August 22, 2021
Time has flown and it’s hard to believe we’ve been in Spain almost 10 months. It was October 1st of 2020 when we flew back from Canada, visa in hand, and decided to have a look at Nerja as our possible home. Covid was revving up (wave 2? 3? Who knows…) and we knew we had to make a quick decision. We were staying in an Airbnb that first month and, after 10 days in Nerja, started apartment hunting.
It didn’t take long to find an apartment. Priority for us was LOTS of outdoor space – after having spent 4 months of lockdown last year in an apartment with no balcony or outdoor space (in León), we were determined that if we were going to be locked down again we wouldn’t be cooped up. Our apartment is a good-sized 3 bedroom townhouse with a large yard. We really like it – for 800 Euros/month rent it’s probably the nicest apartment we’ve ever had (nicer and bigger than the condo I sold in Montreal a few years back).
So we’ve got a good life here. Cost of living is good, locals are friendly, there’s no winter to really speak of (summer is something else. I’ll get to that soon). We’re spending a lot of time in our backyard and doing a lot of gardening. Getting that outdoor space was the best thing we’ve done.
As we wrote last October, Nerja is perfect for the times. We are thankful to have a beautiful and safe home while the whole world is seemingly going to shit. Whether or not Nerja will be our long-term home is another matter. But we’ll re-evaluate that in a few years.
Renewing a Non-Lucrative Residence Visa
I’m previously mentioned bureaucracy. It’s not unique to Spain, anyone moving anywhere will face bureaucracy. But it’s a bit tiring. After all the work involved with the Non-lucrative visa (including getting our identity cards upon arriving in Spain. That was a headache), registering for our padron at town hall, looking into Spanish taxes, going through the steps of getting a digital certificate, and registering for our vaccine shots, I just felt that I had it with paperwork (the list above doesn’t include our Canadian taxes and also taking care of Lissette’s US taxes).
Then I looked at the calendar a few weeks ago and realized that it was time to renew our Visas (your window for renewing a Spanish non-lucrative Visa is 2 months prior to its expiry to 3 months after its expiry). I decided this time I would use a lawyer*. I still had to gather up all the paperwork including getting a new letter from my bank and getting it translated, but I didn’t have to worry about dealing with government agencies. I handed everything off to my lawyer last week and everything was filed.
*Cost in case anyone is curious: 350 Euros/person + the 21% VAT. A bit expensive for the amount of work she had to put in. But honestly I just couldn’t take dealing with it myself this time around…
The renewal will give us 2 more years on the Visa. After that, we’ll have to renew one last time. Upon completion of those additional 2 years we’ll have permanent residency in Spain. That’ll be a happy day.
All about the Non-Lucrative Residence Visa.
Getting my Spanish Driver’s License
If you’re from Canada or the US, your license from home is not transferable and you have to go through a series of tests (medical, theoretical, and practical) to get your Spanish driving license.
A couple of weeks ago I did the “Medical” tests. It’s means going to a clinic that’s governmentally approved to do Medical tests for your Spanish license. We have a clinic here in Nerja (Vithas) and I went there. I was asked some standard questions about smoking, drug use, alcohol, use of glasses…but the main test is a large clunky machine that looks like a video game from the 1980’s. The “game” has 2 lines (lanes), one to the right and one to the left, and each line has a ball in the middle of it. When the game starts, the lanes start moving around and you have to keep the ball from going outside the lanes using a bunch of levers. Whenever the ball goes outside the lane, the machine makes loud emergency sounds similar to those of a plane going down. It wasn’t easy keeping eyes on both lanes at the same time. But the margin for error is high and I passed.
So over the next month I have to take my theoretical driving test. I’m studying for that now. The test involved 30 multiple answer questions. You have to get at least 90% to pass, which means you can’t have more than 3 errors.
I’ll write more on the whole process of getting a driver’s license. For now I’m including this post, which is the best post I’ve found on the process of getting your Spanish driver’s license.
Not loving summer in Nerja
If you like hot and humid summers, then you might like Nerja. We don’t like it one bit. It actually reminds us of Montreal (and New York). So you might be looking at the weather in Spain and thinking “Wow, it’s 46C in Seville but only 33 in Malaga!”. But you’re not getting the full picture. The humidity more than makes up for the difference along the coast. A few years we spent 2 months in Seville in the summer and didn’t suffer half as much as we have in Nerja this summer. The heat has meant us moving our bed from the upstairs bedroom to downstairs where it’s a lot cooler (we have AC units on both floors. But the one upstairs doesn’t seem to reach the main bedroom). We’ve spent the last 3 weeks sleeping in the living room.
Locals here do the same as locals did in Split (Croatia) where we lived a few years ago – they stay indoors through most of the summer. When they go out it’s in the mornings and evenings.
