Everyday life in El Puerto de Santa Maria
Daniel and John moved to El Puerto de Santa Maria in 2019 and were featured on “A Place in the Sun”. We covered their story of moving to El Puerto de Santa Maria last year: a story of integrating in the community, learning a new language and buying/renovating a house and starting their own business.
A bit over a year later, Daniel and John are renting out their apartments and building their own home. And “A Place in the Sun” is back and filming them for a January 2025 episode. But there’s more: Daniel’s written some great stories here about being gay in Andalusia, about Puerto’s colourful Feria and about their psychic butcher. A great read.
Name: Daniel Cairns
Age: 34
Country of Origin: UK
Number of years living in Spain: 4 years
Hi Daniel! Nice to have you back again. Can you give us an update on what you’ve been up to since last year?
Since last year we have completed renovating another part of our home and converted it into a studio apartment. This part of the house used to be a video store in the 80s and more recently a bar where chirigotas practiced their songs for carnival. I painted something inspired by an old carnival poster and John’s mum managed to find some old videos that we will use as book ends as little reminders of the past.
We’ve also started on the final part of the project which is designing a space for where we will actually live. It’s rather refreshing to design a place where we will call home. A home that will be just for us. We have been imagining and discussing how we will live in it rather than the practicalities of how other people will use a certain space (as we have with the apartments we’ve built). It feels like it’s finally our turn and it’s our biggest challenge yet.
Since last year I think we have been in a much better rhythm. Before the summer started there was a period of panic at the prospect of so much going on at one time.
We have spent much more time not working at the weekends. John says I’ve got a tan this year because we’ve been to the beach so much. It has made us much more relaxed. If only if someone told us this sooner, I jest but it makes sense doesn’t it. Though our ability to host people and the jobs we do improve because we are more relaxed. Afterall there is no sense in working away continuously without breaks.
We’ve started Spanish classes again. Mainly to improve accents and vocabulary and it seemed like the right time for us to improve. We’ve also got into loads of lazy habits when speaking. We use simple grammar to get our point across, with the drawback being it doesn’t sound that intelligent or exciting. What is life without a bit of tantalizing conversation. The desire to improve is strong. The language journey was always going to be long; I couldn’t pronounce my sister’s name until I was 10, John had his own learning difficulties growing up. With one of his teachers even saying he would never be able to speak a foreign language. It’s funny how one person’s comments can last a lifetime. When someone says you can’t do something, it’s an opportunity to prove that you can. I’m sure John would attest it feels fantastic when you prove them wrong.
You mentioned to me that your short-term lets business has come along well. Who’s your typical client, why do they come and how long do they stay?
Our guests in the summer are exclusively Spanish, coming from places such as Seville, Granada, Cordoba to escape the heat of the cities and enjoy the beautiful beaches in the area (which are famous for the light breeze). Though last year we started seeing many more guests from the North of Spain, either fancying themselves a car trip or with flights from Barcelona and Palma into Jerez it has just made the area much more accessible.
El Puerto de Santa María is the “IN” place to be currently. It attracts people from diverse and varying backgrounds. I think this is because there is something for everyone here, you just need to know where to look. As it is so popular in the summer, I would advise, if you are not restricted by children’s term times or needing to take holiday in July or August, to come another month. Our families have visited us in May, June, September, October and have been surprised by the weather each time, spending plentiful time at the beach. The temperatures are slightly more bearable to walk places, visit other towns occasionally as well as relax by the river or sea. You can also avoid the crowds, walk into a restaurant without needing a reservation. It sometimes feels like I have the beach to myself.
From September onwards we seem to attract a much more international crowd. Couples, digital nomads, retired couples and young families taking advantage of maternity leave. Guests from this time onwards can stay for a few weeks but up to 10 months. Guests in the summer are normally beach, dinner and drinks kind of guests. There are guests like this in the winter but the longer stays bring with them the opportunity to explore. As fellow adventurers it is this possibility that we enjoy talking to our guests about and actively encourage.
