I have now been running Guest House Dar Cilla for ten years with a lot of pleasure, largely because I have a great team around me and we have the luck (or good judgement?) to have delightful guests, many of whom return regularly and have become friends. This has added the social dimension to my life which was so sadly lacking when I first found myself alone here. As a couple we had not had time to make a circle of friends, and this is something that is doubly difficult to d

I am writing this article on How I came to be living in Tarifa in southern Spain (and running a guest house to boot!) at the instigation of the e-mail magazine (e-zine) www.MyCadiz.biz This magazine oozes helpful information on line but also places articles from locals giving information they think can be of interest to their (largely) expatriate readership. Many come and go but I came and, against considerable odds, I constructed and I stayed and I wouldn’t be anywhere el

Every so often it is totally wind-still in the evening. This is very often in combination with the full moon. At around 21.00 hrs (depending on the season) the sun is going down and the whole village is bathed in a pink glow. Our guests stand together in a hushed silence, imbibing the beauty of the moment, cameras at the ready. Thanks to Facebook, I am aware that that photograph is already winging its way to various countries and continents. They sip their pre-dinner drinks b

This is a free day here in Spain and as luck will have it for all the locals (Spanish and foreign residents) it is a fabulous day. Blue, blue sky, the occasional puffy white cloud, a light breeze from the West (called Poniente) but just enough for professional surfers and ideal for beginners. I have blogged (I now enjoy the term blogging) before about Timing but at the risk of repetition I have to say again that for me (a nearly octogenarian grandmother) it is the key to my e

No view can beat that from the roof terrace of Dar Cilla, looking across to the mountains of the northern coast of Morocco with the shipping passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. At night the whole shoreline ‘on the other side’ is ablaze with lights- However, a completely different view from the apartments of El Molino (tel,679 94 14 27) in Vejer which look down over rolling hills to the whole coastline to the left and right of El Palmar was riveting as the sun went down.