Incredible but true ! Ten years ago, on a stormy night on November 2, 2012, my husband and I arrived in Ronda with a few suitcases. The few other earthly goods that we had not donated, donated, sold, recycled or thrown away were in a warehouse in Canada. We had previously spent one night in Ronda, and now we were there indefinitely. The plan was to stay in the city for a few months before setting off in search of our little Andalusian paradise. But eventually we realized that we had found “paradise” here.

How has the transformation of a metropolitan cosmopolitan into an adopted Andalusian villager taken place in ten years?

• We became familiar with the Spanish bureaucracy as we searched, found, bought and renovated a ruin after an archaeological dig and more than two years of waiting for a building permit.
• I had to learn two new languages ​​- Spanish and Andalusian”.
• We had to get a Spanish driver’s license after driving for 70 years, and the first Spanish book I read cover to cover was 318 pages on Spanish traffic rules.
• We got a housing estate and immediately understood that we had no idea of ​​planting in the south.
• My account of 21st century transatlantic immigration has been published in book form in the United States.
• We became politically active – me as the founder of Ronda’s first voluntary environmental association and vice-president of the organization of public roads and my husband as a health specialist for local television and a speaker for the association the city’s cancer campaign.
• The neighbors’ children came for help with their English homework. Then came their teachers…
• We became members of the Pasos Largos mountain hiking association and had confirmation that Andalusians are real badass.
• I started freelancing for five magazines and became an editor for Det Norske Magazineet
• We survived seven weeks locked in our little house and two years blindfolded.
• My book has been translated into Spanish and will be published with the 2nd English edition by a Spanish publisher very early.
• A real rOndena gave me a flamenco dress, but to her great disappointment I never learned to dance La Sevillana…

Our decade in Andalusia has been filled with joys and challenges. I still can’t help but pinch my arm to make sure it’s true – that it really is our home. It is a privilege that I hope we will never take for granted.

In this issue of the magazine you can read the story of a Norwegian couple who also found their Andalusian dream place – La Urraca in Casarabonela. We visited the historic mansion and met the hosts Kjersti and Eivind, who single-handedly run the farm and the beautiful guesthouse.

Another memorable encounter was with Tulle Elster, who here shares her incredible and colorful experiences as a tour guide for the first charter tours on the Costa del Sol in the early 1960s. You can read the first part of the report in this magazine. The second part arrives in December.

For all of you who have found your dream place in Andalucia, and for those of you who may still be searching for the right place – enjoy the process and enjoy every day you spend in this wonderful region of southern Spain.