Hi decorated Lady,
First of all I apologize as I’m Spanish and I will make some mistakes.
I lived in Fuente Álamo for about 10 years, but my parents, brother and sister, nephews and nieces still live there, so I visit Fuente Álamo quite often.
The population there is around 8.000 inhabitants, so more or less half the one in Los Alcázares. However you won’t probably see a big difference, as there are more people living there all the year round than in Los Alcázares. So only in July and August many people will leave the village and will go to the coast (like in most inland places in Spain, so nothing you don’t expect).
It would be a nice visit if you go there on a Saturday morning, as there is a street market and (unless it’s raining) there is more life on the streets.
There are two public primary schools and a “concertado” school (half private – half public); there are also two secondary schools.
There are enough shops for most items you need daily: a Mercadona, a Consum (from Eroski), a Dia, some other small supermarkets, you may have about 4 or 5 shoe shops, about 10 or 12 clothes shop, at least 3 of these Chinese shops (of course, they are everywhere, ja ja), and also a good amount of bars and restaurants, etc. And Cartagena is about 25kms far (in case you have to go to the Parque Mediterráneo shopping center).
I do know that there are buses to go to Cartagena, but I don’t know if there are to other places at all, I would say there are not.
You will find there the same nationalities than in Los Alcázares, but for the fact that there are not so many British citizens. There are some, but only a very small percentage of them live in Fuente Álamo itself, most of them live in the surrounding villages like Las Palas, La Pinilla, Cuevas de Reyllo, Balsapintada, Lobosillo, Valladolises, Corvera, Los Almagros and Los Cánovas.