Our highlight from this year was renting a car for a trip to Tarifa to do some whale watching. The sea was rough adding to the sense of danger and adventure but that was soon forgotten as the speeding boat stopped and we were surrounded by a pod of 100 dolphins jumping out of the water. Every movement in the water was investigated as we continued and saw 3 different types of dolphins, 3 different types of whales. Oh, and a sunfish. As we sat having a relaxing drink afterwards, we realised it would be a day we would remember forever. As soon as we got home, we rather overexcitedly (resembling two young children) told our guests, though in retrospect the enthusiasm was well received because they went themselves the next day.
You mentioned to me that “A place in the Sun” is back filming you. Can you tell us about that?
We did indeed film another episode with Place in the Sun. It was super fun as we went kayaking and had a race with the presenter. Although we were outraged when the presenter ‘won’ the kayak race, the starting times being heavily staged… alas the magic of TV!
In all seriousness, we enjoyed sharing our lifestyle as well as what we’ve accomplished. It was lovely to receive messages from people hoping to do something similar, inspired by a place where we call home.
Our opinion has not changed; Spain and El Puerto de Santa Maria are great places to live and we continue to enjoy exploring Spain and spending our day to day lives in El Puerto, eating churros and drinking coffee as much as possible.
Fuelled by the desire to showcase the business more and the inability to sit still, I put us forward to film with a different production company and programme called ¨A New Life in the Sun¨ which is ‘a fly on the wall’ format, following expats in different countries as they run a business.
They have been filming us since February and will finish in October. (2024). It was slightly more labour intensive that I thought. Quite honestly, I found it difficult to be filmed when things weren’t going right but I guess it wouldn’t be real without showing the things going wrong as well right. From rewatching previous episodes of other couples, it is quite clear that everyone has the best of intentions at heart but sometimes things just don’t go to plan.
Recently a group of girls flooded one of the apartments. They had managed to pull a tube out of the wall and had left the apartment with a tap running for approximately 8 hours. So, you can imagine that the aftermath was complete and utter chaos. It was one way of getting the swimming pool I’ve been asking for. John managed to fix the problem within a few hours, and I cleaned the apartment as if nothing had happened. Dealt with calmly, efficiently and professionally. Hilariously there wasn’t a camara following us that day to catch our effective resolution skills in action.
However, filming the area again gave us the opportunity to showcase one of our most favourite times of the year: the feria. The most famous feria (or fair) being in Seville is magical, but unless you are well connected you are going all that way to stand in the street as you need to be on a guest list to enter the tents. The feria of Jerez is grand, we go every year and dine in a rather luxurious restaurant as a treat (right by the fairground but the event is sometimes crowded). The feria of El Puerto de Santa Maria, as Goldilocks said, is just right!! It’s a 20 minutes’ walk from home. On the way you can feel the excitement building as you get closer to the music and cheering fairground. I walk with purpose, but I have a look at all the beautiful outfits, I absolutely love it when families have all matching outfits of traditional gitana dresses.
About 75 bars and restaurants are at El Puerto’s feria, with many from the centre of town closing their central location to relocate for a week once a year to open a caseta / tent in the feria. It’s a celebration of horses, sherry, flamenco with dancing and singing. Then you have all the fairground rides, games, and of course there is a Ferris wheel where you can appreciate the grandeur and allure of the beautiful lights decorating the temporary new party town that a few months ago didn’t exist.
Fireworks open and close the feria and everyone has their photo taken at the main entrance where a massive bull made of lights welcomes you.
What is infectious is that everyone is so happy and there to have fun. It is common for us to walk around and see our neighbours who will then invite us for a spontaneous drink of rebujito (fino sherry mixed with lemonade) traditionally drunk out of shot glasses, but you are meant to sip the drink. It’s hard not to down it, let’s just write that one off as a clash with English culture.
People complain about the bureaucracy involved in operating a business in Spain. What’s been your experience? Do you have a lawyer or accountant taking care of your paperwork? Can you tell us everything that’s involved in starting a business?