It’s not just the humidity. It’s also the mosquitos. They have “Asian Tiger Mosquitos” along most of the coasts of Spain – it’s an invasive species from Southeast Asia. What makes them different from ordinary mosquitos is that they’re out during the day and they’ve very, very aggressive. Even if you’re swatting them away they keep coming for you.
In fact Lissette has compared summer in Spain to the 2nd Hunger Games movie (“Catching Fire”) where there’s seemingly a rotating clock bringing you different challenges. In early May it was an invasion of ants, then it was mayflies, then it was the mosquitos. Then a few weeks ago it was cicadas making a racket…now we seem to be coming into the period of the cockroaches. Yesterday was the first time we’ve encountered a cockroach in the apartment. I walked into the kitchen to see a large cockroach strolling around the floor like he owned the place. By the time I found a shoe to smack it it had disappeared under the dishwasher. Urgg. I have nightmares about roaches. What’s next? Killer hornets?
Anyway, we’re looking forward to Autumn. And next year I think we want to be away from Nerja this time of year. Anyone want to rent an apartment in beautiful, tropical Nerja for the summer? You’re assured of experiencing a lot of nature 🙂
The State of the World
If you’re wondering why I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog it’s pretty much a reflection on the world right now. In June and July there was an upbeat mood – everyone (including us) was getting vaccinated. Europe was opening back up, curfews and other restrictions were coming down. Traffic on our blog was back up to more “normal” levels as people thought of travel again.
That was just a tease. Then came the Delta variant. I don’t know about you, but we’ve felt the mood here deflate like a popped balloon. And I’ve seen it in blog traffic and interaction. It’s just not a good time and I think that the brief window of optimism just made everything worse. It’s made people question when things will ever go back to normal (or to the “new normal”) ever again.
People don’t really want to read about travel these days. And where in the past we could write about Covid and that state of things in Spain, people don’t want to hear it anymore. People are sick of hearing about Covid.
But we’re looking forward to the next few months….
I’m going to sound like an asshole when I say this: but I can’t wait for summer to be finished so the hordes go back to work and school. I know I say it every year. In the past it was because we were travelling full-time and all the tourists in the summer resulted in packed cities/towns and inflated accommodation costs. It’s why we would often ride summer out in places like Lviv (Ukraine) or Brno (Czech Republic).
Autumn means locals taking back their cities, fewer people on the roads, cooler temperatures, and back-to-normal accommodation costs.
For us it’ll mean visiting a lot of towns and cities in Andalucia. I’m also looking forward to doing some hiking in the mountains (the Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama).
We’re also looking forward to working on our Youtube videos. Over the last few weeks we’ve had fun doing videos and it’s even gotten us out of bed at 6 am a couple of times to film the sun coming up over the mountains. It’s something new that we’re enjoying (we just did a video entitled “The Spanish Beer Challenge” that you may like).
Finally, I’m really looking forward to a 3 week trip to visit my mom in Mexico (one of my favorite countries) in November. We’re planning to see a whole bunch of places we haven’t previously been. It’s taken a while but I find myself really looking forward to travelling again. I’m just crossing my fingers that the Delta situation doesn’t get worse…
Stay safe and thanks for Reading!
This is all good information to have. I hate the bureaucracy part but there is nothing you can really do about that. I prefer to live in more, cooler areas too because this “summer” weather does not seem great. Any recommendations on more fall/winter type spanish cities or towns would be great.
Thanks Nick. That would be the north (Bilbao, San Sebastian, the Galicia region…).
Hello Frank and Lissette,
Not to tire you about Covid etc. but angers me too hearing the BS from the unwilling to vaccinate, and I know a few who actually died of it (neighbors). Go figure the loonies and their hoax. Myself and my husband Moshe just got our 3rd (booster shot). We did travel to Israel three months ago and it was a nightmare getting through with all their required Covid testing, but was great to find out I have a “Huge” level of antibodies as protection and so does my husband. We had to do a serology test to stay there.
About heat and humidity, living all my life with it, my take is that age does it to all of us, less being able to tolerate it. Here in Florida, it’s year round but as we moved to the central part of the state, it is much cooler at least in the winter. I believe you both will get used to it, just not roaches for me too.
I still want to return to Spain after our last visit in late 2019, it’s on my list and hope can make it sooner than later. Your photos are awesome too. Both stay well and most importantly HEALTHY!
Hi Sara!
I’m sorry for the late reply, I’ve been bad lately. Got my fingers in too many pies.
Yes, you’ve got a great governor down there. Heard that they judged it illegal for companies to have vaccine/negative test requirements – and that Norwegian Cruise Lines is suing them. That’s just ridiculous, can you image after what the Cruise industry has gone through that they can’t regulate who comes on their ships when docking in Florida? I don’t know if he’s a popular governor down there but that’s just playing silly buggers as my British boss used to say.
