How Much Do We Love Mijas?
/We first visited Mijas in 2001, really as accidental tourists. It was our first trip to Spain, so of course we wanted to see Barcelona and Madrid. Hoping to check off “all the boxes”, we decided to add a third destination to the trip. A good friend suggested the Costa del Sol, and mentioned Marbella in particular. With that, I was off to do a quick internet search to find some place to stay and things to do. Purely by accident, I stumbled on a website that offered villa rentals in the Pueblo Blanco of Mijas. It sounded good enough - something different than the big cities. With that, we booked a week wedged between the visits to Barcelona and Madrid.
My girls visiting Mijas in 2001
Needless to say, we fell in love with Mijas. Barcelona and Madrid were wonderful (indeed - Spain is full of history and culture), but Mijas was relaxing and beautiful in a way we had never experienced. We vowed to return the next year, and we did. With visions of our own little place in the sun, we entertained the idea of looking at properties when we returned in 2002. Fantasy turned to reality, and we purchased a small villa - much to our surprise and delight.
Now, 17 years after establishing a foothold in Spain, we’ve managed to work our way through the process to obtain Spanish residency (not a simple task for US citizens!). Days and weeks are no longer sufficient - we want to spend more time in our adopted home. We want to integrate into the local community - those with whom we’ve become familiar, and new friends we hope to meet. I personally want to improve my somewhat serviceable Spanish language skills (I have no excuse - Yohanna is a Spanish teacher, and it’s her first language).
Why not come and visit? Why not come and make a life? One trip is all it took for us - one random stop in between two planned locations. Sometimes, life just happens. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself where you were meant to be.