As writers, designers, marketers and social media people we are members of various organisations in these fields. One of these is WABAS – Writers And Bloggers About Spain – which links professionals active across the length and breadth of Spain through the medium of a Facebook group. The latter is of course an ideal medium for this, as it allows members to interact, exchange information, give advice and enter into dialogue on a far bigger and more interactive scale than the bilateral forms of communication we’ve been used to so far.

The members of WABAS, now numbering around 150, do all these things, and while some are more active than others the one thing that is required of them is that they contribute in some way or another. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten years old this year, Manifesto Design is the design and marketing company founded by expat couple Michel and Jackie Cruz, who moved to Spain some 15 years ago.

Now longstanding residents of Marbella, they have made a life for themselves, building a good name as reliable and skilled professionals, and creating a company that has weathered the recession well and is showing renewed growth and vigour. Read the rest of this entry »

By guest blogger Ash Bolton

I arrived in the small Spanish village of Roncesvalles in the north east of Spain late on a rather depressing looking Saturday evening in September, just as the skies turned dark with rain and released a torrential downpour.

Sprinting off the bus with a heavy backpack weighing me down, I ran to the municipal albergue (subsidised shelters along the Pilgrimage route) but got soaked to the bone within a minute and was already questioning whether this adventure was such a good idea. The plan had been to catch a taxi over the Pyrenees and into France, to reach the traditional starting point of the Camino Francés, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, but a quick look for said taxi proved fruitless, so I took this as a welcome sign that fate was telling me to start here. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of Andalucía and enjoy many of the exotic experiences that are unique to this southernmost part of Europe. So I like to think I know it pretty well, and travelling to Algeciras to hook up with a group of journalists and PR people I thought I had the measure of the press trip we were about to embark upon.

I hadn’t counted on the sheer enthusiasm and knowledge of organiser Manni Coe, the founder of Toma Tours and re-discoverer of the route we were about to follow. His detailed knowledge of southern Spain is born out of a passion for its culture, history and people that also shapes the fantastic tours he puts together. Read the rest of this entry »

In my previous blog you will have read all about our adventures in and around the fair town of Potenza. If not, go right back to start and catch up before reading on…

So having chanced upon the wondrous Laghi di Monticchio after our laborious travails through the hills of Basilicata, we promised ourselves to come back and explore this little hidden paradise properly. This is exactly what we did a few days later, following the much easier route from Calitri along the gently winding valley road en route to Melfi. Well before that town, however, you turn off and upwards towards Rionero in Vulture. Read the rest of this entry »