Glad you got to travel to Israel. They’re so strict with everything that I’m sure getting in wasn’t easy. But I’m sure you felt safe there.
Montreal, of all places, is a swamp in summer. So I’ve dealt with humidity before. But I hate it. I think if we stay long term in Nerja we’ll have to travel elsewhere between the 1st of June and the end of August. Even now in mid September we can see a pleasant difference…
Stay safe Sara and Moshe! Lissette sends her greetings!
PS. The roach seemed to have been a 1 time thing. Haven’t seen one since and keeping fingers crossed we’ll never see one in here again.
Hi,
Totally agree with you re: governor DeSantis vs. Norwegian. He is Wrong! although I voted him in and he is popular because Fl. (except the south) is mostly republican. He is still wrong. That said, we need a vacation and wanted to take a Panama cruise. Do you think it is still risky? we felt safe in Israel because when we were there they had zero cases and by July it started all over again an cases spiked out of control, because they relaxed travel restrictions and the Delta variant. This means that we are stuck for a long time.
I actually think you and Lissette got it done perfect in Spain where you are, I am envious.
Well, enjoy the next great seasons to come and lets hear more of you.
Sara Y.
Got a question for you Sara or even Frank = Do you feel the summertime humidity in let’s say Valencia Spain or anywhere on the southern Spanish coast is as bad as Florida?
We are taking our third trip to Spain next year to try to finalize a potential home base and I was hoping the summer is going to be somewhat better then Florida which I have lived through my entire life so far.
Also Frank’s mention of mosques surprised me. I also would like to find a place that reduces the amount of insects we have in Florida.
Hi Eddie,
I haven’t been to Valencia in summer so I can’t compare. Haven’t spent much time in Florida either (but did spend time in Cuba) and that’s pretty intense humidity…I think worse than anywhere in Spain.
Warning though: those Tiger mosquitos really bad and if you go to the expat pages it’s all everyone complains about. They’re invasive and started along Spain’s coast around 2014. Now they’re along most of Mediterranean Spain. Such an issue that next year we’ll be doing our gardening accordingly (no more plants that need daily watering. We’ll be sticking to cactus and bougainvillea).
Hi Eddie,
To answer your question, we kind of adjusted to FL heat and humidity. For one, AC is available everywhere…almost, which is not the case in Europe or other part of t h e world. Yes, m mosquitos are bad. I’ll would, if I can, move to Spain though. Good luck.
Moving house is stressful enough, moving to a new country is a whole new level of stress. My sister moved to England over two years ago and she often described it as being born again, since you need to start from scratch with documentation, finding a new home, buying a car etc. I love that she lives near me now.
Your new home sounds lovely and I am glad you have such good outdoor spaces. Filling it with beautiful plants and flowers will be wonderful…I never imagined you guys having such “green fingers “😄
“Green Thumb” Gilda? I only get green fingers when I stick them up my nose 🙂 We actually had a lot of plants when we lived in Montreal but it’s very different here – here we don’t have to worry about bringing everything in the winter. We bought a lot of plants but my favorites are the bougainvillea and cactus which basically need very little maintenance. We have some beautiful and weird cactus of all kinds that have just taken off with very little care…so much so that we’ll have to re-pot them in coming months. I think at some point I want to do a video on that because there’s some stuff I wish I had known about plants here before going out and buying all the plants we did.
Your sister is absolutely right. It is like whole new life. In a way, I don’t feel we’ve really experienced much because of the times. Just haven’t integrated at all. The people we meet are mostly from the local stores we go to. But that’ll hopefully change with time as things get back to normal. I’m still hoping to join a hiking group and Lissette wants to do yoga. But it all takes time…
I hope your plans to see your mother in November won’t be spoiled. I still like to read or watch some travel stuff now and then but whenever I catch a video of someone traveling these days I get quite mournful!
Yes, the exhaustion is real and it’s impossible to see any light at the end of the tunnel. While small parts of the world have started with booster shots, we still have less than 10% of our population fully vaccinated. I have a family member that has been living an almost hermit life not getting vaccinated and asking just two weeks ago what the Delta variant was! He was skeptical of the number of deaths that happened during the last horrific wave and the actual numbers are 10 times what the official numbers are. The number of people I knew who died from this is shocking.
Hmm…. For some reason, my original longer comment wasn’t accepted so I’ll try posting the rest in a second one.
I don’t remember it being that humid in NY. Northern Virginia was definitely worse but nothing compares to Indian humidity and mosquitoes! I knew a long time ago that Bangalore is the only city in India I could survive in because we have the closest thing to a dry temperate climate. The mosquitoes used to eat me alive before we moved to a 15th story apartment two years ago. I like not worrying about getting a mosquito-borne disease. That used to be the danger here before the pandemic.
