Mike Parker’s Story
We came to Mazarron by chance in 2006 after falling in love with Spain on an annual motor club holiday.
We bought a holiday home on a large local conurbation, situated approximately 20 minutes’ drive from the Port of Mazarron. We stayed there for approximately six months each year, landscaped the garden and made changes to call it our own.
In 2012, Pauline saw a beautiful villa near the Port of Mazarron advertised at a low price. We fell in love with it and, after sorting out some problems, bought it with a good solicitor.
Most of our neighbours are British and we’ve made new friends. Our biggest surprise was the local restaurants – the quality of the food and the reasonable prices. The fixed price “menu del dia” is so good that we eat out nearly every day.
Our lives have changed considerably and we’ve made many friends of different nationalities. We have a German man looking after our pool and a Spanish man caring for our garden and 50 olive trees and fruit trees.
Most Europeans here speak some English and, although they tease us sometimes, they’re helpful with our limited Spanish. Now Pauline is learning Spanish. Our European friends appear to be gentler and sometimes more caring than those in Britain. We stay out in the port late at night – later than we would in the UK – and we’ve always felt comfortable and safe there.
We love living in Spain. I have a mild heart condition and I find the treatment here much better than in the UK. In the hospital, my doctor’s first words to me were: “Spanish, French, German or English”. I speak them all!
Then along came Brexit – we obviously voted Remain.
What should we do? Our home is in Wales, we’re both retired and we don’t need two homes. We decided to sell our Welsh home and live in Spain full time. This was the best decision we made.
