was probably frustrated with us as we didn’t appear to like anything he showed us, but he was patient and did not intend giving up on us. He suggested going back to the office to check on more properties. I would have been happy to have been left to sit in the sun.
Carlos made his plans for the following day and eventually he took us to our hotel, explained where we could eat out and left us for the evening. What a relief! We were able to enjoy the evening sun on the balcony of our hotel room and have a rest before we went out. At that stage we definitely had no intention of buying anything but our dinner!
We always love to eat out on holiday and try new dishes so we walked quite a distance to a beach side restaurant called Neptuna which Carlos had recommended. It was a large wooden building decorated with lanterns and bamboo with a large red hot barbeque burning at the entrance. We enjoyed freshly barbequed fish washed down with a bottle of chilled white wine. We asked the staff to ring for a taxi but were told that all the taxis would be at the airport that evening to collect holiday makers, but one of the staff would give us a lift to our hotel. How unusual!
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