You’re the 2nd person it’s happened to Claudine. My IT guy tweaked the security a bit so should be ok going forward. Thanks for letting me know.
I can’t imagine what it must be like in India, it’s the place I always associate with humidity. Didn’t know that about Bangalore, interesting.
Bangalore is on a plateau right in the middle of south India. It used to be wonderful – full of greenery and flowers and the best city weather for the Brits. It’s a young city compared to all the others so we don’t have much in the way of old architecture and monuments. Now it’s the silicon valley of India, very cosmopolitan, and has a thriving craft beer scene.
It has also become a bit of a dust bowl with hot summers and much dryer than before but we still only have to suffer through the worst heat for about 3 months of the year. It can go to 38-40 degrees C and we have 3 seasons (hot & dry, wet but not 24/7, and cool & dry) with mosquitos all though the year. Not that bad if you compare that to 35-37C with 90% humidity in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatta with mosquitos all the time except when they’re drowning in the rain (they only have 2 seasons – hot and wet). Delhi has 3 seasons too but in the extreme and has absolutely no greenery – 45-50 C!
You make India sound very appealing Claudine! 🙂
Yes, every day that’s passing I feel we’re cutting into the time we have left. 18 months now that our lives have all been on hold. Mournful is a good word for it.
I get angry with these idiots because in many places they’re holding everyone back. There’s never going to be herd immunity because not enough people as a percentage are getting vaccinated. So they’ll always be some people with Covid and that will only produce more variants. Meanwhile, people in poorer countries WANT to be vaccinated but there’s not enough supply.
Who’s going to be travelling to places like India or South Africa now or in the near future? It’ll really impact so many economies…
There’s lots of vaccine hesitancy here too, Frank. It’s mostly amongst the uneducated. It’s not a thing here yet because our vaccination rate is still so low and there are enough people who want to get it but can’t. Those of us that can afford it are trying to get as many poorer families signed up but it’s a battle.
Your description of summer had me laughing. Welcome to my world. We live near Washington, DC, the original swamp of the United States. Summers are HOT and HUMID. As someone who grew up and lived her entire life on the west coast the heat and humidity sucks the life out of me. I’m fairly certain I will never be able to acclimate.
Mosquitoes during the summer here in the swamp are relentless. Miserable. We keep tubes of anti-itch cream in every room. Cicadas. We have annual cicadas every year, but we tend to hear them more than we see them. Thankfully. However, this summer was the once every 17-year emergence of Brood X cicadas and there were millions (and millions) of them across 15 states on the east coast and parts of the midwest. Lucky us, the DC/Maryland region was the epicenter.
I suffer greatly with entomophia and I knew I’d never survive the emergence. We took a 4-week road trip. By the time we got home the emergence was over, but the females were still in a flying frenzy so I was indoors for a couple of weeks until they died off. The one thing we do not have is roaches. Thank the stars. But, I can’t tolerate anything in the house so we have quarterly pest control service.
Completely agree with your assessment of the state of the world. It’s exhausting on so many levels. I’m counting the days until fall when I’ll be able to breathe again. 31 days.
Take care and hello to Lissette.
Ugg about your description of summer. I like the sun but I have issues with humidity. People associate Montreal with cold but it’s a cesspool in summer with the humidity. And Lissette always complained about New York summers.
I also spent a few years on the West Coast (Vancouver and Vancouver Island). Was beautiful weather. Not so much this year…
Take care Patti (and Abi)
You might want to try Scandinavia in the summer. It’s generally nice at this time of year. Right now I am back in the US, in Missouri. Delta is everywhere here and so many are unvaccinated. My brother has had covid twice! An antigen test revealed that. He’s finally figured out that maybe he should get vaccinated. Both of his adult children have had one or the other variant of covid and so have their children! I know we are all tired of the pandemic but I am also tired of people not taking it seriously!
Hi Edith,
Don’t get me started. We have a bunch that come on the blog who all still think it’s a hoax. I just can’t be bothered anymore, people like that are – at this point – a lost cause.
We’re hoping that by next summer we can do some travel through Western Europe. Haven’t been to Scandinavia yet and it’s on our list.
Why are you back Edith? Getting back to Europe soon?
A hoax?? That would be pretty laughable if it weren’t so serious. I have known so many who have gotten ill. Some mildly and some seriously. No one I know personally has died.
Anyway, my mother passed away in May so I am here trying to settle the estate.
You mentioned taxes. You could do a blog post on the US-Spain tax treaty in general terms. That could be interesting.
Yes, some people still think it’s a hoax. All a big conspiracy.
Take care Edith!