It is one of the most painful aspects of living in Spain. We have accountants in Spain and the UK to ensure we are doing what is necessary. We have in the past done things by ourselves, seeing it as a challenge or a free Spanish lesson. Most things you must do face-to-face. This is helpful sometimes but when you arrive at 14.00 and are told you can only talk to someone face-to-face before 13.00 it can be frustrating. However, we have no regrets about hiring accountants. It is one thing I suggest everyone does, and to be honest it’s too complicated not to.
One of things we needed to do was to obtain a tourist license to be able to rent out the house. I went to the relevant place and asked the man on the desk for the form.
“We don’t do that here, you’re in the wrong place” he replied.
“No, you do. My friend got one here.” I insisted.
He tried to dismiss me once more.
“Can you ask a colleague if you are not sure?” I asked with a smile.
He punched some numbers into the phone evidently sulking to be quickly corrected.
I was in the right place after all.
A week later I had the license and access to the system that I use to check-in guests. It’s a legal requirement in Andalucia.
We are far from being experts about starting a business. In fact, a lot of it is learning and adapting as you go whilst trying to give the impression you are cooler than a cucumber. John is better at this than me.
The one thing I would say is that 100% determination is required. There will be bad days as well as good. You need to be the type of person to be able to bulldoze through the bad without it affecting your momentum forward.
You’ve previously mentioned the friendly locals. How has your integration progressed with time? Do you still feel welcome in the community?
The people of El Puerto are a type of friendly you cannot find anywhere else. A perfect mix of caring, loving and at the same time silly and often a little mad. In the city of Cadiz, I was once asked,
“Why do you live in El Puerto? Don’t you find the people weird?”
Well, my honest answer would be, “Yes but it does make life very entertaining.”
The people of El Puerto de Santa Maria have their hearts in the right place, and they know how to prioritize friends, family and fun.
We still regularly go to parties at the butchers. This isn’t a common thing in El Puerto, it is just in our butcher. Every week there are tortilla sandwiches galore and about 20 litres of beer. Conversations can range from the latest beauty trend to more serious political issues. It is funny to think when we first arrived here, I was too nervous to go inside, knowing I would have to talk, and they would find it hard to understand my accent or lack of Spanish back then.
One of our neighbours moved away but she still comes back to the butchers every day just to have a little chat and see everyone.
The smaller shops are important to the neighbourhood and its inhabitants so even if you’re visiting, please use them.
It still surprises us how kind and very accepting people are. We’ve had a few messages from couples, families who are part of the LGBT community who ask what it is like to be a gay couple in the area.
I normally tell them about the signs posted around the city that translate to things such as “Love is Love.”
How the local LGBT group meet up with parents and their teenagers in the local square to answer any questions over sexuality they may have. Quite a public place to have such discussions and to see so many awkward teenagers embarrassed by their parents but as always, the thought and caring natural is there.
I also like to bring up the pride celebrations. Unlike other prides around the world, it is an inclusive event for the whole family. With young children waving rainbow flags in time to the music. This year’s pride mainly consisted of silly dancing in one of the main squares to such classics as, “Follow the leader.” The DJ played until the early hours of the morning, and everyone danced until the last song.
When I go to the beach I normally people watch, I like to make up stories and I love to watch as the families just relax, play games and obviously just enjoy spending time together.
One of the local beaches happens to also be a rather popular spot for gay men. On the beach it’s just scantily clad men walking up and down on the beach looking for other scantily clad men to “talk” to. Most beach goers are none the wiser and completely unaware of the “heated debates.”
There were two particularly attractive, muscly men walking up and down the beach in speedos. They were walking past a large local family of multiple generations, young children to grandparents. When a lady looked up at the two men and gave them an approving look.
“Oi,” she shouted.
“If you’re looking for boys, my son is an attractive gay man,” she said pointing at her son.
The whole family and the two guys in speedos erupted into laughter and her son in his 30s laughed though his cheeks dashed red.
“Thanks, Mum.” He mouthed.
She shrugged her shoulders seemingly unaware of why everyone found it so funny.
I’ve told this story to a few of our Spanish friends, and though laughter they said, “typical El Puerto, typical Andalucía!”
What do you recommend people do in El Puerto de Santa Maria? How do your guests stay busy?
In our last article I already mentioned bird watching in the salt marshes and sherry tasting in the bodega. We prefer the smaller local bodegas for what feels like a more authentic experience but as I say that I realise that just last week we went to a different bodega that I had previously dismissed as too touristy and too sanitized. It ended up being highly enjoyable. So, turns out any bodega will do.
We’ve also today recommended the Feria which is suitable and fun for the whole family.
More recently we’ve enjoyed watching live music and concerts. There is a jazz club called Stardust and Milwaukee where we’ve seen some good bands. We have also attended some of the concerts by candlelight that you may have seen advertised. We have loved the chance to listen to the music of ABBA and Queen, it almost felt like the perfect marriage of old memories from a previous life mixed with our new life here in Spain. My Dad used to pick me up from work and we used to listen to ABBA on the way home. John’s group of friends like to reenact the video for Queen’s “I want to Break Free” more often than I’m willing to admit. It was poetic to be transported from memories of the past, whilst sat in beautiful prestigious Andalusian settings with such historical providence. Castillo San Marcos in El Puerto and the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art in Jerez de la Frontera.
It seems like a complete luxury to have so much access and to be able to enjoy such an eclectic mix of live music.
Our guests have told us they love the chiringuitos / bar / restaurants on the beaches. So, when guests are staying for a longer period of time, I like to do a tour of all the beaches by bike. It’s a great way for newbies to the area to pick a favourite. I like jumping up and down in the waves at Las Redes, but someone might like to swim in the calmer waters at Playa Puntilla. However, without fail we end the tour at one of the chiringuitos normally for brunch at the beach furthest away, so we have some energy for the way back. I remember last winter we were sat there in November and the lady I was with just turned and said to me, “I feel like I’m on my summer holidays.” As the sun beamed down on us and the beach goers who were in and out of the sea, I guess I could see why. “Bit different from the temperatures I left back home!!!” She said.
What does El Puerto de Santa Maria offer in terms of food experiences? Whether your guest or not: what do you recommend to people coming to town?
Me and John like to eat out at least once a week. I would say it isn’t unusual to eat out two or three times when we are busy. Disclaimer: I am not including my spontaneous trips to the ice cream parlour. When we are just the two of us, we love to eat out at new places always looking for the new cool place to go, but we also have places that we go to again, again and again.
De Gonzalo Bar
When guests haven’t visited the area before and when someone asks for traditional Andalusian food, we recommend De Gonzalo Bar. It is a great restaurant to introduce the delightful dishes of the area. The owner is one of our neighbours and he has very welcoming and attentive staff. The menu mainly consists of stews and different fried fish. Our favourite dishes are the seasoned carrots, (zanahoria alinadas), white flat fish in breadcrumbs (mero empanado) and shrimp deep fried pancakes (tortillas de camarones.). When we are busy mid-week, we will come here to eat because we know the food is going to be good and we can normally eat and drink for around 20 – 30 euros.
La Bodeguilla del bar Jamón
Another firm favourite is the restaurant almost opposite De Gonzalo Bar on the main street. We tend to go to La Bodeguilla del bar Jamon for a treat at the weekend. The menu offers great local produce and wines. It’s slightly more formal and I would say a meal for two normally costs us around 50 – 70 euros. Depending on how much of our favourite wine we’ve had to drink (Quadis). We absolutely love the tuna tartar with gazpacho sorbet, the large croqueta of almonds (croqueton) and we take it turns to order the different pork dishes which in our opinion are all great.
Los Portales
Our place for special occasions would be Los Portales. Again, we are taking it up a notch with price and formality. (90 – 110 euros roughly for the 2 of us). We like to reserve a table in the bar part of the restaurant as it seems more casual and relaxed than the room at the back, nor are you disturbed by the road in the front. Every time we go, we attempt to try different dishes but find it next to impossible not to order the meatballs with oyster sauce. They have a great selection of novelty alcohol so take some time to explore the extensive row after row of bottles.
Honestly it would be easier to write a list of restaurants I wouldn’t recommend, and the list would be relatively small, and it would normally be over something minimal. However, when there are so many choices, and the quality is high you are bound to get a little fussy. I mentioned before that one of the reasons we moved back to the area was that when we went to the UK, we couldn’t believe how bad the food was.
Whilst we are on the subject of food and before I get too ridiculously hungry: another experience we’ve really enjoyed are the tapas tours. Around 20 restaurants create a plate especially for the tapas tours that signal the beginning of spring and autumn. You can enjoy them at your leisure, but if you go to 6 different restaurants and have the official paper you can get a stamp at each restaurant and enter the competition which normally has a cash prize. We attempt to do all 6 in an evening, which results normally in hilarity. It’s also a competition between the restaurants and you vote for your favourite dish. The competition’s last winner was another of our favourite restaurants, we’ve been going to La Micaela Tapas-Bar, since the very beginning of our love affair with El Puerto de Santa Maria. Their plate was squid meat balls cooked in fino sherry with caramelised carrot, it proved so popular that they added it to their permanent menu, hopefully forever.
Whatever restaurant you decide on choosing I’m pretty sure the odds are forever in your favour and you will have a fantastic meal. To finish any excellent meal, we recommend you enjoy the delights of Soler, ice cream parlour. Strawberry cheesecake ice cream for me and I personally think everyone judges John for his choice of Tutti Frutti. Poor John! They also have a great selection of cakes.
How do you see your business evolving Daniel? Do you see yourselves doing this in 10 years from now?
So, at the moment there is a massive focus on Sustainable tourism, something which has always been important to us. We have been thinking how we can improve further, not just the environmental, but the social and economic dynamics of sustainable tourism. We would also love to work with the town council to promote better forms of tourism and urban regeneration. John works on regeneration projects in the UK.
For starters the house we live in and rent out is obviously a renovation project and was in much need of renovation. Hopefully the works we have done (and continue to do) improve the neighbourhood. We want to add rather than take away. We would like to promote this model of sustainable tourism, where rental apartment developments are only allowed where it brings derelict or long-term vacant properties back to life. Adding to the community as opposed to taking away existing homes.
The fact that we live in our business might seem strange to some, but what this allows us to do is be on hand for day-to-day problems. Even though the information that we live in the same property is on our adverts, we realise many people don’t read the description so we also send a message. This filters the type of guest we receive to our house, minimising the anti-social behaviour sometimes associated with short term renting. Having long term live on-site managers, naturally and passively limits anti-social behaviour and provides for much better-quality accommodation. Again, a model which if promoted over non-resident management holiday lets, would greatly improve and limit the anti-social elements of holiday rentals.
We always like to encourage guests to shop at the local shops with varying success. We had the idea of offering people welcome packs made up of local products from these shops but are still trying to work through the logistics. However, after stays when people leave food, we distribute it out to the local community, friends, neighbours. Trying to minimise waste. We believe supporting local businesses over global or national brands is the best way to keep money within the local economy and promote regeneration from the root up. With the money tourism brings to a community tying or linking local businesses to tourists benefits both visitors and residents. A platform for on-line predelivery service sourced from local shops would be a great step in this direction.
Another way we try to minimise our environmental impact is in the energy and materials used in the cleaning process. We use tea towels and sponges instead of kitchen rolls. Refill soaps, bath gels, shampoo. We recycle the rubbish. Better and more local recycling options would be great! In the meantime, we will trudge with the rubbish to local recycling centre.
We’ve experimented with long term rentals in the past and would be keen to consider this again in the future when there have been some legal changes to make this process easier for the homeowner. There should be more support in the case of occupation of your own home by someone not paying for it (the ¨Okupas¨ or squatting problem here in Spain) . With these changes in law, long term renting becomes much more desirable for homeowners.
This year I’ve really started to enjoy things; we seem to have got into a good rhythm and continue to celebrate little successes. Though admittedly I get so excited when inviting people in I forget to introduce myself! A couple who were previous guests have contacted us to see if they can rent out the whole house to celebrate their wedding. Working and living in the same building can sometimes make you complacent. Then a request such as this, when two people want to celebrate one of the most special days of their lives where you live. We remember we are very lucky.
Next steps
When we went to Spanish classes, I was always telling stories about our neighbours, neighbourhood, daily interactions with people to our classmates. John would often have to back me up as sometimes they didn’t believe all our stories could happen on one street. Maybe I am prone to some embellishment.
Nonetheless a friend of ours, insisted, you must write these stories down.
So, I have. And they’re all based on true stories.
It would be fantastic to find an editor or publisher to help me in the final stages. Though I would like to share a short story that may spark some interest with you now.
I mentioned that we go to parties at the butchers this will seem strange to many, however what I didn’t mention is that our butcher is even more unique that other butchers.
He is in fact a psychic butcher.
He practices many different realms of mediumship and hypnosis. Regularly a host to seances, the irony of being surrounded by dead meat not lost on me.
Though I should say he is also very well respected in the community, he is often asked for his opinion as people wait to be served in the queue. I do wonder if it’s the reason why the bench in the butchers is always full (it’s occurred to me that it’s the place where people can hear the problems/ gossip of the neighbourhood).
It isn’t uncommon for our neighbours to go to their doctors but afterwards to go to the butchers for health advice and treatment. John has gone several times for help with his back and shoulders. The butcher obviously has an extensive knowledge of anatomy. Though I imagine a chicken’s is slightly different to John’s. However, John came back each time singing the praises of the magical healing hands of the psychic butcher.
I would like to say that the butcher not only is he a psychic, but he is extremely kind, welcoming and is our neighbour as well as our friend. We have been lucky to share many moments with him and as you can imagine there has been several great stories to come from the parties and conversations that ensued.
Although it is not unusual for him to predict your immediate future whilst you wait to buy your sausages and chicken.
There is one day that stands out to me.
I was busy cleaning. Cleaning seems to be what I spend most of the time doing, the irony being I hate cleaning and rest assured though the apartments for other people are gleaming, my clothes will be littering the floor of wherever I’m staying.
Due to the sheer amount of scrubbing, mopping, wiping that I had been doing with various nasty chemicals, my hands had dried out. So, I had resorted to buying rubber gloves of varying bright colours to bring some joy to the monotony of the days. Secretly super happy to sport a gorgeous canary yellow pair of marigolds that day.
It was as I began to clean the hallway, and in particular our front door, that the murmurings started. Admittedly I was making some noise with my frenetic cleaning.
The murmurings started to sound more like raised voices but I didn’t really think anything of it.
Shrugging my shoulders, I carried on cleaning, the door continuing to knock the wall.
Then came the screams. Screams so loud the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end.
A pile of people ran out of the butchers so fast they fell over their own feet, one of them shouting “Demon, demon,” in the street pointing to the doorway of the butchers.
Ok, they had my interest. Cleaning is boring anyway. I walked out rather calmly given the commotion into the street to join them to look at the doorway.
I patiently waited. Were we waiting for the said demon to appear?
Some time had passed, enough for it to be a bit awkward.
“What demon are we waiting for?” I asked politely.
“We were doing a séance talking to the dead and then all of a sudden a demon tried to break into this realm through the connection.”
“Right,” I said.
My eyes widened at perhaps a sudden realisation.
“What did that sound like exactly?” I asked.
“Banging?” I suggested.
I went back to the door and continued to clean it. As soon as it started to bang against the wall, there was a crowd of relieved faces as the realisation dawned on them the noise was not that of a demon trying to break into this realm but that of their next-door neighbour cleaning the front door in a rather fetching pair of gloves.
They all returned to their séance looking rather sheepish as I managed to control my urge to laugh until the door of the butchers was firmly closed.
Thank you for doing this interview Daniel!
Don’t forget to check out Daniel’s Airbnb profile to see the different apartments he has for rent. He would be happy to host you.
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